I tried looking this up now to see if I could find any shots of what it looks like today. It seems that the actual spot where this used to happen is obscure. I found beaches and shoreline but nothing pointed to IT. I gave up and will just give you what I have. I didn't find anything about the Black Powder Shooters club either. For whatever reason they don't seem to exist anymore.
Tom belonged to a Black Powder Shooters Club. They put on historical displays at this park every year, I think. There is no online reference to it anywhere but mine.
They dressed up in old outfits and fired a cannon out over the lake. The cannon would be loaded with newspaper and a soft ball. They fired their weapons as well. This was fine with folks who just came there for the excitement of seeing firearms like that.
I really did enjoy the history of some of the other displays.
The covered wagon was a draw to me. In the foreground you see Tommy, In the background his father is the one in the rawhide jacket. Behind Tommy is a small iron bucket over a fire. I believe that was used for making coffee. I can see another small pot higher up but I don't remember that one.
What I do remember is a much bigger pot they used for making a communal stew.
Old Tom told me none of this ahead of time but I did happen to have some tomatoes from the garden I'd brought along to give to Bill. He added them to the pot. Each of the club members added something if they had it.
The old guy that ran the whole thing brought along huge sticks of peperoni. I thought that was odd until I saw what he did with it. He peeled each of the sticks and cut them into about one inch chunks and added them to the pot.
I'm not sure if they let anyone outside the club taste of it at all. They would have needed a food license for that, I would think. Tommy and I each got a mug of it and it was good although there were things in it I wouldn't normally have eaten.
This guy was in another group who dressed as Natives. I think some of them may have been real Natives but I could be wrong. Tommy got in the picture but I didn't mind. This man liked us and was nice to us.
The Wagon