BURLINGTON–Over 1,700 students from across North Carolina will see that history can be both interesting and fun at Alamance Battleground State Historic Site during its 32nd annual Colonial Living Week on October 8-12. The week-long living history event features costumed interpreters who will recreate and introduce those in attendance to colonial life in the eighteenth century. This event is free and open to the public. Donations are appreciated.
Open-fire cooking, candlemaking, quill pen writing, chair caning, and blacksmithing are some of the demonstrations scheduled to occur each day from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. In addition to seeing these, the students and others attending will have the opportunity to meet colonial soldiers demonstrating a flintlock musket, a cannon, and militia camp life. They can enjoy and join in with a period musician playing Regulator songs. A staff surgeon will display surgical instruments and discuss period medical practices. An operating cider press offers the young people a chance to make and sample their own apple juice. Questions about men’s and women’s period clothing will be answered by a colonial housewife.
The Alamance Battleground State Historic Site is where Royal Governor William Tryon and the colonial North Carolina militia defeated the Regulators at the Battle of Alamance on May 16, 1771. Insight about the use of armed resistance gained from the battle later benefited revolutionaries during the American Revolution.
Alamance Battleground is six miles south of I-85/I-40, exit 143, on N.C. 62 in Burlington. For information or reservations, call the Battleground at (336) 227-4785, send them an e-mail or visit their website. Alamance Battleground is a unit of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. For more information on Cultural Resources, visit the department online.