(VA) 'Walk through Time' looking for All Era's Living Historians

Sir, Ma’am,

   The 2010 Hartwood Days Festival in Fredericksburg VA (Actually Stafford County 22406) is to be held on Patriots Day – the 11th of September, 2010. We hope you will consider participating this year for our “11th on the 11th “ We will be having a Ceremony in honor of the special day with a speaker (hopefully the Governor) to remark briefly about the significance of the date. We hope to bring in some new musical groups, and as always we will have the Scout Badge Day event, so there will be many Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturers on site. We will again be hosting the Living History Area, and hope to be adding Rides to the event this year.

   Last year was the first year we incorporated a Living History Area into the event, and several of the patrons of the event loved that area. We hope to again provide this ability to “Walk Through Time” for those attending the event. I understand that we contacted several of you too late in the season for your attendance, and for those who couldn’t make it last year, we hope you will consider participation this year.

   The concept was that Ms Stewart Jones’s historic nature conservancy property, across the street from the Historic Hartwood Presbyterian Church, would be available to Living Historians to set up period camps/areas covering from the Roman, Medieval, Colonial/Revolutionary time through French & Indian War, 1812, Civil War, WW1, WW2, Korea, and even Vietnam if there are any folks doing that era. Basically ANY periods we can get are appreciated (Please forgive us if we forgot to list your historical area, we still want you!!). Your unit would all be Exhibitors, and of course would not pay for your participation.

   A little more detail on the look of the LHA follows my signature block below. We’re working on putting up a “living history” page on the site, and we’ll put one of your pictures with a link to your site there. If you have any particular pictures that you want us to put up of your group, let me know and shoot them to me, or I can just grab whichever one you tell me to off of your site if you want.

   Last year, our first time, found several units/groups willing to help out, but we had several war era's that were....a little one sided. We took the most heat for having German forces on site, with no Allied Forces...but hey thats History, and our goals were to accurately represent people, equipment, and era's. As Scouters, and for the Scouts, we believe that its important to show it as it was, and educate. We're willing to do the same this year, but it WOULD be nice to have both sides.

   Our website is still the same – http://www.hartwooddays.org (still updating it for this year) and Sponsorship opportunities are opening now. Please don’t hesitate to contact me at this address or any of the numbers below, and I look forward to talking with anyone interested in working with the Living History area, being a Vendor, or becoming a sponsor.

Willis M. Madden Jr.
Chair, Hartwood Days Festival Committee
703-601-0938 or 540-270-7914
http://www.hartwooddays.org
Advisor, Crew 1717
http://www.crew1717.org

MAJ Willis M. Madden Jr.
Strength Management Analyst
OCAR, AR G-1
Work - 703-601-0938
Bberry - 703-606-3647
Cell - 540-270-7914
willis.madden@us.army.mil

   You can see the Living History Area (LHA) on a map we have on our website at http://www.hartwooddays.org/vendor
or at http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=h&msa=0&msid=104187649875242286748.000469bb6df34bcddb68f&ll=38.401857,-77.565204&spn=0.004036,0.006866&z=17&source=embed

the area in Red is the area we’re allocating for living historians (LH), however since we may have a MEDEVAC helicopter is coming in, we may need some of the area to the west (by the fire department) to land it. Not sure how long they’ll be on station. That field to the west is also where the reenactment of the skirmish would take place (if it happens). Just north (across the road) is the Hartwood Presbyterian Church, a Historic Landmark. We were looking at most of the camps to be set up in the woodline near the house, to the west and east of the house. That main house was Stewart Jones’ house, and I’m not sure of the era of construction, but it is vacant now. I’m not sure, but I think work is in progress to make it a historic landmark.

   The segment cut out to the east of the main house, is a personal residence, so we may not want to be firing right next to that. There is also a Barn in the LH area, east of the personal residence, which I’m not sure if we’ll be able to get inside the barn or not, not sure who manages/has the keys to it. I’ll ask the Lawyer who is in charge of the property. So that’s the lay of the land.

If you are interested in finding out about Hartwood Church’s part of the Civil War, there are several resources on the web:
•   http://books.google.com/books?id=zOYLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=skirmish+at+hartwood&source=bl&ots=kT07HJ-tTS&sig=1QleA2bQxbX-TkITJkXHNVdPjqw&hl=en&ei=vOWQS6HIBtOUtgexh52ZCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=skirmish%20at%20hartwood&f=false

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