Confederates in the Attic of Stagecoach Inn

I'd like to think that if I had lived in Civil War times, I would have been one of those independent-minded, musket-toting women who protected my home from the invading army with my rifle. I think I would have lost the hoop skirt though--you can't do anything in that without knocking somebody down or tripping yourself. Here is musket-toting, hoop skirt-wearing me this morning on Day #2 of the Boy Scout adventure camp. I am posing in front of the non-historic Kawasaki Mule with Sergeant Van--one of the volunteers. We are both holding authentic Italian reproduction 1857 Springfield rifles--pretty cool.

We started out the morning at 7:00 a.m. giving the boys a breakfast of apple fritters, beef jerky, and hot chocolate. Then, we had a flag raising ceremony. The first flag the scouts hoisted up on the flag pole was the 36-star American flag, followed by the first flag of the Confederacy--since 75% of the officers stationed at Camp Floyd in 1861 joined the Confederate Army. It's a good thing that no NAACP people stopped by the park today because they surely would have complained at our leaving the flags, including the Confederate one, up all day. Too many people consider any symbol of the Confederacy to be a sign of pro-slavery sentiment, rather than just looking at it for its historical value. But anyway, I will refrain from going off on a tangent about that.

After the flag ceremony the scouts got to roll their own musket cartridges, then they learned how to fire the real muskets. I was a little concerned about allowing some of those boys to fire any sort of weapon--even if the bullets were made of tissue. But, no mishaps occurred and no small animals died--even though the wild kids aimed at some. The scouts were all decked out in their Civil War kepis and their blue wool jackets, so they looked pretty soldierly. At one point, some kids who were part of a family reunion group there at the park came running over towards us with a handmade sign that said, "The South will Rise Again!" They also had a Confederate battle flag colored with magic markers. That was random. In Mississippi something like that would totally happen, but in Fairfield, Utah? :-)

It was a really fun day at the park, but I was super tired when I got home. I'm also a bit worn out because I pretty much need to have my Zion book finished up and out the door on Monday, June 23. Unfortunately there is much that remains to be done on it, but I keep telling myself that it will be worth it when I'm finished. This evening I came across a great quote from Alta Jolley Halverson that pretty much sums everything up. She said: "Springdale was a little town and still is, but it was even smaller then. Almost everyone was related in one way or another. It was made up of a lot of Giffords, Crawfords, Ruesches, Winders, Hardys, etc." That pretty much describes Springdale :-) Tonight we also got to see some cool fireworks for Orem Summerfest!