Living History Park to host weekend event highlighting colonial times
Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019
News 12 This Morning
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) -- This weekend, North Augusta's Living History Park will host "Colonial Times: A Day to Remember" where you can see what is was like to live and work in the 1700s.
28 years ago, now-chairman Lynn Thompson and a few others came up with the idea for the park. It all started with a grave they found by Riverview Park belonging to Samuel Hammond.
"[We] found out how he was buried. He had a masonic burial and everything. [We] found out where he locally stayed and that's what got us into, 'okay, this is something. We need to put up a historical marker'," Thompson explained.
After more than a year of research and planning, they got that marker.
"We recreated his burial and we had probably 2,000 people down there and people dressed in colonial clothes doing different kind of cooking, baking."
Shortly after the Living History Park was born. Thompson and the others wanted to teach people about the colonial times and the American Revolution.
Natural water and a bowl that descends led them to believe this area was used for military purposes in the 1700s. With that in mind they began adding structures.
"We have Thomson Academy in the back - it has a 1700 loom in it and it actually has a rumsford fire place. Two of our buildings have rumsford fire places, which is what you would've cooked in."
Today the park is used for many things, including weddings, but it's main purpose remains education.
"We're more about the history, the lifestyles, the hardships."
With all other aspects of the park, teaching is the part Thompson loves the most.
"As long as you tell the story, history lives. If you don't tell the story, history can repeat itself."
On friday, hundreds of students will take field trips to the Living History Park. Then on Saturday and Sunday it's open to the public.