ABOUT FORT LOUDOUNSouth Carolina colonial troops built and occupied the original Fort Loudoun between 1756 and 1760 during the French and Indian War. The fort’s purpose was to establish a military alliance and trading relationships with the Overhill Cherokee Nation. Relations soured, and the ensuing conflict resulted in the fort’s abandonment and destruction.IF YOU GO* What: Winter Lecture Series* When: 2 p.m. Saturdays, January-February* Where: Visitor Center Auditorium, Fort Loudoun Historic Park, 338 Fort Loudoun Road, Vonore, Tenn.* Admission: Free* Information: 423-884-6217 or http://fortloudoun.comDIRECTIONSTake Interstate 75 to state Highway 72 (Loudoun exit). Drive east 20 miles and turn on U.S. Highway 411 North. Turn onto state Highway 360 in Vonore and follow to park.
VONORE, Tenn. — Fort Loudoun State Park is launching its annual free winter lecture series Saturday with the presentation “I Have Now Made a Path to Virginia: The Cherokee Northern Campaigns, 1755-1758.”
Doug Wood, a longtime re-enactor and student of 18th-century Eastern Woodland American Indian history, will talk at 2 p.m. on the military expeditions of local Cherokees against the French at Lake Erie and elsewhere. The far-reaching Cherokee ventures tipped the French and Indian War in favor of the tribe’s colonial British allies.
Wood will use period documents, maps and photo images of the routes and places the Cherokee missions traveled on behalf of the English crown.
Park Ranger Joshua Kirby said past winter lectures have been quite popular, sometimes offering standing room only. Fort Loudoun hosts the presentations in the visitor center’s auditorium, which can accommodate about 60 people.
The nine winter lectures will address a variety of historical topics related to the region, going well beyond the vibrant but short-lived mid-18th century perspective of the original Fort Loudoun.
“All the lectures are pertinent to the area,” Kirby said.
The series will embrace the stories of contemporary colonial locales, including North Carolina’s Fort Dobbs and Dorchester, S.C.; famous and ordinary people such as Chief Attakulkulla and Maggie Delaney, an indentured servant; and the musical traditions of the Cumberland Trail.
A number of lecture topics cross the centuries.
Civil War enthusiasts may take a trip back to the fall of 1863 with Confederate Gen. James Longstreet’s failed attempt to eject Union forces from Knoxville, which occurred just about the time the South lost Chattanooga for good.
“Project Manhattan and Stories from the Secret City” will bring the audience to the nuclear age with Oak Ridge’s pivotal role in the race for the atomic bomb in World War II.
The 2011 winter lecture series ends Feb. 26 with a presentation on the preservation of all the state’s battlefields.
Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. E-mail him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.