Press release from National Forests in North Carolina:
The Cradle of Forestry in America invites the public to explore a re-created campsite of the early 1900s during its “Camping in the Old Style” event, Saturday, Oct. 14. A classic camping interpretive team known as the Acorn Patrol demonstrate the low-tech/high-skill approach as practiced in the outdoors during what some historians consider the Golden Age of Camping.
During this time in history, the Pisgah National Forest was in its infancy. City folk were discovering the joys of outdoor recreation. 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 bygone day, the traditional skills of camping will be practiced in the Cradle of Forestry’s scenic setting in the corral along the Biltmore Campus Trail.
Visitors can see fires ignited by flint, steel and friction, old-style campfire cookery, four different styles of period shelters and traditional camp tools in use. Each camper has expertise in various aspects of woodcraft, history and nature study, and welcomes interacting with visitors and questions.
“Camping in the Old Style” is inspired by Horace Kephart, author of Camping and Woodcraft, originally published in 1906. Kephart’s approach to enjoying the outdoors holds lessons for today’s modern campers.
The Cradle of Forestry is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, free for youth under age 16. Golden Age, America the Beautiful and Every Kid in a Park passes are honored. The Cradle is located in the Pisgah National Forest near Brevard, on US Highway 276, 6 miles north of Looking Glass Falls and 4 miles south of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Call 828-877-3130 or visit www.cradleofforestry.com for information about the Cradle of Forestry in America.
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