A Primer for the NEPF!

 The New England Pirate Faire Facebook page has been getting hit with a lot of questions from people who have never been to this kind of show before, so as a public service to their patrons, Pastimes presents an overview of the faire and what to expect. The blog page is here:
http://pastimesentertainment.blogspot.com/2012/08/nepf-primer-for-first-timers.html

Work at the Village

The weeds take over in the early spring

If you've ever been to Pioneer Village for a tour, you may be saying to yourself, "that doesn't look so tough, wearing a costume, giving tours..." However, when the historical interpreters are not actually giving tours, they are don't just sit around the fire chatting, oh no. Like the times that we portray, there is always some chore that needs to be done at the village. There is constant sweeping, gathering debris and brush, cutting and splitting firewood, building fires, raking leaves, and cutting the grass, shrubs and weeds that threaten to overtake the village on an almost daily basis.
The village is in a constant war of attrition with the surrounding forest. There is constant encroachment by weeds, flowers, vines and shrubs. The elements, including wind rain and salt air, constantly wear on the unfinished wood, roof thatching and daub. There is also an abundance of small critters on the site, birds, rats, mice, gophers, squirrels and insects, not to mention the wear and tear of people walking on, sitting on, and touching furniture, doors, and artifacts, as well as the occasional acts of vandalism by local youths. When you are a tour guide at the village, in many small ways, you actually experience the hardships encountered by our ancestors. The main difference is that at the end of the day, we get to journey back to the 21st century.

After a season of hard work

Anne Bradstreet play at Pioneer Village

Portraying Anne Bradstreet at different stages of her life are.(from L-R)
Kim Lamoureaux, Emily Cox, Amy Courage, Amelia Haas

"From the Author to My Dear and Loving Husband"
--a play to celebrate the 400th birthday of America's first published poet, Anne Bradstreet is being performed at Pioneer Village.
In 1630, eighteen-year-old Anne Bradstreet was heartsick about exchanging her genteel English life for the perils of New England. In the years to follow, Anne would surmount an abundance of hardships to become America’s first published poet. How did this physically challenged mother of eight find the time and inspiration to write her popular collection of poems known as The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in America? “From the Author to My Dear and Loving Husband” makes a guess by way of four Annes at different stages of her life. 

June 30th, July 1st and September 15th, 16th, 2012 at Pioneer Village .
School and other group performances may be privately arranged.
Suitable for audiences high school age and up.
Tickets will be available at BrownPaperTickets.com or at the door on a first come, first serve basis. Space will be limited.

For more information call 978.867.4767, email historyalivegordon.edu .

Pioneer Village Officially Opens for the Season!

Pioneer Village 1630. All cleaned up and ready to open!

Pioneer Village opens this Friday, June 22! In celebration of our 2012 season, for THIS WEEKEND ONLY, all Salem residents receive FREE admission! (valid identification required) Come for the first time, or for the hundreth!

The Size of Cod

On a recent trip to the Portsmouth, N.H. visitor center, I came across a display which handily illustrates something I refer to frequently on my tours of Pioneer Village; The size of codfish in the 17th century.
Fish, and particularly codfish, were the main reason Europeans including English Puritans first started coming to this continent. Economic, not religious reasons drove men to risk life and limb in a new land. The rich fishing grounds off of George's and Stellwagen banks were the home to many types of valuable fish, but none were more plentiful, or profitable as the codfish.
On my tour I often make the claim that codfish grew as big as the some of the people on my tour. This is generally greeted with some skepticism. However, there were many instances of the "king" cod, an enourmous fish that reached sizes of 120lbs or more. Here is the proof. The skull of one of those monster cod.

My lovely wife is standing next to it for scale. As you can see, it's skull is bigger than my wife's head.
Here is a detail of the skull.

This fish formed the cornerstone of the early colonial economy. The fish were caught, dried, salted, packed into barrels, and sold in Europe and the Caribbean. The depressing thing is that the cod stocks that fueled the settling and expansion of the New England colonies, are now seriously depleted to the point that cod no longer grow to this size. In fact , the average size of the codfish has shrunk as the size of the catch has decreased. In other words, the fishing grounds of New England are so overfished, that the cod themselves have become smaller. They just don't get a chance to grow to the enormous size they once did. This is illustrated by the display below.

The fish on the left is the average size of a cod in the mid-1600's. It is three feet long and weighs approximately 22 lbs. Compare that with the modern codfish, which only weighs about 6 lbs, and is about two-thirds the length. Although still a large fish, it is nowhere near the size and abundance that greeted our ancestors. Will we ever see another "King" cod again?

2012 Season

Things kick-off at Pioneer Village this year with a clean up of the grounds and replanting of the gardens, which will take place the last Friday of March (weather permitting) in preparation for re-opening  in late May/early June. The actual date will be posted here once that has been decided.  Unlike previous years, the Village will be open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, closed the rest of the week. There will also be several special events planned for the summer months including a performance of a new play celebrating the 400th birthday of America's first poet, Anne Bradstreet in June, as well as a Pirate Faire in early August. We look forward to seeing you!

Pioneer Village: Movie Set?

If you have visited the Salem visitor center, watched PBS or the National Geographic Channel you may have caught glimpses of Pioneer Village, and not even realized it. Over the years Pioneer Village has been used for filming several productions about 17th-century life, Salem and the Salem Witch Trials.
Some recent productions shot at Pioneer Village have been:
We Shall Remain,  a five-part, 7.5 hour documentary series about the history of Native Americans spanning from the 1600s to the 1900s. The first segment of that series entiltled After the Mayflower which tells to story of  Wamanoag leader Massasoit. In that segment, Pioneer Village doubled for the Plymouth settlement.

Witch Trial Conspiracy a documentary hosted by Jon Briggs and published by National Geographic in 2011, which presents a new theory about the Salem Witch Trials implicating that the Reverend Paris played a much more active role in inciting the hysteria than was previously believed.

The latest film to be shot there is: The True 1692  a 3D film which tells the true story of the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692. Produced locally in a collaborative effort between CinemaSalem and History Alive! the film is, according to the Cinema Salem website;
"Historically-accurate, suspenseful, and emotionally-captivating, this new film immerses the audience in the dangerous realities of life in Salem Village at the end of the 17th Century and dramatically reveals the odd coincidence of forces, external and internal, which set in motion the tragedy of the witch trials". The film has its public premiere at Cinema Salem in October of 2011.