Special events scheduled for June 2008 at the Vance Birthplace on 911 Reems Creek Road.  For more information about any event, call  645-6706.

Saturday, June 7, 1-4 p.m.
Quilting Program
Learn all about quilting from local Artisan Nancy Baker. Baker is an experienced quilter with extensive knowledge of quilting traditions in antebellum and post antebellum Western North Carolina.

Saturday, June 14, 1-4 p.m.
Weaving Demonstration
Explore the world of late 18th and early 19th century textile production, with Buncombe County Native Mandy Maude. Mandy will be demonstrating the art of weaving using a 200 year old foot-powered loom from the Watauga Region of the state.

Saturday, June 21, 1-4 p.m.
Lye Soap Making
Join tradition bearer Carolyn Rice, a native of Madison County, to learn the art of Lye Soap Making. This unique demonstration will show folks how to make soap, the old- fashioned way, using a cast iron pot over the open fire. (*In the event of rain the demonstration will be moved to the porch of the main house).

Mountain Music Program
Join Tony Thomas, a legendary old-time/mountain bluegrass musician from Tennessee, for an afternoon of pickin’ and grinin’! Thomas plays a traditional style of music he learned growing up in the coal mining towns of the Cumberland Mountains. In addition to performing, Thomas will give a short history describing the traditional instruments and songs he will be performing.

Vance Birthplace will be hosting Christmas Candlelight Tours from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday, December 9. The tours provide visitors with a look at how Christmas may have been celebrated in the southern Appalachian mountains in the 1800s.

The two-story reconstructed log house, decorated in the style of the 1830’s, will be opened for guided tours. Throughout the house, decorations made of native greenery such as holly, boxwood, pine boughs, galax and rhododendron will be on display.

Vance Birthplace is located at 911 Reems Creek Road. For more information call 645-6706.

If you want to see what life was like in the early 19th century on a mountain farm, visit the Fall Militia Encampment 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, September 22 or 1-3 p.m. Sunday, September 23, at the Vance Birthplace State Historic Site. Admission is free both days.

The Catawba Militia, a group that portrays an early American citizens’ militia, will be encamped at Vance Birthplace throughout the weekend. The group will demonstrate common camp life activities, drill routines and tell visitors what it was like to serve in the militia.

Vance Birthplace State Historic Site is located at 911 Reems Creek Road.  For more information, call 645-6706.