We do it for you...

"Interesting!"

"Wow!"

"Cool!"

"Amazing!"

"Wanted my kids to see and learn local history."

"Great info!"

"Very fun...I'd like to stay here!!"

"Awesome!"

"Very authentic. Liked it very much!"

"Very good, thank you. :)"

"Very nice."

"Enjoyed!"

"Just loved it!"

"Wonderful exhibit!"

"A good little adventure!"

--August 10-18, 2010, guest register comments. Visitors hailed from Fort Worth, Mansfield, Arlington, Burleson, Denton, Frisco, Keller, Plano, Wichita Falls, Friona, Lubbock, Dublin, Haltom City, Colleyville, Weatherford, & Springtown, Texas, and Oklahoma, Florida, Japan, Delaware, Australia, California, Alabama, and Minnesota in this 8 day period

Why do we do it? Why do our historical interpreters get up every morning, dress in 19th century-style clothing, leave their air-conditioned homes with television and cushy recliners and drive to the Village to spend their days in 100+ degree heat? Why do our professional staff members develop programs, preserve artifacts, wrestle with budgets, and manage daily operations?

You. We do it because of you.

We do it for the kid who walks in the front door and gasps, saying, "WOW!" We do it for the mom, who is looking for a place to let her toddlers burn off a little energy while learning about life long ago. We do it for the historian, who has read about cabin-building in books but has never put his/her hand into the broadax marks that scar the cabin walls...until now.

We do it for the souls seeking respite in the shady, wooded, peaceful grounds. We do it for the teachers wanting to make history come alive for their students. We do it for the visitors from Texas, the United States, North America, and the world. We do it for the harried parents who couldn't get into the zoo and stumbled across the street to discover us. We do it for the families who take time out from their busy days to just be with each other, no modern distractions, no cars, no rush. We do it for all these and more.

We do it for you.

We're a little selfish, though. We also do it because we feel a deep connection to history and our own personal stories. We love seeing children's faces light up when they understand a new concept. We enjoy hearing the whoosh of the waterwheel, the flowing of the stream, the ping of the anvil, and the ringing of the school bell. We love helping families reconnect: with nature, with history, with each other.

We draw relaxation from demonstrating lost arts--weaving, woodworking, blacksmithing... We love hearing the laughter of children and adults as they try out a new skill. Shivers run down our backs when we rescue a treasured artifact from decay. We feel duty-bound to keep our ancestors memories alive, lest we forget. We want these structures, these artifacts, these stories, to live forever.

So paying bills, cleaning signs, designing exhibits and programs, putting on the dresses, bonnets, vests, and suspenders isn't an option: it's an obligation.

And we do it for you.

Upcoming closure...

Just a reminder, we will be closed from August 23-September 6 for annual summer maintenance. We use this time to help keep the site looking great for y'all!

Projects on tap for this closure include: mowing, weedeating, cleaning, laundry, deadlimbing, new post and cable down Log Cabin Village Lane, and MORE!

I, personally, will be using a lot of the time to work on our hands-on cabin. Look for new "food" items, activities, pump gaskets, and more! After three years in operation, the hands-on cabin needs freshening up a bit...

I also plan to finalize some of our fall/winter programming plans. We hope that you'll be excited about the events we plan to offer!

So we may be closed to visitors during this time, but we will certainly be abuzz with activity! Stay tuned...

3 Questions--Steven

This video is the second in a series introducing visitors to our "Village People" here at Log Cabin Village in Fort Worth, TX. This clip features "craftsman extraordinaire" Steven (with a cameo by Taffy the cat). By the way, I apologize for my (the educator's) choppy video editing. I'm learning as I go. :)

3 Questions--Kelli Pickard

You know...we have really cool 19th century buildings, fascinating artifacts, and an amazingly beautiful wooded setting. But you know what we also consider one of our greatest assets? Our PEOPLE! We thought you might enjoy getting to know them better!

This video is the first in a series introducing visitors to our "Village People" here at Log Cabin Village in Fort Worth, TX. This clip features Museum Director Kelli Pickard.

Our fall line-up...

Just to keep you in the loop, we have a TON of exciting activities going on around here this fall--including FOUR opportunities to dip candles! We can't wait to see you here!

Looking for daily updates/interaction? Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter!


August 23-September 6, 2010
CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE


September 17, 2010
TIMBER TALES STORYTIME
10-11 a.m.
Featured stories: Tortillas and Lullabies by Lynn Reiser and The Copper Tin Cup by Carole Lexa Schaefer. How can the objects we treasure bring back powerful memories? Learn with two wonderful stories about the continuity of family and our heirlooms. $4 fee includes a story, fun activities, and a craft, all geared towards 3-5 year olds. Please call 817-392-5881 to make your reservation (required).

September 25, 2010
HARVEST HOMECOMING
Noon-4 p.m.
No admission charge for this day only!!! Celebrate Fort Worth’s “Day in the District” at the Village! Enjoy a day full of music, crafts, living history and activities for the whole family. This is the Village's biggest event of the year! No reservations required.

October 22, 2010
TIMBER TALES STORYTIME
10-11 a.m.
Featured story: Anansi Does the Impossible: An Ashanti Tale retold by Verna Aardema. The adventures of Anansi the spider continue with this delightful tale from our West African ancestors about securing folktales for the people. $4 fee includes a story, fun activities, and a craft, all geared towards 3-5 year olds. Please call 817-392-5881 to make your reservation (required).

October 23, 2010
JEEPERS REAPERS!
1-4 p.m.
We just celebrated Harvest Homecoming, but now it’s time to reap what we’ve sown! Experience grinding grain by hand, thresh wheat, mix masa, press tortillas and more. Then we’ll use corn husks to make dolls! No reservations required. Cost is regular Village admission plus a $3 craft fee to make a corn husk doll.

November 13 & 14, 2010
CANDLE-DIPPING
1-4 p.m.
It’s candle-making time! Come dip your own candles to take home. No reservations required. Cost is regular Village admission plus a $3 fee to dip candles.

November 19. 2010
TIMBER TALES STORYTIME
10-11 a.m.
Featured story: Kindle Me a Riddle: A Pioneer Story by Roberta Karim. Frontier days are brought to life through a series of riddles in this charming story about a 19th century family. $4 fee includes a story, fun activities, and a craft, all geared towards 3-5 year olds. Please call 817-392-5881 to make your reservation (required).

November 20 & 21, 2010
CANDLE-DIPPING
1-4 p.m.
It’s candle-making time! Come dip your own candles to take home. No reservations required. Cost is regular Village admission plus a $3 fee to dip candles.

December 18, 2010
HOLIDAYS AT THE HEARTH
1-4 p.m.
Enjoy holiday music, string popcorn and cranberries, spin the dreidel, help make pomander balls, tamales, paper chains, embossed cards, ornaments, and more! No reservations required. Cost is regular Village admission plus a $2 craft fee to make a punched tin ornament.

Had it not been for Cotton-Eyed Joe...

You can blame cotton for a lot of things. An all-cotton garment will shrink in hot water. In raw form, cotton bolls can scratch your hands. And cotton provides the perfect nesting ground for a nasty little critter called the boll weevil.

The boll weevil is so despised and feared, that southern states have formed "boll weevil eradication zones." Here's what the Handbook of Texas Online has to say about this snarly little pest:

"The boll weevil is a snout beetle (Anthonomus grandis) first named by Carl H. Boheman, a Swedish systematist. He assumed that the specimens came from Cuba, but modern research indicates that they were collected near Veracruz in 1840. Ancient specimens have been found from the earliest times in the valley of Mexico. The ravages of the insect have been known in Mexico for at least two millenia. American entomologists became aware of the boll weevil as a cotton pest as early as 1880, but its first introduction to Texas seems to have been announced by Charles W. DeRyee, a druggist of Corpus Christi, in a letter dated October 3, 1894. The insect, which proved to be one of the most devastating pests ever introduced to American agriculture, was definitely identified by Dr. Eugene A. Schwarz. The boll weevil is about one-fourth inch in length and changes from white to black as it matures. The beetles are susceptible to winter freezes, and those that survive hibernation emerge in the spring to feed for five or six weeks on the tender growth of young cotton plants. As the season progresses, they eat and lay eggs in the cotton buds and new bolls. Each punctured bud or boll falls to the ground and becomes food for the eggs that hatch in two or three days. The boll weevil migrated across the Rio Grande and had spread from the Valley to the Sabine and Red rivers by the beginning of the twentieth century. By 1903 it covered all of eastern Texas to the Edwards Plateau and by the 1920s had reached north and west to the High Plains, then encompassing all the geographic areas of Texas cotton production. Boll weevil infestation caused a steady drop in cotton yields over a thirty-year period. The greatest destruction was in the South Texas fields. In 1904 an estimated 700,000 bales were lost to the boll weevil, at a cost of $42 million. Damage that resulted in about a 6 percent yield reduction in 1910 leaped to a 34 percent reduction in 1921. Fifty-three years later the per-acre yield reduction due to boll weevils still hovered at 7 percent and cost an estimated $260 million.

Unlike many other insects, the boll weevil was resistant to conventional insecticides, poisons, and then-known antipest practices. Its spread from Mexico depended on a combination of appropriate weather conditions and cultivation practices, coupled with a shortage of cotton gins. Cotton bolls with seed were often transported from the lower Rio Grande valley to gins as far north as Alice, and this practice may have contributed to the spread of the weevil. Basic information on the relationship of the boll weevil to the cotton plant and other cultivated plants was explored by C. H. Tyler Townsend, one of the many colorful personalities involved in the early fight against the boll weevil. Townsend was an official of the United States Department of Agriculture who traveled through southern Texas in 1894 and reported as much as 90 percent crop damage in that area. In 1899 the state appointed Frederick W. Mally, an entomologist, to direct state efforts to combat the insect. Mally launched a cultivation plan intended to produce crops early, before the weevils multiplied. But record freezes that delayed early planting, heavy rainfall, and the great Galveston hurricane of 1900 all combined to help spread the boll weevil in spite of Mally's brilliant but seriously underfunded labors.

In 1901 E. Dwight Sanderson succeeded Mally as state entomologist. He continued many of Mally's programs, but in addition the Texas legislature chose to offer a $50,000 prize for discovery of a way to rid Texas of the boll weevil."

Why my sudden interest in boll weevils, you ask?

Because, after posting our growing crops the other day, I received this e-mail from a colleague at Dallas Heritage Village:

"So I was catching up on my RSS feeds and noticed that you guys are growing cotton. Yeah cotton!

Question: did you have to do anything special to get permission to grow cotton? I know there are rules with the whole boll weevil eradication stuff..."

My reply? OOPS!

So it turns out that Tarrant County actually IS in a boll weevil eradication zone...which means, among other things, that we cannot grow cotton on site without a permit. This is yet another example of how complicated it can be presenting "the past" within modern constraints.

Don't you hate it when that happens?

Fortunately our cotton has not produced, and more than likely wasn't going to produce, because today our cotton will be liberated (pulled) so that we are in compliance.

But we had a good run! And I learned a LOT about cotton-growing in Texas.

And we're not ashamed to admit when we're wrong...

Summertime...

Cotton is risin'...

Cucumber's are bloomin'...

Squash is blossomin'

The corn's all ears...

It's summertime...