NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
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MAY 2017 • NEBRASKAland 31 "A month after they were born, I was back on-site. We had cribs for them; I'd nurse them in the corner of the room. It's just a part of life for us." The majority of living history interpreters at Fort Atkinson are retirement age or older. Recruiting young people to join their ranks can be difficult, the Friends' leaders say. After all, when you pit cell phones and computers against weekends spent reenacting Nebraska history, the technology tends to win. A life packed with activities is another barrier for both kids and adults, leaving little room for the investment of time and energy that living history requires. For dozens of people, though, Fort Atkinson is worth it. A number of them drive from out-of-state to participate in living history weekends. Many have devoted themselves to learning obscure and sometimes extinct trades solely for living history purposes, including tinsmithing and coopering (making buckets and barrels, a vital trade in Fort Atkinson's day), leading to a level of expertise that continually impresses visitors and other interpreters. "The amount of knowledge walking and running around here is staggering," Slader said. "I'm pretty knowledgeable on ironwork and steelwork of that period, because it's part of my blacksmith's craft. But our chief of artillery knows the artillery drill of the period as well as anybody nationally. Others can tell you exactly what the army did and how it worked, and how a court martial went, and if you want to know anything about it, they can tell you. It goes clear across the board – carpenters, spinners, weavers, tinsmiths, laundresses, cooks. "They're also articulate. They have the ability to engage people, to feed off of their questions and follow the direction that the visitor's question takes you. There's no stock spiel; it changes, it morphs. You do it for so long that it becomes natural." Some interpreters spend hours reading original documents, and regularly traveling to Washington, D.C., to research Fort Atkinson in the National Archives. Others gain the bulk of their knowledge verbally, from talking with fellow interpreters and listening to them interact with the public. For everyone, the sharing of knowledge, and of learning new things, never truly finishes. It's a rewarding journey, volunteers say. If there's one thing that the Friends care about, it's getting the history right. Volunteers never share information they aren't absolutely certain about, and will tell visitors if they don't know the answer to a question. Before a new living history interpreter can gain official membership, he or she must pass a written test and sit for multiple interviews. They are also observed during living history weekends and mentored on how to present their personas to the public. The Friends want to see newcomers succeed, and have produced a 100-page handbook to acclimate them to the fort's history, to making period clothing, to the art of interpreting history to the public, and more. The visitor's center keeps books about Fort Atkinson's history available for checkout. "They're going to read a lot," Slader said. All of this work is paying off. Visitors who've been to the most illustrious living history sites in the country – including Colonial Williamsburg, Plymouth Plantation and historic Jamestown – tell the interpreters that Fort Atkinson measures up, and even surpasses those sites in some ways. Take, for example, Fort Atkinson's Sutler Store. Many historical sites have a gift shop of some kind, but that isn't what they do, said Heather Blazicevich, who runs the store alongside her sister, Morgan Cummings. "We try to sell things that are close to something that would have been found in that era," she said, such as Jamestown glass, cookbooks published during the period, and handmade ragdolls. They also sell items crafted by the site's blacksmiths and tinsmith. The store is modeled after Fort Atkinson's historic sutler store, which offered hundreds Living history interpreter Doug Appel works in the blacksmith shop. The Friends' volunteer blacksmiths fashion items for the fort such as wall hooks, hinges and chain. PHOTO BY JENNY NGUYEN PHOTO BY NIKKI MCDONALD