Free festival makes history come alive

When we launched Indian River Magazine nearly 20 years ago, one of our goals was to share significant stories about the region’s history with our readers. Over the years we’ve presented stories about everything from the early Ice Age man in Vero to the Ais natives living along the coast from 2,000 BC to the sinking of the 1715 treasure fleet off our coast. In our last three issues, we’ve presented stories that we hope settle questions about the killing of the notorious Ashley Gang exactly 100 years ago on Nov. 1, 1924. 

We hope that these stories bring Treasure Coast history alive to you. In fact, we run our history stories under a department we call Living History because we believe that these stories relate to the present. Our interest in this effort resulted in our creation of the first Treasure Coast History Festival in downtown Fort Pierce in 2017. An annual event, the History Festival has grown to feature multiple historical topics and is now presented by the St. Lucie Historical Society.

This year’s festival is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 11, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at its new home, the St. Lucie County Regional History Center at 414 Seaway Drive, Fort Pierce. Admission to the festival is free and includes admission to the History Center. Tucked under the east side of the Peter P. Cobb South Bridge in Fort Pierce, the museum is one of the best-kept secrets on the Treasure Coast.

This year’s presentations include: Brad Phares on the life of early Florida cowboys at 9:30 a.m.; a panel on the Ashley Gang hosted by me that features historians and Ashley Gang descendants at 11 a.m.; and a presentation on pioneer cooking by Anne Sinnott at 12:30 p.m.

We’ll also have presentations by storytellers Capt. Sam Crutchfield on Florida fishing; Billy Johnson on local painters; Terry Shannon and Fred Banks on metal detecting and treasure hunting; and presentations on St. Lucie Village and the life of Haiti Chamberlain by Steve Hoskins, Terry Howard, Julie Lounibus and John and Ron Rohm.

The festival also features activities for the children, a historical book sale, live music and a genuine Summerlin family fish fry. 

If you have any questions, call 772.462.1795 or email.

I look forward to seeing you at the festival!

 

 

 

 

Gregory Enns
Reach Gregory Enns or 772.940.9005.

See the original article in print publication

Nov. 19, 2024