(Union City, Tenn.)— Discovery Park of America will mark David Crockett’s birthday on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023 with interactive activities, live demonstrations and a community jam session led by Mulberry Jam, a five-piece band that plays period songs of the past with traditional instruments and arrangements of the string dance performers of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

All local musicians are invited to participate in the one-hour jam session that will take place in the Settlement Pavilion on the Northside of Discovery Park. Mulberry Jam will perform a concert for all guests to enjoy at 12:30 p.m. and the jam session will follow at 2 p.m. All participants are encouraged to bring their own instruments.

“Discovery Park is the perfect place for local musicians to come together and share their talents and passion for music,” said Dr. Emalee Buttrey, Discovery Park’s director of education. “We welcome anyone to come and join us, whether you are a novice, a seasoned jammer or if you just want to come and listen.”

Crockett was a celebrated folk hero, frontiersman and politician who made his home in Northwest Tennessee from 1822 until he departed for the Alamo in 1835. Crockett, known for his marksmanship, was one of the earliest non-Native American hunters around nearby Reelfoot Lake. A passionate advocate for the earliest settlers of West Tennessee, he served in the state legislature from 1821-24, then as a member of Congress representing West Tennessee counties in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1827-31 and 1833-35.

In addition to the community jam session, other activities during Crockett’s birthday celebration include:

• Native American skills, crafts and cooking education with homemade fry bread available for purchase
•  Operation of the Brewer-Austin Gristmill
•  Birds of Prey program presented by Reelfoot Lake State Park
• The Family Community Education Crystal Club of the UT/TSU Extension Program demonstrating textile arts and sewing
• Presentation on the history of fur trapping by Seavers Beavers
• Outdoor Dutch oven cooking demonstrations
• Woodworking Demonstrations
• Presentations on wildlife of West Tennessee during Crockett’s time in the region
• Living historians demonstrating traditional skills and crafts including candle and soap making and spinning and weaving
• Reelfoot Area Flintknappers to demonstrate flintkapping process
• Operation of the Forge

Find the full schedule of events at DiscoveryParkofAmerica.com/DavidCrocket2023.

This presentation is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment of the Arts and the Tennessee Arts Commission.