Mason-Dixon Line Festival to celebrate historic survey
People interested in history can come out and walk – or ride – in the footstep of history at Mason-Dixon Historical Park this Saturday.
The first ever Mason-Dixon Line Festival – an off-shoot from last year’s 250th anniversary celebration – will kick off at 8 a.m. with a buckwheat cake breakfast at the park’s Red Barn on Buckeye Road near Core, W.Va.
C.R. Nelson/For the Observer-Reporter
C.R. Nelson/For the Observer-Reporter
West Virginia surveyor Rick Casteel stands beside the inlaid stone feature that marks the line between Pennsylvania and West Virginia that was dedicated last year at the Mason Dixon 250th anniversary celebration.
Starting at 10 a.m. there will be hikes “across the line” and up Browns Hill to see the marker, wagon rides, food vendors, arts and crafts for sale and a quilt show in the park’s three historic log cabins.
Surveyors and historic re-enactors will be on hand until 6 p.m. to demonstrate life and surveying as it was in 1767, when Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon stopped their survey that October at the “third crossing of Dunkard Creek” and set the final stone atop Brown’s Hill before returning east.
The French and Indian War made it impossible for them to finish the line that would separate the colonies of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland and the marker they placed on the hill is what makes this park so historic.
The quilt show, sponsored by Country Roads Quilt Shop in Morgantown, will also be on display from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today during the surveying workshops for local students who might be interested in surveying as a career. Students will be in the field from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., getting valuable hands-on experience using the tools of the trade, from the 18th century to the drones and satellites of today.
For more information, visit masondixonhistoricalpark.com.