Historic Price House to Hold First-Ever Summer Day Camp This Month
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Woodruff, SC, June 16, 2011 — “Just after independence, the young United States experienced amazing changes,” says Zac Cunningham, director of Walnut Grove Plantation and Historic Price House. “The frontier moved west and areas once considered the frontier, like South Carolina’s Backcountry, became fully-settled. New roads and transportation methods, like the steamboat, tied the country together as never before. The cotton gin sparked the first cotton boom. People’s lives were drastically changed and so was the natural world around them.”
The Price House will explore these amazing changes at its first-ever summer day camp called Land, Water, People: A Natural History Camp at Historic Price House. “At Price House,” says Cunningham, “we tell the story of the nature-changing work done by settlers and slaves to transform what had been a frontier into a fully-integrated part of a brand-new nation.” By learning about the daily lives of Price House’s free and enslaved residents, campers will discover the ever-changing relationship between people and the place they live. Hands-on activities will teach campers about daily life in the early 1800s, farming and soil erosion, regional wildlife, past and present water use, and more. Hands-on history activities at the site’s historic buildings and hands-on nature activities in nearby woods will make this outdoor camp an educational and unforgettably fun experience!
Presented with Spartanburg Water and Spartanburg Soil & Water Conservation District, Land, Water, People runs from 9 a.m. to Noon each day, Tuesday, June 28 to Thursday, June 30. The cost is $60.00 for children 8-13 years old. Registration is required by 3 p.m., Saturday, June 25. Call 864-576-6546 or email pricehouse@spartanburghistory.org for more information or to register.
Thomas and Ann Price built the house that bears their name about 1795. Mr. Price ran a general store, post office, and “house of publick entertainment” (tavern or inn) that provided beds, food, and drink to stagecoach travelers. Enslaved African Americans performed much of the work for these businesses and labored in the fields of Mr. Price’s 2,000-acre farm. These slaves lived in quarters not unlike the slave cabin located on the site today. Visitors to Price House may tour the brick home, the slave cabin, and hike the site’s nature trail.
Price House’s programs and activities are presented by the Spartanburg County Historical Association and are supported in part by The Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg and its donors, the South Carolina Arts Commission which receives funding from The National Endowment for the Arts, the City and County of Spartanburg, and by corporate and individual partners.
For more information, visit our website at spartanburghistory.org, “Like” us on Facebook at facebook.com/spartanburghistory, “Follow” us on Twitter at twitter.com/sptbghistory, or see photos of our programs on Flickr at flickr.com/spartanburghistory.
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