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Sgt. Alvin C. York State Historic Park has been named the annual winner of the Tennessee Historical Commission programming award.
The category recognizes notable achievements toward advancing the study of Tennessee history. Park Manager Nate Dodson said the park restored the York Farm to create a “Living History.”
“It’s kind of a way to be more immersive and to teach people something about history utilizing clothing people would have worn and the tools that they would have used,” Dodson said.
Dodson said the program focuses on the 1920’s and 1930’s when Sergeant Alvin C. York returned to Wolf River Valley after World War 1. Dodson said visitors see first hand how residents lived in that time period and learn about different trades such as canning, blacksmithing and bee keeping.
“Farming was one of his main jobs for the majority of his life, what he grew up doing and what he does after he comes home from the war,” Dodson said. “We felt like it was a story worth telling and utilizing that living history side of it where we start planting. We put in an apple orchard, and a lot of these things that we did were originally on the farm to begin with. So, when Sergeant York and his wife Miss Gracie moved into the house, they had an apple orchard. They had honey bees. They had a kitchen garden and grew corn and wheat at the bottom areas near the house.”
Dodson said earning the award is a great accomplishment. Dodson said park workers have been building the program for over a year.
“2020 was really our initial push into that,” Dodson said. “The park had a big focus on World War 1 history, especially coming up into the 2018 centennial of the end of World War 1. So, there was some large scale living history programs surrounding that part of the Sergeant York story. After that centennial is over, there is still that story to be told and look at other things Sergeant York did in his life. We though it was a story worth telling.”
