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STEUBENVILLE -- Visitors to Historic Fort Steuben got a taste of life on the American frontier at the fort's annual Frontier Days, which ran on Saturday and Sunday.
The fort kept history alive with volunteers dressed in period clothes and performing daily tasks that men and women on the frontier would have done.
Walking inside the fort's visitor center, and escaping the heat, visitors were immediately greeted with smiling volunteers.
On Saturday, the center was filled with the sweet tones of period instruments. Rich and Kathy Small performed folk music using atypical instruments such as the Appalachian dulcimer and the psaltery.
Additional entertainment was offered on Sunday by Bill Schilling and award-winning singer and songwriter Steve Free.
Stepping inside the fort itself, visitors could visit several educational and activity stations run by volunteers.
Cathy Cormack, from Bridgeville, Pa., taught about the precise process of rolling musket cartridges. Next to her was her husband, Walt Cormack, who was displaying period firearms. The two have been coming to Fort Steuben for about 30 years.
Rolling the cartridges with a musket ball inside takes practice, but Cathy Cormack said, "Once you get doing it, it's not bad. My husband and I can create about 75 in about an hour."
At the apothecary station, Gary and Mardell Cramer of Ligonier, Pa., taught about the various natural herbs used as medicine during the frontier days.
For example, ground parsley was used to treat liver obstructions and was believed to prevent baldness, said Mardell Cramer.
Frontier Dan demonstrated axe-throwing using tomahawks at a range in the fort. Visitors had the chance to throw axes for themselves at a wooden coin in the center of a log target.
Ann Besch, an instructor on surveying and mapping technology for the University of Akron's accredited land surveying program, was present to teach about land surveying, which was the reason the original Fort Steuben was created.
Besch said the first land surveyors arrived in 1785. The United States needed to pay its soldiers from the Revolutionary war, and "the only asset we had (to pay them) was land."
A map of the Ohio township lines was displayed in the surveyors' cabin. In Ohio, surveying evolved from its anything-goes system of meets and bounds to the refined grid system.
"You can see all kinds of systems here because it took us a while to get the kinks out," Besch said.
Besch also said that the township lines then were still the same as they are now, though the names may be different.
There were stations for learning about drop-spinning wool and splitting wooden fence posts, as well as blacksmithing and tanning leather.
Crafters and vendors had tents inside the fort where wares such as brooms, flint knives and jewelry were sold.
Judy Bratten, executive director of Historic Fort Steuben, said that the festival's goal is "to make (American) history interesting, relevant and inspiring."
The festival was planned in conjunction with Pioneer Day at the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County. A trolley system was available to bring people back and forth between the two events so that people can "get their history fix," Bratten said.
The festival was sponsored by Wal-Mart Distribution Center.