As part of the ongoing Baxter County sesquicentennial activities this year, the Baxter County Historical and Genealogical Society will be hosting Sesqui-Day Saturday at Cooper Park. Activities will be hosted within the Rapp’s Barren Settlement in the park from 9 until 5.
David Benedict, a board member of the historical society, recently was a guest on KTLO’s Talk of the Town to share more about the pioneer celebration event.
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Audio Transcript
So we’re going to have a great day and it’s going to start off with a bang. The Wiggins battery who have the civil war cannon at nine o’clock, they’ll fire it, and we’re going to have guided tours of all the historical cabins and buildings that are out there and the Shady Grove school, the Shady Grove school house, which was out on 201 South two along there.
And there will be people there that are. Well, very knowledgeable about each building, able to explain them to people as they come along. We’re going to have some local musicians playing at most of the day. A young man from Cotter High School, actually, Wiley Harris, has volunteered to come. He has the hobby of being a trapper and then taking the animal pelts, tanning them and making leather goods from them.
And speaking about the skills inside the Shady Grove Schoolhouse, we’ll have a quilting frame set up and some ladies from the Hill and Hollow Quilters Guild will be there demonstrating what it was like to hand stitch the old quilts. We’re gonna have Roy Hested and the Pioneer Square Dance Club there with us, and there’ll be a couple of times when they’ll demonstrate square dances, and I won’t be surprised if Roy tries to get some people from the crowd up there and teach them a little bit.
Uh, David Rodriguez, who’s a teacher at our high school here in Mountain Home, has a Native American teepee he’s going to set up and other things about Native American culture. And he’s going to do some Dutch oven cooking for us, have some samples to pass around. Along with those, we’re going to have activities like a Pioneer costume contest.
There’ll be prizes for that. Pioneer beard contest. We’re going to have some old time games for kids. And right about the middle of the day, we’re going to have a pie eating contest.
One of the highlights of the day will be Dancing Eagles a Native American Dance and culture show.
Listen:
Audio Transcript
The feature of the day is a special appearance by Dancing Eagles. That’s a Native American dance troupe from Sepulpa, Oklahoma. Mike Passatopa is the leader of that, and he dances with his daughter, Heaven. And they’re going to come out and perform a series of different dances, and he’ll be talking about Native American culture as a part of that.
He’s a championship fancy dancer, as they say, so you’re going to see some really beautiful regalia as they dance for us. It’ll be at about four o’clock. Yes. One more firing of the cannon at four o’clock and then the dancing eagles will do their performance for us.
Visitors are encouraged to dress in pioneer clothing. The event is free to the public with food vendors on site. The society recommends the public bring a lawn chair if planning on spending the day at the event.
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