As a teacher, the start of a new school year is always filled with excitement, and after a few busy weeks of lesson planning, learning new names, and teaching – it’s a relief to see Labor Day weekend pop up on the calendar.
Not only do I look forward to an extra day to catch up on some relaxation, I also look forward to the annual Fort Henry Days at Oglebay Park.
For years I have been attending this event and enjoying taking a step back in time to the frontier days of the Ohio Valley. Fort Henry Days is also held at the perfect time as it relates to my history of Wheeling class at Wheeling Park High School. After introducing students to the importance of learning about Wheeling and their community, I begin a unit on Wheeling as a frontier post.
We discuss Native American origins in the Ohio Valley, the French and Indian War, the Zane family, Lewis Wetzel, blockhouses, fort locations, and while I only spend about two weeks on this particular unit, I could easily spend an entire semester teaching about the Frontier era.
As students are learning about this era, I encourage them to visit the Fort Henry Days and experience the frontier era come to life. There they can witness in person how frontier men and women lived and survived. Students can also learn about the time period from the Native American perspective which is rarely discussed and taught.
So, every year I encourage my History of Wheeling and government students to visit the Fort Henry Days for extra credit. I would like to share a few examples of what students learned and experienced here:
Senior Jyllian Norman writes: “This was such a wonderful experience! A woman stopped my mom and I after my mom asked me who I was going to get a photo with. The woman said to me that she appreciates Mr. Stanton sending students up to the Fort Henry Days, and that it means the world to them to have young people come and learn about history!
The lady I got a picture with talked about clothing, quilt making, lace making, and many other things! Their tent was absolutely wonderful. I spent almost 20 minutes there talking to them about history and how clothing evolved through that time period based on your profession.
My mother and I had such a great time together walking around and viewing the different demonstrations!”
Senior Grace O-Neil writes: “It was fascinating to learn how innovative people were with their clothing. In order to mitigate the need for alteration after the clothing is made, each of the layers are separated and secured upon the individual’s body, not by buttons n
or by stitching, but by mere sewing pins in order to fit the material perfectly to the person wearing it, without permanently altering the clothing so it can be worn by others in the future. I just think it so cool that they made all of their pieces customizable so that the fashion could be worn by anyone of any body type.
Almost more fascinating, however, was listening to the reenactors talk about the clothing. They were so enthusiastic to share their knowledge, and were extremely empathetic, no matter how foolish my teenager-in-high-school questions were.”
I would like to give a special thanks to everyone who makes the Fort Henry Days possible. I would also like to thank my students for taking the time out of their busy weekend to spend time at the Fort Henry Days. In today’s world it’s not easy being a high school student, and I truly appreciate the effort and cooperation they put into making the most out of what our community offers.
Wonderfull article! Thank you so much for the high praise. When I see that we started 25 years ago we never imagined it would turn out to be like it is today. It’s gonna be done without the reenactors who attend the event and the public who come out to watch us every year. Thank you all so very much.