Submitted photo The annual Beverly Days/Fireman’s Festival Celebration is scheduled for Saturday, July 23.

Submitted photo
The annual Beverly Days/Fireman’s Festival Celebration is scheduled for Saturday, July 23.

ELKINS — As part of the upcoming annual Beverly Days/Fireman’s Festival Celebration, the Beverly Heritage Center hopes to bring the town’s historic past to life during its annual timeline heritage event, scheduled for Saturday, July 23.

Visitors to the event will have the opportunity to interact at Living History Camps that will represent the 18th, 19th and 20th century. Each camp will include demonstrations, presentations, displays and more. A Parade of History will also be featured during the gala.

“We’re trying to give a bunch of different options for everyone to have fun with,” Ben Duvall-Irwin, the Beverly Heritage Center’s marketing director, told The Inter-Mountain Thursday. “We are trying to make the event as interactive as we can for our visitors.”

The event will also feature children’s activities and games, food, live music and a Scavenger Hunt and Civil War Spies Mystery Game, both of which are new to this year’s celebration. The children’s activities will include the Game of Graces and Fishing for Chickens.

“We are really excited about the new interactive Spies Game and Scavenger Hunt we are having this year,” Duvall-Irwin said. “We will give away some small prizes with the Scavenger Hunt and a couple of grand prizes for the mystery game, including the top prize which is a free night’s stay at Mountaineer Casino and Resort.”

Reenactors taking part in the event will include Don Teter, Sam Winkler and Pam Dodds.

Teter will portray Porte Crayon, a 19th-century journalist, artist and soldier from West Virginia.

Winkler, meanwhile, will portray Father Michael Costello, a Civil War priest and abolitionist.

Dodds will recreate Francis and Julia Pierpont, West Virginia’s first governor and first lady.

“Our featured reenactors have been to Beverly Days several times before, so we have some familiar faces that people enjoy interacting with,” Duvall-Irwin said. “Sam (Winkler) and the Dodds will be giving presentations about their characters throughout the day, as well as Don (Teter) at the Randolph County Museum.”

Reenactors are asked to pre-register for the event. Those who sign up before the end of today will receive a free meal. Anyone interested can go to beverlyheritagecenter.org to receive a registration form and more information.

In addition to all the activities and events, the 1841 Randolph County Jail will be open for visitors to see a new exhibit, the newly restored jailer’s office.

“The jail is a brand-new exhibit that we opened last month,” Duvall-Irwin said. “We completely restored two buildings on the inside of the jail, with one of them being an exhibit where we recreated the jailer’s office to what it may have looked like in 1841.

“It has some artifacts from the jail itself, including the original jail bars from one of the cells. The second room in the jail is our new escape room, which won’t be open the day of the event, but people can make reservations for it anytime.”

Schedule of events for Saturday include:

10 a.m. – Parade of History

10:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. – Camps, games, activities open

11 a.m. – Porte Crayon (Randolph County Museum)

11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. – Pulled pork lunch and pie sale (BHC patio)

Noon – Ed and Trish Bowes live music (lunch tent in Goff yard)

1 p.m. – Father Michael Costello, Civil War Priest (Civil War camp)

1 p.m. – Julia Pierpont plays pump organ (Courthouse)

2 p.m. – Gov. Francis and Mrs. Pierpont present Early Flags of the United States (Courthouse)

3 p.m. – Porte Crayon (Randolph County Museum)

3 p.m. – Julia Pierpont plays pump organ (Courthouse)

4 p.m. – Civil War Spies Mystery Game awards (BHC patio)

4:15 p.m. – Ice Cream Social (BHC patio)