It is a glimpse into life in the 1850s.  I tried out a loom…it would take me a VERY long time to make a rag rug.  Kent and I made a bit of sawdust with a two man saw.

“Flowers on the Bed”.  What a perfect name for the annual quilt show this weekend.  Antique pieces are carefully displayed in the theatre.  Fantastic works of art cover beds and drape across every piece of furniture and porch rail in the log homes.  It is amazing handwork; each piece has its own wonderful story.  It makes me wonder a bit what people a hundred years from now with cherish from this time?!  What will tell our story?

Lots of cargo is moved by barge along the Tennessee River, through Kentucky lake, and its locks into the Ohio then the Mississippi.  Far from traffic and train tracks we were surprised to hear the rumble of engines in camp.  Surprise, tug boats.

So far inland I had thought of the Civil War in this area as a foot and cavalry war, not entirely.  Union Generals led iron clad stern wheelers up the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers to attack Rebel forts that defended Confederate transportation and supply routes.  The heavily armed ships didn’t pull off quite the rout that the Federals hoped but it gave Lincoln the victory he so greatly needed to bolster his political position at the time.  The Fort Donelson National Battlefield tells the story of these battles.

Amazingly, we have found yet another battle that is called “the turning point” of the war.  The first sign that the Union could prevail and the beginning of the end for the Confederate States of America.  It certainly seems that it “depends on who you ask” when it comes to most significant battles.

One in the campground and the other along the road as we were out driving.  The cool damp weather isn’t good for much else but it seems to have brought them out for us to see.