Historic Washington State Park E-Newsletter

1^st Annual Music In the Park A Success

The first annual Music in the Park event was held at Historic Washington State Park on Saturday evening, August 16th in the second-floor courtroom of the 1874 Courthouse. Musical entertainment was provided by Buehling's Scull Creek Entertainers from Fayetteville, Arkansas. Mr. Carl Anderton and Mr. Clarke Buehling performed on the banjo and tambourine and Mr. Kyle Pretzl played the bones. All three sang and played a selection of Stephen Foster songs as well as classics from the early nineteenth century, performing with original 19th-century banjoes and reproductions of period instruments. The audience heartily joined in on several well-known songs such as “Dixie Land” and “Camptown Races”. “We’re excited to have Music in the Park here for the first time and look forward to more concerts in the future. We have great facilities here Historic Washington for holding indoor concerts as well as outdoor events,” said Josh Williams, Park Curator and organizer of the event. The musicians were congratulated after the concert by many audience members. The program was supported by the Arkansas Arts Council, agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Distance Learning Program - Chief Interpreter, Billy Nations

The Distance Learning Program at Historic Washington State Park started in early 2008. This technology allows the park interpretive staff to offer compressed interactive video programming to schools all over the country and internationally in real time. The viewers and not just viewers, but participants, who can ask questions and hold discussions with interpreters thousands of miles away. This program has already been used with great success in July 2009, when campers in the park’s History Alive! Day Camp enjoyed a live, interactive tour of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Historic Washington is the first and only Arkansas state park to provide a distance learning program. Before the class begins, educators can download documents that students can use to study the chosen topic and prepare questions for the interpreter who will be guiding them. “In future, all Historic Washington distance learning will be tied to national curriculum standards, making it easier for teachers to correlate the program with their individual state standards”, according to Billy Nations, Chief Interpreter at Historic Washington.

Other programs available this summer include Betsy Carey Goes to Market, in which students meet Betsy Carey, an African-American who lived as a slave and a freedwoman in Washington. Betsy will exhibit 19th-century cooking and weaving techniques and answer questions about her daily life and experiences. Another program that has been presented with great success is Mary Carrigan’s Diary, in which Mrs. Mary Carrigan, the head of an immigrant family traveling by wagon to Arkansas, demonstrates the tools of survival while traveling in the trans-Mississippi West. The Distance Learning Program will also advance through wireless technology, using wireless cameras that will allow interpreters to provide completely mobile teaching experiences at remote sites around Washington.

Meet Our New Interpreter

Jon Orr is the newest seasonal Interpretive Guide at Historic Washington State Park. He has worked at Historic Washington before as a seasonal interpreter from 2008-early 2009 and returned to the park in July 2009. Orr was born in DeQueen, Arkansas and raised in Nathan, Arkansas. He studied the history of Western Civilization at the University of Arkansas from 2001-2002. From 2002 to 2005, he worked for the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) as a damage inspector after Hurricane Dennis and Hurricane Katrina. From 2005-early 2009, he worked as a seasonal interpreter and later as a clerk at Crater of Diamonds State Park. His hobbies are hunting, fishing and canoeing. He also owns and operates the peach farm his parents founded. He is married and anticipating the birth of he and his wife’s first son in November 2009.

Orr is interested in dispelling stereotypes and myths about the Choctaw people and their history. He seeks to do that by expanding Historic Washington’s tour programs about Choctaw culture and their self-governing, complex society before and after the Choctaw Removal. Choctaw history is also strongly connected to the history of his family, as his great-grandfather, Tanny Fulsum, was a landowner who survived the Trail of Tears and returned to Arkansas to re-settle in Nathan in the early 1920’s. Jon himself interprets the character of He Who Comes to Help, a Choctaw guide who leads his people through the forced migration to the Indian Territory in 1832, acting as translator and go-between as they pass through Washington on their way down the Southwest Trail. He also teaches woodworking and bow making at Royston Log House and is currently building a chicken coop and a privy for the site.
Orr’s hero is his grandfather, who helped him to gain an understanding of his Choctaw culture. “I’m hopeful that my research will reveal more of the history of the area as well as my family heritage. Studying history helps me to understand my own life,” Orr says. He states that he likes the atmosphere and people of Washington and enjoys teaching visitors about the history of the area. “This place has so many avenues, if you get bored, you can switch tracks and develop a new program’”, Orr explains.