Heritage Day celebrates fall at Daniel Boone’s birthplace
Celebrate the arrival of fall with Daniel Boone Homestead's annual Heritage Day Fall Festival at the Homestead,400 Daniel Boone Road, Exeter Township, from noon to 4 p.m. on Oct. 20.
Heritage Day features a variety of 18th-century demonstrations, trades, and hands-on activities which include gunsmithing, blacksmithing, open-hearth cooking, spinning and wool dyeing, quill pen writing, candle dipping, leatherworking, and the apothecary and surgeon.
The event will also feature craft and specialty food vendors as well as fall activities for children like pumpkin painting.
In the Boone House, volunteers will cook a meal over the hearth, while Bob Mouland treats guests to colonial music in the English parlor. Visitors can also tour the Boone House and spring cellar and learn about the three families who lived there during the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Throughout the historic area, visitors can learn about the detailed work of a leatherworker and the skillful work of a gunsmith.
Zimmerman Forge will demonstrate blacksmithing with newly installed bellows in the Blacksmith Shop.
The Apothecary presentation features display of period medical instruments and will explain the role of the doctor and surgeon during the 18th century.
Volunteers will demonstrate textile processing, wool dyeing, spinning, and quilting.
Visitors will have the unique opportunity to tour the three-room Bertolet Log House as well as have a chance to see the Bertolet Sawmill in action. The Sawmill is one of only three operating, water-powered, vertical blade sawmills in the United States. It was moved to the Homestead in 1972 from its original location in the Oley Valley.
In addition to demonstrations and trades, there will be a variety of 18th-century hands-on activities for children and adults to enjoy including candle dipping, quill pen writing, and colonial toys and games.
The Exeter Friends Meetinghouse will offer open house tours throughout the afternoon. Located a little over two miles from the Homestead at 191 Meetinghouse Road, Douglassville, the Meetinghouse is where the Quaker Boone family would have attended monthly meetings. The original log structure frequented by the Boones was replaced by the current stone structure in 1759.
Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors 65 and older and $5 for youth ages 6-17. Children 5 and under and Daniel Boone Homestead Associates are free. No pets (except service animals) and no smoking.
Visit www.thedanielboonehomestead.org and Daniel Boone Homestead on Facebook for more information. The event is presented and funded by the Daniel Boone Homestead Associates.
The birthplace of the famed frontiersman born in 1734, the Daniel Boone Homestead is owned by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and daily historic operations are run by the Daniel Boone Homestead Associates, a local, nonprofit organization.
