VERNON — The after action reports for recent events put on by the Jennings County Historical Society may indicate things are getting back to a pre-COVID-19 normal in the area.
“We are finishing the reports, and, so far, in spite of the terrible weather, it looks like the Sassafras Festival and Civil War Living History event was as successful as it was in 2019. It was a very good year," said museum curator Helen Amburgy.
Though the festival had been held annually for more than 60 years, it was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic. The event, which serves as the main fundraiser for the historical society museum, was held in Vernon on April 24 and 25.
It was cold and rainy on the first day, but hundreds of people still visited the realistic Civil War Era encampments around the Jennings County Courthouse in Vernon.
“Sometimes it was raining pretty hard, but we were busy all day," said Beverly Marsh, who helped create the Civil War encampment. ”Sometimes they had umbrellas and sometimes they didn’t but they would just stand in the rain and ask questions about our display."
Many people also visited the festival just to purchase the food that has helped make the event famous.
More than 700 whole pies were sold on Saturday; leaving only a few remaining pies for the larger crowd on Sunday.
Though most of the historical society’s previously planned events were cancelled in 2020, volunteers are now working to get ready for a series of events scheduled during May and June.
On June 27, at 6 p.m., the annual meeting detailing the historical society’s progress this year will be held and will be open to the public. The meeting will also include history interpreter Steve Gill’s presentation of the history of the Navy during the Civil War followed by an ice cream social.
On June 6, movie makeup artist Danielle Colbert will give a presentation about special effect makeup application.
Volunteers are also already working on preparations for a June 24 celebration of the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s visit to Jennings County.
“As long as we legally can, we are going to continue our usual events for the rest of the year,” museum director Chris Asher said.
