Load Up the Wagons for Pioneer Day!
It’s that time of the year again! Pioneer Day is coming up on Saturday, June 27, 2015 from 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. The Tombigbee Pioneer Group will demonstrate pioneer-era crafts and skills at the Natchez Trace Parkway Visitor Center. These presentations will showcase the challenges faced by early Americans and the creative solutions developed by those frontiers who lived in the area from the 1700s to 1840. Here’s a peek at what you and the kids can look forward to this year.
The whole family is invited to see the pioneer lifestyle unfold in front of you! Modern day pioneers will present all sorts of frontier activities that often include basket-making, spinning, weaving, knitting, and other traditional craft demonstrations. Leather-working and mountain dulcimer demonstrations are usually offered throughout the day. Children are invited to participate by dressing up in pioneer clothes and trying these activities firsthand. What a great opportunity for fun – and a little bit of learning, too!
A park ranger will also present a “Who Left That?” Junior Ranger program from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Parkway Visitor Center. Kids will learn to identify animal tracks and scat that is left along the Natchez Trace Parkway. This is just one in a series of Junior Ranger programs on all sorts of different topics that are presented most Saturdays in June and July (just another reason to love summertime). These programs are probably most appropriate for children aged 7-12, but kids of all ages are always welcome.
Best of all, every one of these great programs are free to the public! So head on over to the Natchez Trace Parkway Visitor Center, located at milepost 266 on the Natchez Trace Parkway near Tupelo, MS. If you’d like to hear some additional information about this upcoming Pioneer Day, just call 662-680-4014.
If you can’t make it to Pioneer Day, don’t worry too much. There are plenty of other fun Ranger-Led Programs along the Trace this summer! The program locations include: Natchez, Mississippi; Ridgeland, Mississippi; Tupelo, Mississippi; and the Meriweather Lewis Monument in Tennessee. If you have any questions about events, as always, just call our friends at the National Park Service at 662-680-4014.
To plan your trip to this historic, 444-mile scenic byway, visit our site at scenictrace.com. Get social with us and follow The Natchez Trace on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!
