Historic Eastfield Foundation & the Eastfield Militia

      My wife and I just got back from a three day weekend from camping in New York.  The purpose of the trip wast to visit Historic Eastfield Foundation, which was the brainchild of Don Carpentier. HEF is a collection of 30 building, which Mr. Carpentier relocated to 14 acres of land his parents gave him when he was still in his teens. Most of the building were to be demolished to make way for progress. He started building on the property when he was still in high school. His first structure was to house a growing collection of antiques. As his collection of building grew,  to help offset the cost of the building, classes in traditional skills were offered. Among the classes are tinsmithing, fireplace building, fireplace cooking, and other similar skills that would be of use from the period of early America.  Students who take these three to five day courses are allowed to stay at Eastfield for free (except they must bring 10 white candles to use during their visit) in one of the inns on the property, for free. They prepare meals in the fireplace and and must make due without electricity for the time there.
     Historic Eastfield Foundation is not a museum. It is privately owned. In the past besides the classes offered, it has been used in films for sets.  With the passing of Mr. Carpentier in 2014,  Eastfield has been open to the general public for one day in 2015 and this past weekend was open again for one day, for the second annual Founders Day, a tribute to Mr. Carpentier.
    I first learned of Historic Eastfield Foundation from a magazine back in 1994. I often wanted to see Eastfield since that article; with this opportunity I decided to make the trip. To find Eastfield was an adventure in itself. To find Eastfield is difficult; the fact that they never gave directions on how to find it complicated the matter. Perhaps it was to make sure only the truly devoted would make the journey.   They did give the location using GPS. I still use roadmaps; my limited use of GPS has been a disappointment. Also, up the the hills of Eastern New York cell phone reception is spotty, to say the least.
   Eastfield had reenactors on hand to tell of the different buildings and trades. They also had the "Eastfield Miliita", a representation of an 1830's militia company. They performed the drills of the day and marched around the village. At the end of the day they had target practice; unfortunately we left before then. With my previous posts about militia, I took plenty of photographs to illustrate the militia of the period.

Hot off the press!

The Eastfield militia muster. They are representing a militia company from the 1830's.

A wife brings her husband refreshments during a break in the drill.

The militia marching trough the village to the tune of "Yankee Doodle".