Muster on Tallapoosa offers history lesson

By Miranda Mattheis | Dadeville Record

Published Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Horseshoe Bend National Military Park has an interactive, full-day history lesson planned for anyone who wants to learn.

Muster on the Tallapoosa will include living history camps of the Creek Indians, the Cherokee Indians and the Tennessee Militia.

The event will be held on Aug. 23 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Park ranger Ove Jensen said the event is a come-and-go event, but there are activities and presentations throughout the day.

“We do have three distinctly different programs during the day,” Jensen said.

The first program is “Battle for the Southern Frontier” at 10 a.m. The program is based on a book that chronicles Creek war sites in Alabama.

That program will be followed by “Alabama Landscape in Red Stick Times” at 1 p.m.

The final presentation is “Portraits and Politics” at 2:30 p.m.

All presentations will be held in the auditorium.

For those looking too see demonstrations, there will be many options outside throughout the day.

“We will have both indoor and outdoor activities,” Jensen said.

Cannon and musket demonstrations will be given at 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.

A Cherokee hunting camp demonstration will be given throughout the day.

This is the 9th annual Muster on the Tallapoosa event, and the park is expecting a big crowd.

“The greatest number we’ve seen is 600,” Jensen said.

He said anywhere between 300 and 600 people will likely show up this year.

The event celebrates the establishment of Horseshoe Bend National Military Park, which happened in August 1959.

“It gives people the opportunity to see something they wouldn’t normally see at the park,” Jensen said.

Admission to the event is free, but space is limited for the presentations in the auditorium.

Horseshoe Bend National Military Park is located in east central Alabama, on Ala. Hwy. 49, just 12 miles north of the town of Dadeville. Signs on U.S. Hwy. 280, Ala. Hwy. 49 and Ala. Hwy. 22 are up to direct motorists to park. For more information, call 234-7111.