Planning Ahead -- While Preserving the Past ~~ New Displays at Bluff Fort

Encampment display orchestrated by Leon Jones and Bluff Fort Volunteers Fall 2019
Pioneers packed with them every "needful" thing but remembered the children as well.

Pre-Camper Era! For a longer layover, a wagon with a stove made things warmer.

New signage for the waterwheel display was added this fall.
This display explains how the waterwheels build along the San Juan River worked.

A large collection of early farming equipment and tools was generously donated by

Melvin Gaines, and many other San Juan families in 2019 .  These came from the era of 

real "horse and man" power.  Leon Jones helped with the collection and signage.

On wall of cabin: weed cutter, scythes and garden cultivator.

 Walking plows on the ground by cabin were pulled by horses to turn the soil; 

next cultivators (center of picture) were used to prepare the soil for actual planting.

Back L-R: Old fashioned planter, Jackson Fork (with 4 big metal tines) was used on a hay derick to lift loose hay from a wagon onto a haystack, or into a barn. Scrapers in foreground.

Back Left:  A Sulky Dump rake pulled by horses and used to rake up the dry windrow hay  and drop it into piles (shocks), so it was easier to lift by pitchforks onto a wagon.  

Front Center, Planter 

Completed last fall was a display and plaque commemorating

the Kumen Jones family on the south side of the Kumen Jones home.

A display inside a corner of the Kumen Jones Home. Some visitors may recognize the bird display which was houses in the Blanding library for many decades.