Rosevine Cottage Girls

Mansker's Station - A Trip Down Memory Lane

Mansker's Station was a colonial American fort set up to protect the people from attacks during the Native Americans Wars. It was built by Kasper Mansker who was a Virginian long hunter. The photo above is a reproduction of the original building that you can visit today. It is located in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. This is not the original location of the fort, it was a few miles away on Mansker's Creek. It was a log structure like the one above that he built in 1780. This was one of several forts built upon the trail called Avery Trace.

The Avery Trace was the main way for people to get from Knox, TN to the fort out west in Nashville. It was a was to encourage settlers to move west. The area of the road was Cherokee hunting trails following buffalo. It connected a string of colonial forts from Campbells Station to Fort South West Point then to Fort Blount from there it went to Bledsoe Fort than to Manskers Station ending at Fort Nashboro.

This would provide protection for families that lived in the area from attack but also provided a place to rest for travelers along the way.

The Avery Trace was once nothing more than Native American hunting trails that connected the area of what is now Knox, TN to what would later be Nashville, TN. It was later widened to a ten-foot wide road by hired soldiers. The soldiers were given land grants of 800 acres in exchange for one year of work. The project was started in 1787. Our 6x great grandfather Archibald McCaleb was the co-founder of one of the forts named Campbell Station and it was in what later became Knox County, Tennessee. Archibald was one of the people that petitioned the government to widen the trail that became the Avery Trace road. Campbell Station is no longer in existence sad to say so we have no way to experience where he lived, but he and his wife Mary with David and Margaret Campbell settled there on March 7, 1787. Archibald had a 350-acre land grant. While living at the fort Mary gave birth to our grandpa Andrew. There are documents that speak of their life there at the fort. It tells of attacks from the Native Americans and theft of their horses and the hardships of life in the 1700s. The families started the building by initially building one cabin for the Campbells and then they built the McCaleb cabin. Soon others joined them and began building their homes.

Archibald fought in the American Revolution and the war of 1812 but was killed by the Indians as he traveled to join Andrew Jackson September 16, 1813.

This is the big house and is used as sort of an Inn above for single men. There are also cabins for families. The holes are for shooting in the event of an attack.

Water is an important part of survival. Here the children are gathering water.

A great event that helps teach the public about life in the 1700's in America.

Me all dressed up.

Care for a ride? The horse and cart or ox cart were important items to have. You needed the animals for transportation but also to get your grain to a local mill for preparation.

An ox ready to pull his cart.

Military tents at the ready for nightfall.

In 1781 the fort was abandoned and everyone one move to Fort Nashbrough in Nashville. Two men returned for their possessions the next day and were killed and the fort burned. Manskers came back in 1783 and built a bigger fort a mile away from the original location and lived there with his wife.

Amongst the forts many visitors was President Andrew Jackson.

Labels: Places, Travel

Long Hunter State Park

Welcome to Long Hunter State Park, one of the many beautiful parks in Tennessee. It offers hiking, fishing, boat ramps, camping and many more attractions on 2,600 acres. It became a park in 1974.
It is open from 7 AM to sunset year round and there are no fees to use the park.

Related Post: Fall Creek Falls State Park

The park is divided into four parts, Couchville, Baker's Grove, Bryant Grove and Sellar's Farm. Sellar's Farm is a state archaeological area, its a family friendly place great for history lovers.
Whether you live in this state or you love to travel and want to learn more about the state you should check it out. Sellar's Farm boasts one of the few Indian mounds in the state.

Isn't it beautiful? There are 30 miles of shoreline at Longhunter along the Percy Priest Lake.
The park also has a two mile loop of trails around Couchville Lake.

There is a 4 mile mountain bike trail also available for use to hikers as well. Just watch for the bikers as you hike.

Related Post: Cummins Falls State Park

Many water fowl can be seen along the shores and white tailed deer can be seen regularly.
There are spots for picnicing, camping, backpacking, fishing, boating, nature photography, hiking, and places to enjoy a good swim.

There are two trails for biking a two and four mile loop.

Related Post: Burgess Falls State Park

Breden's Orchard, Pie Kitchen and Country Store

Welcome to Breden's Orchard in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Owned by the Breden family. They were always so sweet to us each year as we would go to pick our apples. They have the option to pick your fruit or buy it in their little store.

We liked to pick our apples. You have to be on your best behavior there because the fruit is fragile so we used our manners as we walked the isles of trees laden with apples.

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Brianna and I liked the sweet Golden Delicious apples and daddy loved the Granny Smith apples.
This was always part of our fall tradition each year. Then we would put the apples in a zipper bag and put them in the bottom of the fridge with one wet apple. Doing this they would last all winter long.

Related Post: Long Hunter State Park

Some of the apples we would take home and can too. Apple sauce, apple pie filling, apples and cinnamon sticks canned in apple juice and cranberry apple sauce. Such tasty treats!
I will never forget how much fun we had. There is nothing like picking apples in the warm sun with your family.

Related Post: Tennessee Central Railway Fall Excursion

Brianna and I would haul the little wagon through the orchard with two buckets in it and then dad would pull it back out because it was too heavy for us.

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Actually, we even brought home two puppies from there once.

I have so many wonderful memories from this place- and the pies are delicious!

Over the years, they have had to put a no children allowed into the peach orchard because they were destroying the trees. They do allow everyone to pick apples but request that you call ahead so they can best accommodate you.

Related Post: Old Hickory Lake

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Labels: Places, Travel

Burgess Falls

It was an unseasonably warm winter Saturday... so we decided to go on an adventure. We choice Burgess Falls. Little did we know we would run it to people we knew or the form mayor would snap a family photo for us. But sometimes that's just how it goes.

Burgess Falls is actually three falls (think small medium and large). The lookout decks were all closed when we went due to storm damage and the trail down to the big falls. Which was disappointing, they said it probably won't be open again for at least a year. But we still had fun hiking the trail and enjoy the other two waterfalls.