News From the Department
Dobbs State Historic Site To Reopen For Tours
For more information contact Beth Carter at 704-873-5866 or
Mary Cook at 919-733-7862, #231.
RALEIGH (June 30, 2006)—The N.C. Division of State Historic Sites has announced that Ft. Dobbs State Historic Site in Statesville will reopen for tours beginning Tuesday, July 11 th. Effective that date, historic interpreters will be available to lead public tours at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. Significant community interest in Ft. Dobbs and its history spurred N.C. Historic Sites to reopen Ft. Dobbs for tours. Today, Ft. Dobbs is North Carolina’s only French and Indian War (1754-1763) state historic site.
The state historic site has been under redevelopment and open only for special events and by appointment since 2003. After hiring a new historic interpreter for Ft. Dobbs, it was determined quality public interpretive programming could now be offered daily. The site will continue under development while plans for reconstructing the 18 th century fort are being made.
In 1756, a savage struggle for territory and power, later called the French and Indian War, was playing out across Europe and colonial America. Three major powers—England, France and several allied North American Indian nations—were fighting each other for lands where the Indians had lived for thousands of years and Europeans had begun colonizing in the 16 th century. To protect its western frontier, that year the North Carolina colony built Ft. Dobbs. The colony’s provincial soldiers fought in all the war’s major campaigns and commanded by Col. Hugh Waddell, defended Ft. Dobbs during a Cherokee attack on Feb. 27, 1760.
Ft. Dobbs’ new historic interpreter is Matthew Keagle of Charlotte. Originally from Vermont (he will soon be moving to the Statesville area), Keagle has worked in historical interpretation and programming for the past five years at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Mass.; Colonial Williamsburg and Historic Brattonsville in McConnells, S.C. He is skilled in presenting such historic trades as a shoemaking, tailoring, farming, blacksmithing, milling, pottery making, wigmaking and even apothecary, a profession which in the 18 th century, combined doctoring and drug/remedy making and dispensing.
Keagle holds a bachelor’s (magna cum laude) from Cornell University in 18 th century living history and historical interpretation. Besides interpretation, he has developed and planned public programs and reenactments. For the past ten years, he has been involved with reenacting such periods in American military history as the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the American Civil War and the 1830’s, when many small communities in the U.S. relied on local militias for self-defense. Drawing on research and his reenactment experience, Keagle recreates his own clothing, footwear, headgear and equipment, enabling him to craft highly accurate impressions of historical figures.
He is already developing interpretive programs about the French and Indian War for schools and other groups that visit the site. The interpreter also guides volunteers who interpret the provincial soldiers stationed at Ft. Dobbs 250 years ago. Hopes are that Keagle’s continued research will uncover more information about the soldiers garrisoned at the fort, the civilians that took refuge there and the structure itself. His proven attention to detail combined with an understanding of the broader life and society of the 18 th century will provide a remarkably comprehensive view of history for visitors to Ft. Dobbs.
Ft. Dobbs State Historic Site’s educational programming is supported by the not-for-profit Ft. Dobbs Alliance.
The site is part of the Division of N.C. Historic Sites within the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history, and culture. For more information on its programs, visit www.ncculture.com. For more information on Ft. Dobbs’ new tours, call 704-873-5866, e-mail fortdobbs@bellsouth.net, or check out our web site at http://www.fortdobbs.org.
# # #
Return to News Page
