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(ARCHIVE PHOTO | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Living history reenactors share a laugh before the flag ceremony at the Fort Belknap Days education event in 2023. The living history event is split up into an education day for students and a public day open to everyone. -
(ARCHIVE PHOTO | THE GRAHAM LEADER) A fur trader reenactor speaks with students from Olney ISD during the education day for Fort Belknap Days in 2023. The living history event features reenactors, vendors and more available on-site for the public day which will be held Saturday, Oct. 25.
Update Friday, Oct. 24 – Both the education day Friday, Oct. 24 and the public day Saturday, Oct. 25 for Fort Belknap Days were canceled due to weather.
History will come alive at Fort Belknap this week as the location hosts its annual living history event showcasing 19th century demonstrations.
Fort Belknap Days will be held Oct. 24-25 at 114 Fort Circle in Newcastle with free admission. While Friday, Oct. 24 is the education day reserved for school trips, the public day will be Saturday, Oct. 25, opening at 9 a.m. with a flag ceremony.
Vendors will be on site during the public day and accepting cash only. Parking for the event will be behind the fort near the softball field.
Before the public day Saturday, the public is invited to a period dance in Barracks B at the fort which will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Fort Belknap Director Jim Hammond said in a previous interview that the event presents history in a different way for those that visit and allows them another educational perspective.
“You get to smell, you get to see, hear and feel different aspects of things so that you can just learn in a better way by being immersed in it,” he said.
The education day is hosted the day before the public event each year so that students from Young County and surrounding communities can learn uninterrupted.
Reenactments from the Texas Revolution, Civil War, Indian Wars, Spanish-American War and more will be at the event.
Featured will be demonstrations with soldiers, artillery and other frontier life stations. Additionally, there will be stations with fur traders, Texas Rangers, federal and confederate military, chuckwagons and more.
The event is sponsored by the Friends of Fort Belknap, Young County Historical Commission and the Fort Belknap Living History Association. For more information regarding the event, visit the Fort Belknap Facebook page.
