Heritage Days at the Depot

Sept. 29 - Oct.  1, 2011

On the greenspace surrounding the

Historic Belton Train Depot

 

Heritage Days at the Depot 2011 will feature 15 artisans and historical interpreters at the 7^th annual event.  This award-winning living history event showcases the talents of traditional skills artisans and historical interpreters who offer presentations and hands-on demonstrations of their crafts and skills. 

Among the demonstrators will be a flax producer, a rope maker, a Catawba Indian potter, a dulcimer maker/player, a corn husk doll maker, a school marm, a sweetgrass basket weaver, an herbalist, a rug weaver, a brick maker, a pewtersmith, a Revolutionary War soldier, a farrier, a birdhouse crafter, and a Storyteller of Native American culture.

Heritage Days at the Depot will take place on Thursday – Saturday, Sept. 29-30, and Oct. 1, 2011, in Belton, SC, on the grounds of the Historic Belton Train Depot.  Approximately 2000 students will attend the education days on Thursday and Friday, including children in grades 2 – 5  in Anderson School District #2, area home schooled students, and 3^rd - 5^th graders from the other four Anderson districts.  They will participate in hands-on instruction with at least five artisans during their stay at the event and will be encouraged to bring their families to see all of the artisans on Saturday during the Standpipe Heritage and Arts Festival. 

Heritage Days at the Depot encourages, promotes, conserves, and honors the traditional art forms and historical skills that make our state distinct. The overall aim of Heritage Days at the Depot is to foster in our community a greater understanding of, appreciation for, and interest in the traditional arts and skills of our forefathers.  For more information, contact Alison Darby at 864-958-5264.

Don’t miss this opportunity to enjoy living traditions passed down from generation to generation as our artisans and historians offer a glimpse of 18^th and 19^th century life in the Back-country of South Carolina. 

 

Flax Producer, Eve King

     As a living history interpreter I demonstrate and educate people on domestic skills from the eighteenth to mid nineteenth century.  One of the important skills is home cloth production by rural families.  Until the early nineteenth century one of the primary fibers used for clothing and everyday household linens was flax.  Flax when processed becomes linen.  Journey with me as we break, swingle and hackle our way to making linin thread.

 

 

 

 

Catawba Indian Potter, Keith “Little Bear” Brown

      I am a traditional potter, practicing the centuries old tradition of the Catawba Indian Nation.  I grew up during the 1950s & 60s watching the elders of the tribe making pottery.

    I first started as a teenager helping my grandmother Edith Brown prepare the clay dug from the river banks and helping to pit fire her finished pottery pieces.  Today I still dig and process the clay as I was taught.  The pieces are hand built using the coil method.

    I have been teaching as an artist in resident for the past five years and previous to that I worked at The Catawba Cultural Center for ten years.  I have taught Catawba Culture throughout North and South Carolina.

     My work is among 50+ artists in a permanent exhibit  entitled Carolina Contemporary Art at the Medical University of South Carolina. My work has also been exhibited at the Gilford Native American Center in Greensboro, NC, at  colleges such as Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC,  and USC at Lancaster, SC,  and numerous other venues.

     I have been featured as Artist of The Month by The York County Magazine and I am a student of The South Carolina Institute of Community Scholars in the Traditional Arts.

 

Dulcimer Maker/Player- Harold Turner

      I am a multi-generation violin maker, going back five generations to  1835.   I learned violin making theory from my second cousin Thomas Freeman Patterson and the wood working skills from my father. I have been at it since 1968 and have built about 90 instruments, 56 of them dulcimers and 14 violins.

     I have won first place honors for my lutherie skills at the Pickens County Museum Art Show in 2000 and I was honored with the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award for 2010.

     I have presented at such festivals as the Heritage Festival in Easley, SC; the Pumpkin Festival in Pumpkin Town, SC; Pioneer Days in Dacusville, GA;  Birchwood Folk Life Annual Arts and Craft Festival; and I demonstrated at Hagood Mill every month for three years.

     My articles appear in American Lutherie Magazine. Three of my instruments are found in the permanent collection of the Pickens County Museum of Art and History and I am in the process of building an instrument for the McKissick Museum at USC. 

 

 

 Storyteller of Native American Culture – Hawk Hurst

      The stories and music Hawk shares bring the wonders and wisdom of ancient cultures to life. Many of his tales rely on musical instruments crafted by Hawk himself. An eight-time recording artist and the author of two children’s books, Hawk has offered his educational programs for over two decades.
     Hawk offers artist-in-residency programs, in-school field trips, and adult classes in storytelling.  As an approved Stories for Life instructor, Hawk leads unique storytelling residencies, using a SC State Education Standards approved curriculum.

     He has served as the past President of the South Carolina Storytelling Network and has been a featured teller at numerous festivals across the country and abroad. He has co-directed both the Stories for Life (storytelling) Festival and the Piccolo Spoleto Children’s Festival. He is a long-standing member of the North Carolina Storytelling Guild and is on the active artist rosters of both the SC Arts Commission and of Southern Artistry. 

 

  

Corn Husk Doll Maker – Millie Chaplin

 

Ms.  Chaplin learned how to make cornshuck dolls while at the Hindman Settlement School in Eastern Kentucky in 1986.  Her teacher, Edna Ritchie Baker, is from a traditional family of dollmakers and singers from that area.  Millie challenged herself to teach people to carry on the old traditions and she has taught hundreds of children and adults to make dolls, just as their ancestors did. 

Millie has been on the Children's Week staff of John C. Campbell Folk School since 2000.   She is on the South Carolina Art Commission roster of Visiting Folk Artists for Traditional Folklife.  She has developed a program in which children experience  how pioneer children had fun and in the process make a cornshuck doll. 

Ms. Chaplin is also a storyteller in which she uses dulcimer and other music to tell her stories.

 

   

Rug Weaver-Paula Ashworth

 

My grandmothers and extended family, who were tobacco farmers and their wives, were my first teachers. From them directly, I learned to knit, rug hook, quilt, and needlepoint. I had no formal “art education” other than what was offered in public school art classes. I received a BS in Elementary Education with a Minor in History from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.

I call myself a “Practitioner of Archaic Skills.” The skills I practice are old and it is also a fact that if those who know a skill don’t pass that skill on, it increases the chances that it will be lost. It is important that I pass on what I know to the next generation, be that through doing demonstrations in public, or teaching in a class, or teaching one-on-one. I am constantly looking for that person who stands and watches what I am doing with a fascination so intense that it can lead to the “spark” being passed to another. Somewhere out there is a person, child or adult, who says to him/herself, “I can do this!”

 

  

Pewtersmith – Jackson Dye

 

     Pewter was first used around the beginning of the Bronze age in the Near East around 2000 years ago.  Since that time, plates, porringers, basins, measures, flagons, teapots, cream jugs, charges, utensils, tankards, have been made for eating and drinking and could be found in most homes during the 16 - 18th centuries.

     Today pewter is used in decorative objects, mainly collectible statuettes and figurines, game figures, aircraft and other models, (replica) coins, pendants and so on.  Come see a master pewtersmith create timeless toy soldiers to delight any child or child at heart.

 

 

Bird House Crafter, Ray Conaway

     

 Bird Houses have been around for centuries.  Early Indian civilizations were known to hollow out items such as gourds for birds to use as nesting houses.  In addition to using hollowed gourds for birdhouses, Native American bird houses were also often made out of wood.  In addition to providing shelter for the birds, they also served as a nesting area for them to breed.  These wooden birdhouses were simple structures made from the bark of birch trees with a platform that also served as a feeder.  More recent settlers used crude wooden houses and gourds to induce birds of all types to nest near their homes.

The wooden birdhouse design found in North America today was originally used by German immigrants who learned from the indigenous people they met while moving to the eastern part of the United States in the 18th Century.  Over the years, the design has been changed and improved upon, with some wooden bird houses made to resemble today's architecture and specific structures such as schools, churches and stores.

Bird House Crafter Ray Conaway will engage audiences in the production of this most interesting art form that will be home to birds for generations to come.

 

 

Brick Makers, Rick Owens, Tyree Rowell, and Bob Craig

     

 Since the introduction of Brick Making to the Virginia Colony in the 1600's, brick makers have been digging out clay and mixing various straw products to produce a stiff and useful brick.  Because of this skill, the small log cabin gave way to the more substantial brick homes that dotted the wilderness where a brick maker was in residence.  During Heritage Days, three veteran brick makers will help audiences produce bricks from raw products and see their handiwork drying in the sun.

 

 

Sweetgrass Basket Weaver-Jeannette Gaillard-Lee

 

     A native of Mt. Pleasant, SC., Mrs. Lee spent 22 years in the banking industry before retiring in 1988.  Since that time, she has devoted increasingly more time to basket making, community work, and community advocacy for the preservation and dissemination of African-American history. 

    She is the coordinator for the Sweetgrass Coaltion, and was instrumental in developing a Sweetgrass Basket Festival in 1988. 

     She has been a featured basketmaker in programs located at various historical sites across the country, has appeared in videos on the African-American experience, and has been the topic of magazine and newspaper articles.  Her baskets were also featured in the movie Road to Avonlea and one was used as a model for the public sculpture at the Oakland Shopping Center in Mt. Pleasant, SC. 

     She has been cited by the SC Legislature for civic and community contributions and received the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award in 1996.  In 1997, Lee was instrumental in having an historical marker erected at Hamlin Rd. and Hwy. 17 N. commemorating basket makers and the recent unveiling of the SC highway marker designating the Original Sweetgrass Basket Making Area and the naming of a portion of Hwy 17 N. as Sweetgrass Basket Makers Highway.

 

  

Herbalist and Folk Medicine Practitioner– Robin McGee

 

     Robin McGee has been studying, using, and creating herbal medicines and products for more than a decade.  Having studied under some of the country’s leading herbalists such as Matthew Wood, Rosemary Gladstar and Kate Gilday, she teaches herbal medicine classes and workshops,  does private consultations, speaks to community and school groups, and leads plant identification walks through the upstate fields and forests.

     She is a member of United Plant Savers and the SC Native Plant Society, and a contributing writer for the United Plant Savers Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation and the American Herbataurus Society Newsletter. 

     The 500 acre farm on which she lives with her husband is the future site of the Southeastern Herbal Education Center and Botanical Sanctuary.  Her hands are always in the dirt-- talking to the seeds, plants, and flowers—and honoring the traditions of her mother and grandmother before her.

 

  

School Marm /Calligrapher, Suzanne DiCarlo

 

A day at school just "ain't what it used to be" as visitors will find out in the demonstration of a one-room school house complete with strict discipline, the latest in high tech chalk slates, shared textbooks, and recitations in the 3 R's.  Suzanne DiCarlo, presenter at the Roper Mountain Science Center's Living History Farm, will take children back to the days of the little white school in the valley.

 

 

  

Rope Maker, Bob Perry

 

     My name is Bob Perry and I portray a mid 1750 to 1785 backwoodsman/hunter/ trapper/settler in the backcountry of Georgia and the Carolinas. I have presented programs at state parks, historical sites, schools, museums, and town festivals throughout the states of South Carolina and Georgia for over 30 years.  I dress in the proper clothing with accouterments for a backwoodsman of that period.

     Rope making is one of several backwoodsman skills that I present to the public. These skills have been learned through several methods such as research, self taught techniques, observations and instruction of others, and many hours of practice.

     I tell the history of rope making and demonstrate rope making using correct methods and materials used during the Colonial Period. The methods include hand braiding and the use of a simple rope machine.  If conditions allow I also let the public engage in “hands on” demonstrations.

 

  

Revolutionary War Patriot Militiaman – Ricky Roberts

      I belong to the Hesse Kassel Jaeger Korps,  a living history group which also reenacts on occasion. We set up in school programs for historic sites such as Camp Bob Cooper, Camp Barnhardt, North Augusta, Cowpens,  Walnut Grove, and King's Mountain. For the last 16 years, I have run the Historical Encampment at The Loch Norman Highland Games. 

     I am a member of The American Long Rifle Association, a group that centers on History 1750-1805; the Widowmakers, which is an 18th Century shooting group with the emphasis on shooting rather than history; and The New Acquisition Militia.

 My only awards are for my shooting of flintlocks. I was on the United States International Muzzle loading Team, 1987-1989. Now I shoot regularly at national and state matches.

     I write articles for "On The Trail" magazine, specifically a column entitled "Ramblings of a Shirttailed Man." My articles deal with The Southern Campaign 1780-1781.

    I got my first traditional muzzleloader over 40 years ago and began shooting historical guns, which  drew me into the history of our Revolutionary War militia. Prior to the 200th Anniversary of The Southern Campaign of the American Revolution, I got into reenacting. I was at the 200th Anniversary of King's Mountain, Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse.

 

 

Farrier – Kevin Bagwell

A Master Farrier who is certified by the SC Farrier’s Association as a craftsman, Kevin Bagwell has been practicing the craft of horseshoeing and smithing for over 21 years. 

Bagwell is a member of the SC Farrier’s Association, and a trusted farrier for horse events at Tryon, NC; Aiken, SC; and Pendleton, SC. He is considered one of the two best of the seven farriers in SC, as rated by owners of equestrian facilities.

 

 

This event is generously funded by the following:  the City of Belton Hospitality Fund, Anderson County, Belton Metal Corp., Senator Billy O’Dell, Representative Mike Gambrell, the Walmart Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the SC Arts Commission, and the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC.

 

 For Additional Information, contact:

Alison A. Darby
411 Serena Circle
Anderson, SC  29621
864-958-5264