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What we're looking to avoid at OUR fort.
Nashboro is the sister fort to Manskers Station... both forts are almost identical layouts and existed at about the same time historically. Even though they were separated by miles of untamed Tennessee wilderness, travel between the two was made easier by way of Mansker's Creek and the Cumberland River. Leaving Mansker's Station to carry goods to Nashboro, one had only to hop in a canoe and travel down Mansker's Creek until they reached the Cumberland, then hang a right.
The sort of slow death that Nashboro has had is one of the fates we're working to avoid for Mansker's Station. I'd rather see Mansker's bulldozed than to watch it rot as a static display. What a shame.
I wonder if there's anything to do about old Nashboro or if it's too far gone?
It does give mind to a living history experiment I wanted to try some years ago... I thought it would be interesting to attempt a canoe trip from Manskers to Nashboro in period garb, with the canoe loaded down with simulated bundles of 'goods'. The trip to Nashboro would be easy as it is all downstream... but the trip back to Manskers would be a bit more of a chore.
My main concern of course would be the modern river traffic. The riverboats and barges that use that route are really big and would create a wake that would be tough to fight against.
I even went so far as to plot the course at one point.
After thinking about it today, I plotted the course again. I used Google Earth to take a shot of the area and marked off the important stuff. The yellow line is the route that we would have to take. I zoomed in close and scanned the route visually to look for pitfalls and potential problems, a luxury that my 18th Century counterparts would not have had.
Not only would this be a fantastic experiment to undertake... it would garner some attention for BOTH sites involved. Initially I had only thought about ONE boat making the trip... but after a little thought, I think a big group would be more fun, and realistic.
The trip back might have to be completed over the course of a day or two, stopping along the way to camp? I suppose it would depend on the current, weather &c.
