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 Visit with a small group of outers in a reconstructed campsite of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s at the Cradle of Forestry near Brevard, North Carolina, October 10 and 11. At this time in history much of the Pisgah Ranger District belonged to George Vanderbilt of Biltmore House fame. Gifford Pinchot, first chief of the USDA Forest Service, and Dr. Carl Alwin Schenck, founder of the Biltmore Forest School, both foresters hired by Vanderbilt, roamed these woods back then. It was a time when camping meant sleeping under canvas and cooking over an open fire. Here in the wood smoke, surrounded by the outdoor gear of a by-gone day, the traditional skills of camp and trail will be practiced in their proper setting.
“Camping in the Old Style” will be presented by the Traditional Outdoor Skills Program, Schiele Museum of Natural History, Gastonia, North Carolina. Steve Watts, noted primitive skills educator and practitioner from The Schiele, will be joined by other trained campers to demonstrate skills once commonly used in the outdoors during an era considered by many as the Golden Age of Camping. The group will begin setting up their camps on Friday, October 10 in the corral along the Cradle’s Biltmore Campus Trail. Visitors can see fire by flint, steel, and friction, old style campfire cookery, four different styles of period shelters, and traditional camp tools in use. Saturday, October 11, will be a full day of camp activity. Admission to the Cradle of Forestry is $5.00 for adults. Youth age 15 and under are admitted free, and federal passports are honored. The fee includes this event as well as an 18-minute film, hands-on exhibits, fire-fighting helicopter simulation, and historic cabins and antique equipment along two paved interpretive trails. For more information please call the Cradle of Forestry at 828-877-3130. (Images provided by the Cradle of Forestry.)
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