Soda and a Stockade

(Genesis of the name is complicated.)

Wednesday, May 10…

After haircuts and stops at Harbor Freight (hatchet) and Hallmark, we made a quick visit to the Ale-8-One Factory in nearby Winchester. Ale-8 is a locally produced citrus-ginger soda that’s been around since 1926. We bought one bottle that we’ll bring to the July picnic for taste-testing. (Greg also bough Ale-8 salsa (really?), and I have a few Ale-8 lollipops.) 

In the afternoon we went way back in history and visited Fort Boonesborough, a stockade village founded by Daniel Boone in 1775 (just before shots rang out at Lexington & Concord). The village is like Williamsburg w/o Bruton Parish Church and the House of Burgesses — log cabins “inhabited” by craftsmen and women in period attire and skilled in frontier remedies, food, fiber, and farm chores (candle making, iron work, wood working, spinning, musket making, etc.) Boone himself is a pretty impressive guy. The Fort B website provides a great timeline of his life (long life – he was 86 when he died). Check it out at http://www.fortboonesboroughlivinghistory.org/html/daniel_boone.html.

Yup... Transylvania. The "colony" (land inhabited only by Native Americans)
had been founded by land speculator Richard Henderson,
who hired Daniel Boone to establish a Wilderness Trail into the area.
In 1776, the Virginia General Assembly invalidated the purchase.

Timber & Limestone... just like the old days.

This gentleman, a 75-year-old Vet,
is a master musket maker.
(One gun takes about 4 months.)

BlogThought... Yes, it would have made much more sense to take a picture of the Vet as he worked on the musket instead of as he (and we) are leaving for the day. 😃