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Trades and Crafts
Members of EARA routinely demonstrate a wide variety of skills to help the public experience life as it was in early Arkansaw. The images below represent some of these skills.
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Spinning, Weaving and Textiles in General
Carol
Fritts, with her mother Laverne Probst standing behind,
talks to kids about how to spin. Pinnacle Mountain
Rendezvous.
Carol Fritts
and Karen Keating making yarn at Camp Robinson.
Sharon Boyd-Struthers spinning on her great wheel. Woolly Hollow.
Karen with various textile equipment: A simple loom sits on the table at left, and an inkle is on the right table. Behind Karen are numerous skeins of naturally-dyed yarn. Cabot School Days.
Larry Layne making a pair of leggins.
Chuck Martin sewing.
Fire Starting Without Matches
Chuck
" Tripod" Martin showin’ some young boys how to
start a fire at Lake Greeson State Park near Kirby,
Arkansas.
Blacksmithing
Larry Layne firing up the forge to heat treat a flint
striker forged by Ed Williams. The striker now sends a
shower of sparks. Scott Connection.
Food Preparation
Julia Bethea making butter in what is probably the smallest churn on the planet. Cadron School Days.
Nelda Burdell trading herbs with
Tom Reedy. Cadron School Days.
Ed Williams cooking biscuits and pizza for
300 middle school students from Conway, Arkansas.
Cadron Settlement Park.
Ed and his grandson Nick cutting biscuits. Cadron
Settlement Park.
Don
Lewis burning the corn. The corn is on a brazier. Notice the Dutch ovens strewn about. The cooking tripod in the foreground is not being used at the moment.
Ed Williams
baking bread. Notice the soot above the door -- this oven has seen lots of action! Cadron Settlement Park.
Julia Bethea makes mulled cider. Historic Arkansas Museum.
Debra Browning prepares dinner over the campfire. Wolly Hollow State Park..
Jimmy Worden cooks for the entire camp. Pinnacle Mountain State Park.
Ed Williams demonstrating primitive cooking at its best. Snowball Trek.
Hunting and Trapping
Tim
Richardson’s bear trap collection. He has added a
4th one. Pinnacle Mountain Rendezvous.
Early Lighting
Bryant McIguire
showin’ off his collection of early American
lighting devices. Historic Arkansas Museum.
Boyce Browning sampling the fare by candlelight in the blockhouse at Cadron Settlement Park.
Sometimes candles aren't needed -- the campfire throws more than enough light. (Enough to pick and grin, anyway!)
Music
Tim Richardson
playing the devil out of his new fiddle. (We know it's Tim because he's wearing a tag!.
The band of Ed
& Laurine Williams and Chris & Donna Jean
Bliss, for Nick and Viola’s wedding. Cadron blockhouse.
The happy
music folks Tim Richardson and Donna Jean Glasgow. Historic Arkansas Museum.
Donna Jean Glasgow and Laurine Williams with the Cadron blockhouse as a backdrop.
Firearms and Knives
RJ Stanley teaching some
Cub Scouts how to pass a knife. Camp Robinson.
Jim McElmurry and Reg Talley goin’
over the finer points of a 4# field piece. Camp Robinson.
DON'T SHOOT! Reggie Talley sittin' with his field piece. Petit Jean State Park.
Howard Bethea and Glen Cook loadin’
a pistol. Be sure to pick up your brass.
Chuck
Martin taking about the firearms used in early Arkansas.
Guns for sale. Black River Rendezvous.
Trading
Larry
Thompson displaying trade goods. Cadron blockhouse.
Blanket trader Marvis Chance. Woolly Hollow.
Militia and Military
Mark
Thurman talking about the militia. Cadron Settlement Park.
Homeland Security at its best -- The Arkansaw Militia marches on Independence Dayat Historic Arkansas Museum.