A Night Among the Echoes: Lantern-Lit Stories 

Long before our woodland park was established the land was home to barrel makers and farmers, stone masons and mill workers, Union soldiers and Confederate soldiers, abolitionists and enslavers.

Their names are carved into the stones at Ridge Cemetery. Some of their stories will be told at this event.

Begin your evening at the FamilySearch table, where you can start tracing your own roots and discover how your family's story threads into the larger history of this place.

Then, as dusk settles, set out on a self-guided lantern walk. Reenactors will share the stories. You may meet  the cooper who joined the Union Army while his mother still owned slaves, the Methodist wife who worshipped at Ridge Chapel while her husband held three people in bondage, the families whose underground railroad station operated just three miles from here.

When the walk ends, gather at the fire. Warm your hands, warm your drink, and share what moved you.

Volunteer Call

Bring a 19th-Century Voice to Life

We're seeking volunteer reenactors to portray real people who lived, worked, and were laid to rest in the Ridge Cemetery community — coopers and carpenters, mill workers and merchants, soldiers and abolitionists, women navigating a divided nation and a divided church.
Here's how it works:

Choose your person. We'll share a list of historic figures from the area, each with a real and researched story. Some from the 1800s, a few from the early 1900s.
We'll give you their story. You'll receive background, context, and the key moments that made their life worth telling.
You bring the presence. A costume that evokes the era (not museum-accurate — just enough to transport a visitor by lantern light), and the willingness to tell your person's story in first-person to small groups as they pass.

No acting experience required. If you've ever stood at a gravestone and wondered who that person really was, this is your chance to answer for them.

Volunteer re-enactors may choose historic figures to portray from a list of people who lived in the area in the 19th century. I'll provide details of their stories. Re-enactors need to provide enough of a costume to create an 1800's atmosphere (or 1900's for some cases), and be able to tell their historic person's story in first-person.