An evening of presentations about Daniel Boone will be presented at the downtown Appalachian Theatre on Wednesday, October 26, starting at 7:00 p.m. as the Boone 150 Celebration continues.
The Town of Boone gets its namesake from Daniel Boone, and this free-to-the-public event will feature three scholars discussing various aspects of Boone – Robert Alvin Crum, Randell Jones, and Dr. Jerry Williamson.
Robert Alvin Crum is a historian, writer, visual artist, and public speaker, who also professionally portrays his sixth great-grandfather Col. Daniel Boone. His Bachelor of Arts degree from Bradley University is in political science with a concentration in history, and he studied law for two years at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He’s spent the past decade researching, writing, and painting the stories about his Boone and Bryan ancestors. He also served as a Board Member and Chairman of the Boone Society, Inc., is a Life Member of the Society of Boonesborough and is the current President of the Col. Daniel Boone Chapter – North Carolina Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
While dressed in 18th Century clothing similar to Boone and his family, Robert will provide a Power Point presentation about part of Boone’s life in North Carolina. He will focus on how and why Boone and his extended family migrated up the Yadkin River, where they lived, hunted the region, and planned their migration into western Virginia. He will also address how Boone led America’s Western Expansion from North Carolina through the Cumberland Gap.
Randell Jones is the award-winning author of In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone, Trailing Daniel Boone, and The Daniel Boone Wagon Train. For 14 years, he served as an invited member of the Road Scholars Speakers Bureau of the NC Humanities Council, speaking to audiences around the state. In 2013, the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution conferred on him its national History Award Medal for his body of work in the prior 10 years including Before They Were Heroes at King’s Mountain. He lives in Winston-Salem where he is the creator of BecomingAmerica250.com,editor of the Personal Story Publishing Project, and host of “6-minuteStories” Podcast. Find more at DanielBooneFootsteps.com or RandellJones.com.
Daniel Boone is a much-mythologized character whose image has become synonymous in popular culture with the archetype of the rugged American frontiersman. Dr. Jerry Wayne Williamson will speak about Daniel Boone’s significance in popular culture and the portrayals of Boone and other frontiersmen in films and literature. Williamson was the inaugural Editor of Appalachian Journal and taught courses on Appalachian film and literature at Appalachian State University until his retirement in 2000. He is the author of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award winning book Hillbillyland: What the Movies Did to the Mountains and What the Mountains Did to the Movies, an examination of the representation of the Appalachian region and its people on film.
The evening will be hosted by Dr. Eric Plaag, the Chairperson of the Digital Watauga Project as well as the Boone Historic Preservation Commission. As the principal consultant at Carolina Historical
Consulting, LLC, Dr. Plaag has authored three books, including Remembering Boone, as well as numerous institutional and local histories, and he has been instrumental in a number of grassroots preservation initiatives throughout the Carolinas. He has lived in Boone since 2011.
The Daniel Boone Forum is being presented as a collaboration with the Town of Boone, the Center for Appalachian Studies, the Southern Appalachian Historical Association, and the Watauga County Historical Society.
The Center for Appalachian Studies was established in 1978 to coordinate and promote academic programs, public programs and research activities on the Appalachian Mountain region. Built on the work of generations of Appalachian scholars, including folklorist Amos Abrams and Cratis Williams, considered the father of Appalachian studies, and Dr. Patricia Beaver, former director of the Center for Appalachian Studies, the Center works to illuminate and sustain the region’s rich history, cultures, communities, and ecology.
The mission of the Southern Appalachian Historical Association is to explore, preserve, and share the region’s rich cultural heritage. The organization accomplishes that mission through theatrical, educational, and museum programming, including producing the outdoor drama Horn in the West and operating the Hickory Ridge History Museum, a living history exhibition with six historic cabins and year-round tours and events.
Since 1977, the Watauga County Historical Society (WCHS) has been committed to bringing history alive in Watauga County. Whether through our various lecture series, our serial publications (Writings on Watauga and Watauga County Times…Past), and our books (Memories of Cove Creek High School: 1922 to 1965 and The Architectural History of Watauga County, North Carolina), the Watauga County Historical Society has worked hard to connect Watauga County residents, students, and visitors with our community’s rich and often surprising past.
Boone 150 celebrates the Town of Boone’s sesquicentennial anniversary. Events have been taking place throughout the year. Continuing programs include Watauga Public Library’s Boone Reads Together, and guided nighttime walking tours of the historic Boone Cemetery taking place on Fridays throughout October, and on Halloween. Ticket reservations for the free Daniel Boone Forum are available at www.apptheatre.org. For more information about these events, please visit www.boone150.com or call 828.268.6280.
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