Fall Encampment and Evening Lime Rick Burn November 19th

NPS

News Release Date: November 8, 2011

Contact: Jon Burpee, 912-638-3639

St. Simons Island, GA: Fort Frederica is an enigmatic place. Bleaching ruins dot the landscape where once a thriving town stood. A place that was home to roughly 1,000 boisterous people is now largely quiet. The site remains difficult to comprehend; its stories shrouded in a mysterious history.

To help this history come dramatically to life, Fort Frederica National Monument is hosting a living history encampment featuring the vibrant stories of settlers and soldiers. The program will feature soldiers from the 42nd Regiment of Foot drilling and demonstrating their military skills. Musket and cannon firing demonstrations will help highlight the stories of individual soldiers' roles in fighting for British rights to Georgia - and their own survival.

Away from the bustle of military life, living history interpreters representing the townspeople of Frederica will demonstrate period crafts and trades. Visitors can see candlemakers, clothiers, and dyers ply their trade on the original Frederica lots where those trades occurred. Carpenters and leatherworkers will show their trades and explain how Frederica was well stocked with the trades a young colonial town needed.

In the evening a truly spectacular sight will be displayed. The burning of a lime rick will be the backdrop for an evening of storytelling and history. A lime rick constructed of stacked logs and laden with racks of oyster shells will burn at 7:00 pm. The intense heat of the fire breaks down the shell into lime. It was this source of lime that allowed Frederica's settlers to build tabby homes that were so durable that ruins still mark the site's where Frederica's settlers lived.

"This full day of events is a great way to get a grasp on Frederica's history," says Fort Frederica Superintendent Mary Beth Wester. "To make this type of event happen, the National Park Service is fortunate to have great partners like our dedicated volunteers, the Jekyll Island Museum, and Castillo de San Marcos National Monument."

The Fall Encampment and Lime Rick Burn will occur on November 19, 2011. During the day the camps will be open from 9 am until 5 pm. The park will close at 5 and reopen at 6 pm. The lime rick burn begins at 7 pm.

Entrance fees will be charged (adults 16 years old plus, $3.00, children 15 years and younger, free admission. National Park passes are valid for this program.