The Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce announces that the weekly Chamber Coffee will be hosted by Fort Scott Community College on Thursday, December 12th at 8 a.m., 2108 S. Horton St. The event will be held in the newly expanded Agriculture Building, just north of Arnold Arena.
Chamber members and guests are invited to Chamber Coffee events each Thursday at 8 a.m. to network, make announcements, hear about happenings in the community as well as learn about the business or organization hosting the Coffee. Contact the Chamber of Commerce at (620) 223-3566 for more information. Visit the Events Calendar and category of Chamber Coffees on fortscott.com for upcoming locations.
The Grand Ballroom is festooned with greenery in preparation for the candlelight tour on Friday and Saturday. Friends of Fort Scott National Historic Site will serve refreshments here after the tour.
Our history is a part of our culture.
And one of the gems of Fort Scott is the national historic site at the end of Main Street that tells of the beginning of the city as an army outpost.
This weekend the 38th Fort Scott National Historic Site’s Candlelight Tour will help participants understand the life of military life in the 1840s.
Tours start at dusk Friday and Saturday night Dec. 6 and 7 and last approximately 45 minutes. Tickets must be purchased prior to the tour.
Call the Fort at 620-223-0310 (with a major credit card) or stop by the Visitor Center on Old Fort Blvd.
Participants are advised to please dress for the weather and the terrain, as they will be outside and on sidewalks.
“It’s a way to share and celebrate the holiday with the community,” Carl Brenner, Cheif of Interpretation and Resource Management said.
“The public (tour-goers) will be a dragoon soldier and get an enlistment card, each will be a different soldier,” Brenner told the weekly Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce Coffee attendees Thursday morning.
“The persona of each soldier will be giving tours of each scene,” he said.
There are six different scenes.
Approximately 100 volunteers help with the annual Candlelight Tour, Brenner said.
Every year the tour is different.
“We want people to learn and have new experiences telling different stories,” Brenner said.
The Fort Scott High School Drama Department will be a part of the storytelling.
“They do such a great job, we wanted to get them involved,” he said. “They will be showing a scene of what payday was like (for a dragoon.)”
Fort Scott High School Drama Teacher Angie Bin’s advanced theatre students, in their third or fourth year of taking drama class, were given guidelines and information from the FSNHS to guide them in writing a scene that takes place in the 1840s on a payday.
“I had two classes that each wrote a script and then Barak Geertsen, at the fort, consolidated the two scripts into one final draft. We have five students who are acting in that scene. We also have a student acting as a sergeant in another scene.”
Many other students will act as tour followers during the tour, she said.
Most of the tours are filled so an 8:30 p.m. tour was added.
The cost of the tour is $8 for those 6 years of age and up.
“We are asking that people show up 10 minutes early to find a parking spot and make their way to the visitors center, Brenner said.
The Friends of FSNHS will provide refreshments at the end of the tour, one of their many supportive rolls for the fort.
Reed Hartford, president of the Friends of Fort Scott National Historic Site, tells the Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce attendees of the support services the group supplies the fort.
On Friday night, December 13th, the Pioneer Sunflower String group will be performing at the Common Ground Coffee Shop. This is part of the Chamber of Commerce Friday evening concert series. The ladies will be performing Christmas music for the crowd.
The group consists of seven women who are lucky enough to practice weekly at this coffee shop.
The group includes Marilyn Adcock, Sandy Hemphill, Joyce Love, Diane Spencer, and Jean Strader, who are all from Fort Scott. Other members of the group are Cherry Nelson, from Columbus, KS., and Charlena Burns, from Mound City, KS. There are four dulcimer players, one fiddler, one autoharp, and a guitar in the ensemble.
Come out to the coffee shop at 7:00 on Friday, December 13th, to hear Christmas carols played by this group. You will enjoy the Christmas music with a touch of mountain dulcimers.
Backwoods Holiday Shopping event is Saturday Dec. 7.
Admission is a free-will donation of non-perishable food for Uniontown First Missionary Baptist Church, whose Pastor is Marty Dewitt.
The event host is Perry’s Pork Rinds LLC.
Rosie’s Cabin is the venue, located at 563 Maple Road Uniontown, just 20 minutes from downtown Fort Scott.
Vendors will be selling from 9 am-4 pm on Dec. 7.
Free photos will be taken by Erika George Photography from 10 a.m. to noon.
Wine sales/samples will be from noon-4 p.m.
Online Give Away/Door Prizes- prize pick up during the event from 9-1.
The paid sponsors are:Kelly Hall – Tupperware, Misty Miles- Smart Coffee, (Sales Partners) Danny Becker and Angela Foust – Country Roads Wood Specialties and Angela’s Hometown Boutique.
Only a few days until the 38th Annual Candlelight Tour
Fort Scott Kan. – A few tickets still remain to participate in Fort Scott National Historic Site’s 38th Annual Candlelight Tour. Later tour tickets are still available by calling the Fort at 620-223-0310 (with a major credit card) or by stopping by the Visitor Center on Old Fort Blvd.
Tours on December 6 will begin at 6:30 pm and leave every 15 minutes until 9 pm.
On Saturday, December 7, the tours will start at 5 pm with the final tour leaving at 8:45 pm.
Please arrive 10 minutes early to allow time to park, present/pick up your ticket, and get oriented.
Tickets are $8.00 per person and non-refundable, children 5 and under are free. Participants are advised to please dress for the weather and the terrain, as they will be outside and on sidewalks.
1,000 candle lanterns illuminate the site and 100 reenactors (including you) bring the fort to life. “This year’s tour will include the audience in the tour stops. It will feature six stops around the site beginning with the enlistment and ending with reassignment of release from service,” said Betty Boyko, Superintendent, Fort Scott National Historic Site. “We encourage everyone to dress up (in modern or period clothes) and step back in time.” Take the tour under the identity of one of our own Fort Scott soldiers. Enlist in the U.S. Army stationed at the Fort; learn about life on the frontier; the ups and downs of payday; celebrate the holidays 1840’s style; find out how much the officer’s wives appreciate all of your hard work; and after an memorable career, receive your discharge or reassignment stamp. Keep your enlistment card to remember your journey through time.
“Our fourth scene was written and will be presented by the Fort Scott High School drama students,” Carl Brenner, Park Ranger noted in a separate press release.
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Fort Scott was an active military post from 1842-1853, which was a time of rapid growth and change in the country. As Fort Scott was being built, the nation grew west, expanding all the way to the Pacific Ocean. With this growth, Fort Scott changed, the mission of its soldiers changed, their experience changed, the environment changed, and the nation changed. Soldiers at Fort Scott lived their lives to the fullest despite the constant change.
Parkway Church of God’s float in a past Fort Scott Christmas parade.
The Fort Scott Downtown Christmas Parade is today, Tuesday, December 3, 2019, at 6:00 p.m.
The theme this year is Christmas Through the Years.
The parade will celebrate the culmination of the 100th anniversary of Fort Scott Community College with the Class of 1941 graduate Esther Anne Sewell as Grand Marshal.
Prizes will be awarded for 1st($75), 2nd($50), and 3rd($25). There are not prizes for each category.
Parade order pick up is today, Dec. 3 at the Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce office until 5 p.m.
The parade order number should be displayed on the right-hand (passenger) side of your entry for the judges viewing.
After 5 pm, numbers may be picked up at the Carriage House at 3rd and Main Streets.
The parade line-up will start at 3rd and Main Streets in front of the Carriage House, entries should be lined up no later than 5:50 pm.
The parade will go north on Main Street ending at Skubitz Plaza for the lighting of the Mayor’s Christmas Tree.
After the parade, Santa will be at the backroom of Papa Don’s to meet with children about their Christmas list and Walgreens will be taking photos.
