Local history comes to life at Lowe-Volk

By Matt Echel­berry
Inquirer Reporter

Lowe-Volk Park was trans­formed into a colo­nial bat­tle site on June 2 for the 8th annual Liv­ing His­tory Day. The event offered some­thing for all ages, from reen­act­ments to kids’ activ­i­ties. A colo­nial camp was set up by the pond and an indian camp com­plete with teepees and an open-pit fire hid in the woods nearby. Sev­eral ven­dors were nearby for patrons to check out from 9 a.m. — 4 p.m.

There was a tent where jew­elry, plants and indian dec­o­ra­tions were sold, as well as a cob­bler sta­tion where a re-enactor showed how met­al­works would have been made in the 18th cen­tury. Tom­a­hawk throw­ing was also offered for those inter­ested. The Rich­land County Museum had a sta­tion where home­made but­ter and other foods could be sam­pled to pro­vide patrons with a taste of the past.

For those who did not feel adven­tur­ous try­ing colo­nial cui­sine, the Crest­line His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety pro­vided some modern-day food from 11 a.m. — 2:30 p.m.
Amer­i­can Indian Roger Moore spoke dur­ing two ses­sions through­out the day and two live reen­act­ments were shown about the ambush and cap­ture of Colonel William Craw­ford in 1782. For the reen­act­ment, the audi­ence walked into the woods and watched as Craw­ford and his men were assailed by Wyan­dot Indi­ans in waiting.

The sol­diers pushed the Indi­ans deeper into the woods, only to be out­num­bered and forced to retreat. The fir­ing of the mus­kets was loud and real­is­tic and the cos­tumes for both the sol­diers and the Indi­ans looked authen­tic. Craw­ford was cap­tured and watched as the last of his men were killed and scalped.
The audi­ence was then led out of the woods to a small clear­ing, which became the site of Crawford’s tor­ture and murder.

The actors did not per­form any of the hor­rific scenes from the story, but talked about what hap­pened: his clothes were removed and he was forced to run the gaunt­let (which was demon­strated after the reen­act­ment), then tied to a tree and shot with gun pow­der, and even­tu­ally lit on fire, among other meth­ods of tor­ture. They explained that Craw­ford was friends with the chief of the tribe and many of his tor­tur­ers, but the tribe was tak­ing revenge for the mas­sacre in Gnaden­hut­ten, Pennsylvania.

When the gaunt­let was demon­strated, the chil­dren in atten­dance that day each received a thin stick and were divided into to lines. Josh Dyer, a nat­u­ral­ist at Lowe-Volk, ran between the two lines so the kids could hit him in the legs with their sticks, as Craw­ford would have been forced to do.
That evening, a lantern tour was offered from 8–10 p.m. Patrons were led through the woods by a re-enactor hold­ing a lantern and stopped in cer­tain spots to meet some famil­iar faces from the reen­act­ment. First, two indi­ans gave a dire warn­ing that they would pro­tect the woods from white intrud­ers.
Fur­ther up the trail, Simon Girty talked about his life as a colo­nial sol­dier and then a prisoner-turned Indian with the tribe that went on to tor­ture Craw­ford. Girty explained that he did every­thing he could to save Craw­ford, but would have had to take his place in order to do so, because the Wyan­dots wanted to spill the blood of a white man that day.
Next on the tour was William Craw­ford him­self to enlighten the audi­ence with a con­text of the reen­act­ment. “Craw­ford was at the right place at the wrong time,” he said. “Unfor­tu­nately, that’s a recur­ring theme in the Craw­ford story.” He was tor­tured to death for a crime he did not com­mit, but some of his men were at Gnaden­hut­ten the day of the mas­sacre.
On the final stop of the tour, some early set­tlers sat around a fire talk­ing until some Indi­ans came to kill the men and take a woman cap­tive.
“This is the way life was like back then. You never knew what was wait­ing for you in the trees,” one of the Indi­ans explained.
Liv­ing His­tory Day was filled with edu­ca­tion and enter­tain­ment that high­lighted the his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance of the area, albeit filled with tragedy.