Fireside Chats return to Fort Boonesborough in February

Fireside Chats return to Fort Boonesborough in February

The annual Fireside Chat Series gets underway this month at Fort Boonesborough State Park. Hosted each Saturday in February, the events begin at 6 p.m. with refreshments and snacks served in the 18th Century Tavern, followed by the presentation at 7 p.m. in the orientation blockhouse.

• 3: “Kentucky Before Boone.” Tressa Brown, historic preservation coordinator with the Kentucky Heritage Council, discusses the area we now know as Kentucky before any eighteenth century pioneer settlement of the lands.
• 10: “Daniel Boone, Founder of Fort Boonesborough.” Enjoy a first-person presentation by Steven Caudill as the frontier explorer, recalling some of Boone’s adventures and sharing stories of exploring the area we now call Kentucky. Caudill, a Boone descendant from Winchester, has portrayed Boone for two decades.
• 17: “Daniel Trabue.” Richard Phelps steps into the role of the early pioneer and will share Trabue’s life story of helping to settle this area. He will also recount Trabue’s time spent at Ft. Boonesborough and Ft. Logan and the surveying and building of the present-day town of Columbia, Kentucky.
• 24: “Fleeing the Famine on an Irish Coffin Ship.” Carol Jarboe gives a first-person presentation as Biddy, an Irish woman reminiscing about the Irish potato famine, her family’s banishment and their trip across the Atlantic on one of the infamous Coffin Ships during Black ’47—the worst year of the Great Potato Famine.

Admission: $12/person. Reservations required. Call 859-527-3131. (Select the option for the business office. Leave a message if there is no answer.)