Marble Springs Storytelling Festival Coming Soon!

A Festival of Storytelling for the whole family will take place on April 20, 2013, from 12-7pm at Governor John Sevier’s Marble Springs State Historic Site. This event is sponsored by the Governor John Sevier Memorial Association and the Smoky Mountain Storytellers Association. Professional storytellers will perform live all day, with humor, traditional, historic, Appalachian tales, & tall tales. Food and drink will be available. Guests should bring chairs and/or blankets to sit on.

Youth Storytelling Showcase will take place from 12-2pm, featuring Rebecca & Sarah Bird, National Youth Storytelling Showcase Torchbearers, and students from local schools.

At 3pm, our special guest, Jack Neely, author of Knoxville’s “Secret History,” will share stories.

Fee: $5 per adult, $3 student (age 7-18), under six free. Parking is free.

All activities take place at the Marble Springs State Historic Site: 1220 West Governor John Sevier Highway, Knoxville, TN 37920.

Programming assistance for this event is provided by the Arts & Heritage Fund and Knox County. Marble Springs is funded under an agreement with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Tennessee Historical Commission, and supplemented by additional funds raised by the Governor John Sevier Memorial Association.

Information found at 865-573-5508

Email:  marblesprings@gmail.com

Website problems

We apologize for anyone having issues with our website currently. Our website was hacked two weeks ago, and we have to provide our developer with all the information that was previously on there before it can go back to normal.
Until then, we will post information about events here and on our Facebook page.

2012 In Review

Ashleigh's Note: December 2012 marks 7 months for me at Marble Springs, and I wanted to highlight everything that happened during 2012, since we didn't post that many entries since my hire! Here they are, in no particular order.

• CAP: We completed the Collections Assessment Program in the fall of 2012, which brought in 2 assessors to evaluate the buildings and collections here at Marble Springs. We will be utilizing their report this year to improve the state of our collections.
• Arboretum: As noted in the last post, we are now officially a TUFC Level 1 Arboretum!
• Successful Programming: One reason that we had fewer posts was because of all of the programming! We had our annual events, such as the Storytelling Festival, Statehood Days, John Sevier Days, Halloween Haunts & Haints, Candlelight Tours, and a wide variety of workshops. We want to thank EVERYONE who helped out or attended any of these events and helped us make them a success.
• Farmer's Market: We had our second successful season and look forward to a third. We brought on an intern, Jessie, to serve as the manager of the market, and are very pleased with her enthusiasm and ideas for making the 2013 season even better.
• Transit of Venus: Over 300 people came out to see this once-in-a-lifetime event!
• HHK Founder's Day Luncheon: Collaborating with the other Historic Homes of Knoxville, we enjoyed the 2nd year for this event, which celebrated the 211th birthday of Knoxville. Senator Lamar Alexander was the guest speaker, and reminded us why the historic homes are important to the city. He said, "If you really want to understand the history of our country, you've got to know about Knoxville and these homes here are a celebration of that time. One of the reasons Knoxville is important is there's no city in the eastern United States that was a more important gateway to the west than Knoxville, Tennessee at the time the United States became a country."
• Video Grant:  We received a $2500 grant from the United States Federation of Friends of Museums to produce a video tour that will be accessible through QR Codes. We should be completing production some time in 2013.
• Eagle Scout Projects: Eagle Scouts installed bluebird houses, made recycling bins for events and rentals, and created a compost bin and fire pits to protect the ground from being scorched.
• Twitter: Our cats found their way into social media, thinking that it was about birds. We are learning so much about them and how they see the site through their account. It seems that John Sevier is now interested in learning more about his namesake, Cinnamon loves the vet but doesn't like going there, and Boots likes to take pictures of himself (or for us to take pictures of him).

Thanks for a great 2012, and I look forward to seeing everyone out here in 2013!

Arboretum Certification

As some of you may have noticed on our social media pages, we were recently designated as a Level 1 Arboretum by the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council.

Groundskeeper John Gammon with Jim Cortese, receiving our official sign.

"Guidelines define an arboretum as an area with a significant amount of woody vegetation in tree form that is cultivated for educational, scientific or aesthetic purposes. To be certified, an arboretum must be open to the public, the trees must be properly labeled for educational purposes, and they must be properly protected and maintained during the period of certification." -TUFC guidelines 

To become an official Level 1 Arboretum, our Groundskeeper, John Gammon, had to identify at least 30 different types of trees (note: we now have over 40!).

We are also on our way to Level 2 (though it may be a few years before we try for that certification). We created a map and numbering system for the trees, which will soon be available to visitors.

Look for these labels around our property and on our trails!

We plan to offer future programming based around the arboretum, including something for Arbor Day in April.

The Marble Springs Cats

Anyone who has visited Marble Springs in the last few years has probably had a run-in with at least one of the cats (Boots, Cinnamon, and John Sevier). They love attention and really enjoy visitors being around to pet them. 

Just recently, the cats started their own Twitter account, to share their experiences at Marble Springs. So far, it seems like Boots likes to take artistic photos of himself, John Sevier is confused why the humans keep talking about him when he doesn't remember doing any of those things himself, and Cinnamon doesn't like rain (or the vet).

We look forward to seeing what else the cats want to share about the Marble Springs site!

Marble Springs Welcomes New Assistant Director

Ashleigh Oatts has recently joined Marble Springs State Historic Site as the Assistant Director. She previously worked as a Program Assistant for the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State on their partnership with the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program and as the Education Coordinator at Blount Mansion. She has also worked with several other museums in the state, including the East Tennessee Historical Society, the Tennessee State Museum, Oaklands Historic House, the Don F. Pratt Military Museum at Fort Campbell, among others.

Ashleigh graduated from Maryville College (majoring in History) in 2007, and received her Master’s degree (with a concentration in Public History) from Middle Tennessee State University in 2009. She looks forward to expanding the educational opportunities at Marble Springs.

Ashleigh driving a HMMWV as part of her internship at Ft. Campbell.

BSA Venture Crew 1796

Scouting and Marble Springs has had a long friendship over the years.  Helping to continue this friendship is Marble Springs’s sponsorship of BSA Venture Crew 1796.  

Established in 2009, this crew is a specialized unit whose mission has a distinctly historical emphasis.  Crew members learn about life in the Tennessee Valley from the mid-1700s to early-1800s.  Topics regularly covered at meetings include: clothing of the period, life skills required to survive, and typical housing & eating habits of this period.  Visiting other historic sites also provide unique insight – Fort Loudon State Park in Vonore, TN & Martin’s Station in Ewing, Virginia – both served as British outposts during the French & Indian War and serve as valuable educational destinations for learning about this unique period of history.

Learning how to be an effective leader is important to scouts of all ages. Teaching younger scouts those survival skills you have learned is just as an important part of the experience for the members of Venture Crew 1796.  From pitching historic wedge tents to learning how to cook over an open fire, practicality and survival go hand-in-hand for these resourceful teenagers.

The BSA Venture Crew 1796 is open to boys who are age 14 & up. 

If you are interested in becoming a part of the Venture Crew, either as a member or adult volunteer, please contact Marble Springs at 573-5508 or by email at campmarblesprings@gmail.com.