"Life on the Frontier" Tour
The first Anglo settlers in North Texas did
not have many luxuries. They were a self-sufficient people who faced the hardship and toil
of daily survival on the Texas frontier. Old City Park strives to keep the spirit of these
pioneers alive throughout the Park. Come visit our crafts people, and learn how
"they" used to live.
This
"dog-trot" house (two log rooms separated by an open breezeway but connected by
a common roof) was built in the winter of 1845-46 near what is today Dallas/Fort Worth
International Airport. The building was expanded during the 1850s, when two rooms were
attached to the back and a second story was added. The house is actually a log cabin that
has been covered with clapboard siding, an "improvement" that was made as the
owner became more prosperous and could afford commercially milled wood. Two types of
notching are found on the logs; the lower story is half-dovetail, a style commonly used n
the upper South, while the upper story is the simpler square-notch, commonly used in the
lower South. The house has had several owners, the most notable being Richard M. Gano, who
purchased the house in 1856.
The
half-dovetail notched logs in this cabin came from a cabin built in southeast Cook County
near the Bloomfields Community. The dirt floor, exposed rafters, and small windows are
typical of detached kitchens found in the North Central Texas region in the mid-nineteenth
century. Early settlers often used a separate structure for cooking to eliminate the heat,
smells, smoke, and fire danger from their living quarters. The stone fireplace and wide
hearth provide the setting for demonstrations of cooking techniques used by settlers
before cast iron cook-stoves became common in the area.
This is the
location of our resident blacksmith. Housed in the shop is a working forge, complete with
a leather hand-pump bellows. The blacksmith at Old City Park teaches visitors the
complexity of every day life on the frontier by demonstrating basic blacksmith skills. Our
blacksmith makes all of the "everyday" items that were needed to survive; nails,
andirons, cooking utensils, horse shoes, hinges, and more.
This small
barn was built at the rear of a residential lot in Gainesville, Texas, and used to house a
horse and carriage. Today, it is the work place for Old City Park's resident potter, who
demonstrates late 19th-century methods of pottery making. Typically potters erected simple
wooden sheds near good sources of clay, water, and firewood. Samples of the Old City Park
potters work can be purchased in the Pottery Shed.
Constructed
by Old City Park's potter in 1982, this groundhog kiln is typical of the kilns used by
early Texas potters to fire their wares. The raw clay pots are placed in a chamber in the
middle of the kiln, and a fire is lit at the lower end. The heat is drawn up through the
kiln and out the chimney. As much as 24 hours of stoking are required to reach the
necessary temperature of 1260 C. At least two days of cooling must pass before the pots
can be removed from the kiln. All the pottery on sale in Old City Park has been fired in
this kiln.
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