The Wilderness Road Regional Museum will host special days at the museum called “Ingles Ferry to Newbern” on Friday, July 27 and Saturday, July 28 starting at 10:30 a.m.
The museum will be partnering with Radford City’s Day of Remembrance, which celebrates Mary Draper Ingles and her journey out of captivity also this weekend.
Wilderness Road museum volunteers will give tours that focus on Ingles Ferry and its role transporting travelers on the Wilderness Road.
At 2 p.m., local singer and folklorist Ricky Cox will present “Traveling the Road through Song.”
The day’s events in Radford City, Giles County, and this one at Wilderness Road Regional Museum in Pulaski County, are part of Virginia’s trademarked American Evolution commemoration of the 400th anniversary of key historical events in Virginia in 1619 that continue to influence America today.
Wilderness Road Regional Museum has been chosen as one of the 200 historical sites in the state that best tell Virginia’s story of emocracy, diversity, and opportunity. It is included on the Virginia History app, which can be downloaded on mobile devices to lead tourists to the key sites.
The story of Mary Draper Ingles has long fascinated visitors to our area, and on Saturday, July 28, the Wilderness Road museum will focus its tours on Ingles Ferry, which Mary and her husband William established in the 1762.
The ferry transported hundreds of thousands of settlers across the New River as they traveled westward along the Wilderness Road in he 18th and 19th centuries and remained open until the twentieth.
The museum’s permanent exhibit “Into the Wilderness” traces the history of road, which was the western spur of one of America’s first highway systems.
Ingles Ferry played a key role in this richly drawn tale of American expansion and commerce. Visitors will learn the early development of the road and the reasons that tens of thousands moved up and down the road, crossing the New River at Ingles Ferry.
At 2 p.m., Ricky Cox will draw from his wide repertoire of ballads and lyric songs to present “Traveling the Road through Song.”
A native of Floyd County, VA, Ricky Cox teaches Appalachian Folklore at Radford University, where he is also coordinator of the Farm at Selu, a replicated 1930s farmhouse.
His interests include the literature, music, and folk culture of the Appalachian South. He will explain the origins of the ballads and lyric songs, showing how the songs themselves traveled first from the British Isles with America’s early settlers and then later along the Wilderness Road as settlers moved westward.
The public is invited to attend free of charge.