18th Century Market Fair set for Fort Frederick

April 13, 2007

BIG POOL - The Maryland Park Service and the Friends of Fort Frederick State Park will host the 13th annual 18th Century Market Fair at Fort Frederick State Park later this month.

Admission costs $4 for adults and $2 for children ages 7 to 12. Children ages 6 and younger are admitted free.

Times for the Market Fair are:

· Thursday, April 26, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

· Friday, April 27, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

· Saturday, April 28, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

· Sunday, April 29, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visitors to the fort will meet more than 150 artisans, craftspeople and vendors who sell reproductions of 18th century items, including furniture, clothing, guns, powder horns and hunting bags. Most of the goods for sale are handmade by the vendors, and many vendors will demonstrate their crafts.

To give this event the flair of an 18th century fair, there will be magic shows, puppet shows, music and balancing acts that were popular diversions of the time. An encampment of 18th century re-enactors will conduct live firing demonstrations of period weapons as well as demonstrations of 18th-Century life in the fort amidst a 1730-1790 encampment. Interpreters will present continuous living history programs within the historic fort walls.

Fort Frederick State Park is near Clear Spring and Big Pool, and is home to Fort Frederick, Maryland's premier stone fort. It was built by the colony of Maryland in 1756 to protect its western boundaries and as a base to attack French claims to the Ohio River Valley.

Historians say that Fort Frederick is the United States' only stone fort built by a British colony during the French and Indian War.

For more information about the event, contact the park at 301-842-2155 or visit http://dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands/western/fortfrederick.html.

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