9/8/03
The Jenkins Plantation Museum, located in the Green Bottom Wildlife Management Area of Cabell County, will celebrate its 168th year and the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition at the annual Homestead Gathering. Entertainment will feature the Fort New Salem Traveling Road Show on Saturday, Sept. 20, from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. The living history program is free and open to the public.
Members of Fort New Salem’s company will discuss various aspects of early 19th-century history and demonstrate some of the necessary skills needed at the time of the Lewis and Clark odyssey. Topics will include civil engineering and surveying, natural philosophy and the use of plants, the trades of blacksmithing and candle making, and the domestic arts of spinning and weaving.
Rounding out the day’s activities, visitors are invited to tour the historic Jenkins home and sample free refreshments, including authentic frontier foods.
Fort New Salem, located in Harrison County at Salem, is a collection of relocated log structures representing a frontier settlement of 19th century north-central West Virginia. The original community was settled in 1792 by a group of Seventh Day Baptist families from Shrewsbury, N.J. English, Welsh, Scots-Irish and German farm culture shaped the traditions that dominated the area until the development of energy and mineral resources brought a wave of immigration into the area. Living history programs at Fort New Salem reflect the heritage of these cultural diversities spanning the time from 1792 - 1901.
The Jenkins Plantation Museum is located on West Virginia Route 2 between Huntington and Point Pleasant. A facility of the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, the museum features the former home of Confederate Brigadier General Albert Gallatin Jenkins. The 1835 house, built in the tradition of Tidewater, Va., is noteworthy for its architecture and was built by slaves between 1830 and 1835. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and on the Civil War Discovery Trail. The museum’s regular hours are Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information about the Homestead Gathering, contact Stan Bumgardner, assistant director of programming for the Division, by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at (304) 558-0220, ext. 121, or Matt Boggess, site manager at the Museum, at (304) 762-1059.
The West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, brings together the state’s past, present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and history, the arts, historic preservation and museums. Visit the Division’s website at www.wvculture.org for more information about programs of the Division. The Department of Arts, Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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Ginny Painter
Director of Public Information
West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History
The Cultural Center
1900 Kanawha Boulevard, East
Charleston, WV 25305-0300
Phone (304) 558-0220
Fax (304) 558-2779
[email protected]