Fort Scott Kan. – The Fort Scott National Historic Site’s Visitor Center and fort buildings will be closed, and no programs will be offered, on Christmas day and New Year’s day (December 25, 2019 and January 1, 2020) to allow staff to celebrate the holidays with their families.
Winter hours are in effect from November 1-March 31 at Fort Scott National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service. The site exhibit areas and visitor center are open daily from 8:30 am-4:30 pm. The park grounds are open daily from ½ hour before sunrise until ½ hour after sunset. To find out more or become involved in activities at the Fort, please contact the park at 620-223-0310 or visit our website at www.nps.gov/fosc.
The Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce announces Mistletoe on Main Street, Downtown & Around will be held this Thursday evening,
December 12th, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Retailers in the downtown historic district and other locations throughout town will be decked for the holidays with great gift ideas and holiday décor for a fun evening of shopping!
Store locations will have hidden mistletoe that can be found and returned to the Chamber of Commerce in exchange for $10 in Chamber Bucks, and shoppers will also be able to enter their name in a drawing for a chance to win $50 in Chamber Bucks as well.
The Liberty Theater is the venue of the HPA Christmas Dinner Theatre and fundraiser. Pictured is a group of diners at a previous Liberty Theater function.
The First Annual Bourbon County Historial Preservation Association Christmas Dinner Theatre and Fundraiser Auction will be held on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 6 p.m. at the Liberty Theater in downtown Fort Scott.
The Fort Scott Community College Drama Department is the entertainment for the dinner theater.
Tickets are available at the Chamber of Commerce office for $25.
“Christmas Unplugged” is the name of the play the FSCC Drama Department is performing, under the direction of Allen Twitchell.
Several local actors are featured.
Annabelle Moore of Lyndon, Isabella Loyd of Fort Scott, Abby Jazmin Havens of Pittsburg, Colton Hofer of Fort Scott, Abby Sweat of Pleasanton, Anthony Oneri of Gardner, and Allen Twitchell of Fort Scott.
Music will be provided by the Apostolic Christian Church Choir under the direction of Alita Banwart with Jerry Bahr on guitar.
Twitchell explains the storyline: “A grandfather walks into the living room and encounters all his grandkids riveted to their cell phones, oblivious to the world around them.”
“He demands their participation in an old-fashioned Christmas tradition by reading ‘The Night Before Christmas.’ After the story is read, a knock on the door reveals a group of carolers from the past. They sing for the family, who decides to start a new Christmas Eve eve tradition.”
The dinner theatre takes the annual HPA fundraiser in a different direction.
“We didn’t have Homes for the Holidays last year, and decided to change directions with our Christmas program,” Bourbon County Historical Association President Brian Allen said. ” We will be selling a few items from our extensive collection at the event. The items to be auctioned are still being determined. ”
“Enjoy some food, drink and entertainment from the FSCC Drama Department. Doors open at 6:00 pm program starts at 7:00 and concludes with a special auction you won’t want to miss,” Allen said.
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.
