Heritage “Hodgepodge” April 4-5 At Historic Blakeley State Park

Civil War artillery and infantry living history demonstrations, town life of the 1820s, and lectures and displays of the history of what is now Baldwin County will educate and entertain visitors to Historic Blakeley State Park during a heritage “hodgepodge” April 4-5.

Four descendants of Civil War soldiers who fought at Blakeley April 9, 1865 will be among the group of Florida reenactors who will camp out and present living history demonstrations on Saturday, April 5 under the direction of Major Al Hartman of the North Florida Artillery.

While activities are underway, Key Club and other volunteers will observe National Park Day by cleaning the battlefield and breastworks where the last battle of the Civil War was fought later in the same day that Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox.

A short distance from the cannon fire, artisans in period costume will demonstrate activities of the town of Blakeley settled in 1814 including, blacksmithing, spinning, weaving, and basket making. Mule and wagon rides for children by “Meg” and “Pam” and their owner James Chastang will add to the festivities on Saturday.

Rarely seen documents from the archives of the Mobile County Probate Judge depicting the Gulf Coast area during the colonial period will be presented Friday morning, April 4 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at the Wehle Nature Center at Blakeley Park.

Collette King, archivist, will talk about Blakeley history and display early records of the Gulf Coast. Blakeley in the early 1800s was part of the Spanish territory and later of Mobile County before what is now Baldwin County was created in 1819. Admission to the park April 4 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon for the King lecture will be free. Admission on Saturday, April 5 is the regular admission of $3 for adults and $2 for children.

Artisans include Mark Haddix, Bay Minette, blacksmith; Diana Taylor, Bon Secour, weaver; Carol Lovell Saas, Elberta, basket weaver; and Anna Tucker, Stapleton, spinner. The 14-year-old spinner will also bring her Angora goat and a pet donkey.

Among volunteers participating in the clean-up of National Park Day are members of Key Clubs at Spanish Fort High School, Daphne High School and Bayside Academy sponsored by the Kiwanis Club. Other volunteers include area members of the Civil War Preservation Trust that sponsors National Park Day.

Hamburgers, chips and soft drinks will be available from the Blakeley Park concession wagon from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at modest prices. The only activities scheduled for Friday are the history lecture and displays from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. Saturday's activities will begin at 9 a.m. and continue for most of the day.

Blakeley Park is one of 110 Civil War battlefields and sites participating in the Civil War Preservation Trust's 10th annual Park Day activities in a nation-wide effort sponsored by the History Channel and in partnership with a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The CWPT is the largest non-profit battlefield preservation organization in the country. The CWPT promotes the preservation of battlegrounds and the acquisition of endangered sites. A CWPT grant assisted in the acquisition of 63 acres of endangered battlefield area at Blakeley.

“We are calling this a ‘heritage hodgepodge' because it is the inaugural and a small sampling of the kinds of living history activities we are developing at Blakeley Park”, said Jo Ann Flirt, director. “We will expand heritage activities and stage a full scale Civil War battle reenactment in April 2009”, she added. Because the sampling this year is on a smaller scale, regular park admission fees will be charged.

lakeley State Park is a 2,000-acre historic and nature park located on Highway 225 about 4.5 miles north of its intersection with U.S. 31 at Spanish Fort. For more information call 251-626-0798, e-mail blakeleypark@aol.com or go to www.blakeleypark.com.

Conserving Official Historical Records Leads to Cloak and Dagger Intrigues

Old historical records may be dry and boring subjects for many but for the few archivists passionate about conserving them for future generations they can lead to modern day intrigue as exciting as the adventures of the past centuries they depict.

Picture archivists showing up at an auction, snatching away stolen county records, defending their ownership before a federal judge, and then returning them to their home probate offices.

Collette King, archivist with the Mobile County Probate Court, will share that and other stories April 4 at when she displays reproductions of early 1800s maps and records of Blakeley and Baldwin County in a free program at Blakeley State Park as part of its heritage weekend observation.

Mrs. King and Richard Johnson, head of the Mobile Probate Office's records division, will present the program April 4 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon in the Gatra Wehle Nature Center at the park. Admission to the program and the park will be free that day between 9 a.m. and noon.

“Because what we do at Historic Blakeley State Park is based on authentic historical records and provable historical and archaeological facts, we are proud to present this program free to the public”, said Jo Ann Flirt, park director in announcing the April 4 program.

An exciting adventure in records conservation took place in 1997 when a well-known Gulf Coast dealer in documents and relics was forced into involuntary bankruptcy by creditors. His entire collection was seized by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Mobile and the items ordered sold. The auction was held in the civic auditorium at Fairhope.

With the approval of then Probate Judge L.W.Noonan, Ms. King and Judy Busby attended the auction and quickly identified documents they believed had been stolen from the Mobile Probate Court records. They removed them from the sale and then went into federal court where with the help of an expert witness from the Alabama Department of Archives and History they proved to Bankruptcy Judge Margaret Mahoney that the items had been “improperly removed” and should be returned at no cost to local courts.

Included in the returned documents were papers from the 1815 estate of Josiah Blakeley, founder of the town of Blakeley; 1813 marriage records of Charles Conway, 1817 will of Gerald Byrne, and papers of Cyrus Sibley, all connected with the Blakeley area of what was then part of the Spanish West Florida territory.

The bold archivists recovered 194 documents. In a special ceremony later that year, Judge Noonan turned over Baldwin County recovered records to Probate Judge Adrian Johns, the Washington County records to Judge Henry Armstrong, and City of Mobile documents to Jay Higginbothom, city archivist.

Not all mysteries of missing documents have been solved. What became of the records of the first Baldwin County established in 1809 along the Mississippi boundary and entirely west of the Mobile River? Those boundaries changed several times in the next decade until the present county of Baldwin was established when Alabama became a state in 1819.

Records of the current Baldwin County area from 1813 to 1819 are in Mobile. But where are those of from 1809 to 1813? Some few may be in Washington County. Others are believed to have been housed in a town called Wakefield and burned in a fire there.

Ms. King has worked with records of the Gulf Coast for 22 years. She brings to Blakeley Park's program April 4 images of documents never before shown in public in Baldwin County and perhaps more than one tale of intrigue.

School groups, historical organizations and the general public are invited free to the program. Blakeley Park is located on State Highway 225 about 4.5 miles north of where it intersects with U.S. 31 at Spanish Fort.

Blakeley Park Bluegrass Festival Features Top Bands, Guest Artist

Four of the top bluegrass bands on the Gulf Coast will perform at the annual Blakeley Bluegrass Festival Saturday, October 4 at the state park near Spanish Fort.

Spectators set up their chairs in the shade of centuries old oak trees and relax to continuous live music at Washington Square , which was the center of the historic old town of Blakeley in the early 1800s. Food and soft drinks are available from the Blakeley Park concession wagon at modest prices.

Blakeley State Park has been sponsoring the Bluegrass Festival for most of the past 20 years on the first Saturday of October. The Festival provides family-friendly outdoor entertainment while preserving America 's native bluegrass music and spotlighting talented musicians of the area.

The first phase of Blakeley Park 's new, modern campground is now open. Wilderness RV campsites with full utilities are available to musicians and visitors to the Bluegrass Festival this fall for the first time. An older campground is popular with overnight visitors with tents or pop-ups.

Blakeley is a 2,000-acre historic and natural state park crisscrossed by miles of trails. Historical features include archaeological sites of Indian villages, an early French plantation, the 1813 town of Blakeley that served as Baldwin County 's first county seat, and extensive earthworks on which the last battle of the Civil War was fought April 9, 1865 .

Huge, old live oaks and many other trees are among its natural attractions. Unseen by visitors, but protected by the park are rare and endangered plants including wild orchids found nowhere else in Alabama . Blakeley Park also makes accessible the wild and scenic Tensaw-Mobile River Delta with eco-tours aboard its boat.

Pets are welcome on leash and under control. Radios and portable television sets are allowed with use of earphones. Admission to the Bluegrass Festival is $10 for adults, $5 for children 6-12 and under 6 free. Credit cards are accepted for admission and camping fees.

All proceeds from the Festival go to the operations of the park. For more information on the Festival go to www.blakeleypark.com or call (251) 626-0798. For campground reservations call (251) 626-5581.

Blakeley State Park is located on Alabama Highway 225 about 4.5 miles north of its intersection with U.S. 31 near Spanish Fort.

Saint Patrick's Day Celebration

A boat tour of the Tensaw-Mobile River Delta and a dockside lunch at the Blue Gill, a Causeway seafood restaurant, is how 48 partygoers in the area chose to celebrate St. Patrick's Day Monday. Pictured docking the Blakeley State Park boat,the Delta Explorer, at the Blue Gill dock are, (front to back) Captain Garrett Hatcher and Park Supervisor Tim Gilchrist.(Photo submitted by Jo Ann Flirt)