DNR Offers Historic Interpretation Class
Morgantown Dominion Post
25 January 2012
Submitted to The Dominion Post
FAIRMONT — The Pricketts Fort Memorial Foundation is bringing NAI
Certified Interpretive Trainer Richard N. Pawling to West Virginia
on March 31.
“An intense day of historic interpretive training is our goal,”
said Melissa May, executive director of the Pricketts Fort
Foundation. Participants will learn effective methods for
presenting history to diverse audiences.
“This is required training for all new fort staff and volunteers,
but it is open to anyone, including students and interpretive
staff and volunteers from other historic sites across West
Virginia and beyond,” May said.
The training will run from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Students should bring a
brown-bag lunch.
The class will meet in the Visitor Center and the cost is $36 for
Pricketts Fort Memorial Foundation (PFMF) members, $40 for
non-members, and $20 for students. The workshop is free for PFMF
staff and volunteers. Registration is limited. Call the foundation
office 304-363-3030 or register on line http://www.pricketts
fort.org.
About Richard Pawling
Pawling is the owner and educational and interpretive
specialist of History Alive!, a firm founded in 1991 that provides
living history and traditional and heritage music programs and
training workshops to parks, museums, colleges and universities,
as well as civic, professional, and historical organizations
throughout the United States and Canada.
Annually, he presents up to 200 History Alive! performances and
living history workshops.
He has been a national park ranger and was the winner of the
National Association for Interpretation (NAI) “Excellence in
Interpretation Award,” a national distinction presented annually
to one individual, institution or agency.
He is an NAI “Certified Interpretive Guide” and a “Certified
Interpretive Trainer.” Pawling is the author of the book, “Old
Clothes: But All I Wanted to Do
Pricketts Fort State Park is near Fairmont. The fort is a
recreation of the original Pricketts Fort of 1774, which served as
a refuge from Native American war parties on the western frontier
of Colonial Virginia. The “new” fort serves as a living history
site where interpreters recreate late-18th-century lifestyle
through period attire and demonstrations of a variety of colonial
crafts.
Throughout the season, visitors may find blacksmiths, spinners,
weavers and other traditional artisans at work, and a gun shop
which features the only public demonstrations of 18thcentury
firearm manufacturing in the state.
For additional information, visit pricketts fortstatepark.com or
call 304-363-3030 for events and activities and fort hours.