Ringing with cannon fire and musket shots, the fields at the base of Mount Washington became a colonial encampment for dozens of reenactors at this weekend's "Muster in the Mountains". As NHPR's Sean Hurley reports, French and Indian War militia men camped beside Revolutionary War "sutlers" and all of them hung out with the trappers and mountain men in this time traveling rendez-vous for 18th and 19th century roleplayers.
John Maxon, in French and Indian war era period garb describes the anachronistic scene playing out in the field behind him.
Muster on the Mountain was started 30 to 35 years ago just as a gathering at the end of the season for reenactors covering a lot of different time periods. It's sort of a time to come together. Shoot a little bit and just do some period crafts.
One of those period crafts is ironworking. As blacksmith Brian Anderson works a bar of metal into a spoon, mountain man reenactor Al Cameron crafts something entirely different.
That's a ham. A ten pound ham. I started it at ten minutes past ten this morning and it'll be ready at four o'clock. And then I'll carve it all up for everybody that's here.
That's when the American Revolutionaries and the French and Indian war era militia and the Mountain Men will all sit down, as though to show their respective times how a ham dinner might settle any difference.
For NHPR, I'm SH
