PORT ANGELES — Red-coated British troops will invade the North Olympic Peninsula this week to root out revolutionaries rebelling against the crown.
The resulting “battles” are the centerpiece of the inaugural Northwest Colonial Festival and Militia Muster, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today (Wednesday) through Sunday at the George Washington Inn.
The inn — a luxury bed-and-breakfast at 939 Finn Hall Road, between Port Angeles and Sequim on a bluff overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca — is a re-creation of George Washington’s home in Mount Vernon, Va.
The inn’s surrounding lavender fields comprise the Washington Lavender Farm.
The inn-farm is also the venue for the Washington Lavender Festival, part of Sequim Lavender Weekend.
The colonial festival “is an offshoot from our lavender festival,” said Dan Abbott, 59, who co-owns the inn and farm with his wife, Janet.
How much?
Admission to the colonial/lavender festival is $10 per car for up to six people — $5 for additional adults/children, with kids younger than 6 admitted free — and will include access to the battle re-enactments, demonstrations, food vendors, music concerts on the weekend and the lavender farm’s fields and gift shop — and photo ops in the lavender fields and with the battle re-enactors.
Separate afternoon tea seatings at the inn on the weekend are available at $33.95 per person.
To buy advance tickets or for more information, click on www.colonialfestival.com or go to www.facebook.com/walavenderfestival.
Or phone the inn at 360-452-5207.
All proceeds from the Northwest Colonial Festival will go to the George Washington Society, a newly created nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of colonial history.
Historic battles
Here’s the scenario as lavender fields and black-powder muskets and cannons come together this week:
The 7th Company, Brigade of Guards — a re-created unit of the British army in the American colonies during the fighting from 1775 to 1783 — is marching on the inn to confront a group of rebels.
The redcoats will engage the 2nd Connecticut Regiment of Militia, recreating the April 19, 1775, battles of Lexington and Concord, Mass., which sparked the American Revolutionary War.
The battles will be re-enacted twice each day today (Wednesday) through Sunday, with the skirmish at Lexington Green at noon and the battle at Concord’s North Bridge at 2:30 p.m.
A full-scale replica of the North Bridge has been set up in the inn’s lavender fields.
The $10,000 bridge was funded by the George Washington Society and donations from local businesses.
It is constructed of Douglas fir and topped with redwood cedar planks imported from Oregon and railings made of cedar sourced in Quilcene.
It was built with the expertise of Patrick Stansberry of Sequim.
During the festival, there also will be a colonial village, British and militia camps, plus wool-spinning, gunsmithing and blacksmithing with colonial-period re-enactors.
Vernon Frykholm, Jr., 66, of Sequim — a re-enactor depicting Gen. George Washington — will be camped on the grounds and available to the public throughout the festival.
“Nothing like this has ever happened on the West Coast before, and it is a culmination of people with a similar vision that have just kind of come together,” Frykholm said.
“I just got back from Mount Rushmore for the Fourth of July, and this event, I would say, in some ways would be as equally entertaining and enjoyable as Mount Rushmore.”
The George Washington Inn provides an appropriate venue for such a festival, said Dan Wilbanks, 60, of Roseburg, Ore., the colonial festival event director.
“It is the perfect venue for something like this. It is the perfect location to discuss things colonial.”
Wilbanks encourages area residents and visitors alike to attend the event.
“The more the merrier,” he said.
“We are going to make so much noise, they are going to want to see what all these cannons and muskets are about.”
Wilbanks is an active member of the 2nd Connecticut Regiment of Militia, which is derived of individuals with a thirst for American history.
“You will find that the people you meet” in period costumes at the festival “are just normal everyday folks,” he said.
“They just have a passion for this period. They like the history. They love the uniquely American character of what the colonial period is.”
Rebels versus an empire
Wilbanks tells of the history.
“Our men — many of them were also veterans of the French and Indian War, so it wasn’t like they didn’t know how to fight,” he said.
Nevertheless, the rebels were up against one of the most deadly and disciplined armies in world history.
“You will see a little bit of that spit and polish with the British artillery that is coming,” Wilbanks said.
“They are bringing two Grasshopper Howitzers, which were built on the same exact spec as the two that were at Lexington that day.”
The event organizers are trying to “keep this as historically accurate as we can,” Wilbanks added, right down to the clothing and weaponry.
“We will try to preserve the integrity of the battlefield as much as we can,” he said.
Struggle for independence
Following the Boston Tea Party on Dec. 16, 1773, the British Crown instigated harsh measures on the colonists, according to historians.
In response, colonists created an illegal shadow government known as the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, which called for local militias to begin training for possible hostilities.
The British government in February 1775 moved to crush the rebellion, secretly ordering 700 British Army regulars stationed in Boston to capture and destroy rebel military supplies at Concord.
The redcoats also were tasked with capturing Sam Adams and John Hancock, who they believed were hiding out in Lexington.
But the rebels caught wind of the secret expedition, and Paul Revere and Joseph Warren rode out on their famous “Midnight Ride” from Boston to warn the rebels of the advance.
With plenty of notice, a militia of about 70 men led by Capt. John Parker assembled on the Lexington Green as a show of force.
Parker was quoted as saying, “If they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”
When an advance guard of nearly 240 British soldiers arrived in Lexington near dawn, the calm was shattered by a musket ball crashing through the air, and hostilities commenced.
While the identity of whoever fired that first round has been lost to history, it became known as “the shot heard round the world.”
Heavily outnumbered, the militia retreated while the British proceeded to Concord.
At the North Bridge in Concord, about one hour before noon, about 500 militiamen engaged three companies of regulars, resulting in casualties on both sides.
“On this bridge was the first offensive action American militiamen ever did,” Wilbanks said.
The British withdrew to Boston, being fired upon the entire way by rebel militia.
Seventy-three British soldiers were killed and 174 wounded, while 49 militiamen were killed and 39 wounded, according to historians.
“It is untold history, at least in the West,” Wilbanks said of the battles.
“We want to be the living history and tell the story, celebrate it and have fun with it.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
