Yorktown Victory Center Remodeling Updates, Part 1

The Yorktown Victory Center has been under a remodeling for some time now, however, their doors have remained open to the public and the experience is just as grand as it has always been.  We took some time this week to explore the facility and take a number of pictures and meet with some of the staff as well as the reenactors to get a better picture of what is going on.  Though they have a large wall up surrounding the new construction site, giving the appearance that maybe they are closed, the living museum experience has not suffered in the least by the new construction.

  The staff at the facility were great and very helpful.  While we walked around the the colonial American farm section of the living museum, one of the staff members was cooking some incredible meals that both looked and smelled very delicious.

Meals are made in period fashion to give visitors a real world idea of what life was once like for our forefathers and foremothers for that matter.

The entire farm section of the living museum is incredibly recreated in very rich detail and includes tobacco farming common during the era.

The details recreated in a typical family farmhouse are amazing.  The dinner table all set for the family to sit down and eat once the food is ready.

  Details in every area of daily life are not spared.  Even the laundry area was set up to give visitors and idea of what a typical day consisted of during the period.

 Even the socks were hung out to dry along with other laundry.  Obviously someone earlier in the day had spent time doing the daily load.

There was so much to see and do here alone that this area itself is well worth the visit.  If you have not been to the Yorktown Victory Center in awhile, it's time for a return trip.  If you have never been and you have even the slightest bit of interest in history, then this is a must for your list.  If you are a photographer, then this is a dream place to shoot.

Below is a PDF that shows what is under construction and what we can all expect in the future.  The plans are very exciting.

New Yorktown Museum Highlights Flyer 10 2013 from Chuck Thompson

To view the PDF in full screen mode, please left click the icon at the far bottom right hand side of the Slideshare container.  To exit full screen mode, just hit the escape key on your keyboard.  This is part one in our series on the Yorktown Victory Center.

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Battle of the Hook, 2013 Canons Firing Photo Images

Some photos from the Battle of the Hook.  A short series of cannons being fired at the event.  These are pictures taken of each canon firing in a series of 4 canons.  We just didn't post them up here in their proper sequence.  We hope you can forgive us for this oversight.  We have now posted hundreds of photos online already with sites like Flickr, Tumblr, and Pinterest.  Plus we have about 6 or 7 videos online at YouTube.  We have already posted a few of them on here.  More to come.  We have thousands of images we are still working on.

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Battle of the Hook, Cold Spring Guard Fife and Drum Video, HD

This is the Cold Spring Guard fife and drum video just put up a couple of days ago.  This is in full 1080P High Definition.  They played this especially for us at our request.  This is the first of two videos of them that we have.  We still have the second one to get up as of yet.  It's a short video so it won't take up much of your time and it's well worth the watch.  Check it out.

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Battle of the Hook, Farmhouse Burning Video - High Definition

We just got this video up the other day.  It's the raw footage we shot of the Farmhouse burning at the Battle of the Hook event that took place just a few short weeks ago.  The video starts before the farmhouse is burned so you can see the full sequence of events that lead up to the burning and then the video continues on with more of the battle scenes.  The video is full High Definition.  You can open the video up in full screen to view it.

  They burned the house down on Sunday, the last day of the event.  It was quite a site.  Overall, the numbers we got back show that there were a solid 1,500 reenactors that participated in this event and a solid 5,000 spectators over the course of the event.  We have other videos we put up as well including a fife and drum video featuring Cold Spring Guard.  We still have more to put up as well.  Enjoy.

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Battle of the Hook, 2013 Latest Grapahic Art Prints and New Photobook

These are the latest creations we made based on photos from the recent Battle of the Hook event a few weekends ago.  We have a lot of content we are going through and it's going to take us a long time to get up everything we want to share.  We have already put up a calendar as well as a photobook on Lulu.com for purchase and we are working on creating a series of calendars and photobooks for anyone interested.  We have over 750 images up on Flickr from the Battle of the Hook, 2013 event as well as 60 images from the 2008 event.  When you have a moment, you want to check those out.  There are some really great shots on there that have gained a lot of attention.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/chuck-thompson/battle-of-the-hook-2013-american-revolution/paperback/product-21270096.html  This is the link to the new photobook on Lulu.com.  It's 21 pages of incredible photos.  Many we are not putting up on any sites.  The price of the photobook is only $24.99.



Cover of the new photobook.

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Scary stories from the campfire

 TTC Media Photo

Open Letter to the Citizens of Gloucester County Virginia

“For the Common Good. “

THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION.

Scary stories as told under the full moon during the Battle of the Hook weekend event.

Disclaimer and warning:  Do not read this if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure, low blood pressure, no blood pressure, or know someone that does.  As around most campfires people will tell ghost stories to scare everyone there.  There are no ghost stories told around the province campfire because what is happening is scary enough.

After the sun went down and the camp was settled for the night people gather around the fire to tell Scary stories.  It seemed like the thing to do on full moon in October in Gloucester County.

The stories were about how Officers of the Court were creating legal and illegal ways to steal our land for themselves.  The first story teller told about a Gloucester Attorney that has become the Middlesex County Attorney and tried to get an illegal ordnance passed to take property that was not in use.  (Reported in their county paper and on Mr. Thompson's Blog site.)  This scared a lot of the people around the fire and people have cold shivers going up their spines and it was not a cold night.  There were several other stories that were not as memorable and could not top this tale.  People were ready to call it a night when a person came out of the shadows and said he had a story to share.

He started the story, said it had to do with a current local Circuit Court Judge, who sat on a case in King Bill County to take peoples land for not paying their taxes on the land. Then when the land went up for sale this same judge with the lawyer that brought the case to court were able to buy over 2,000 acres of land for less than $1.50 per acre. We were told this is not the only questionable thing this judge has done relating to land.  The person went on telling us that is why the American Revolution was fought to protect we the people from injustices by the ruling class in England.  Then a noise was heard and everyone turned to see what was going on.  When we turned back the storyteller was gone and he could not be found.  The people around the fire commented on the authentic 1780 clothing the storyteller was wearing and they were not able to find reproductions that nice.  Over the weekend people looked for the storyteller to get more information but he was never seen again.

This story has nothing to do with any person alive or dead if it seems like it does it is coincidence and not done on purpose.  This is a work of fiction.

County residents tell the Supervisors they are to protect our rights not there to allow theft of our property.  You were elected to service us not to steal from us.  Our Officers of the Court should remember what they learned about our Constitutional Rights in school and should protect them and not find ways around them.  As officers of the Court you have an oath to uphold the Constitution of the US and Virginia.  They should all be held accountable.  To the citizens of Gloucester, especially county employees, if you know of questionable activities let us know so we can expose it to the light of day.

I am not a lawyer and cannot give legal advice.  Our founding fathers used common sense when establishing our founding documents. 

“For the Common Good. “

Sincerely,

Alexander James Jay

P.S.  "While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian." –George Washington (1778)

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