An Encampment permits participants to experience firsthand the life, crafts, and activities of a Colonial-American family during the 1770s. An overnight Encampment may be conducted at your site or one of our campsites.

You not only conduct Colonial-American activities, but you also experience everyday life from the 1770s. This includes sleeping outside in Continental Army tents, cooking over an open fire, wearing Colonial clothing, and the other domestic activities necessary for everyday life.

Registering for an overnight Encampment is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Contact us by email or telephone -- call toll-free 866.354.6856 -- to schedule the event. Encampments may be scheduled on weekdays or on weekends.

Our Program Directors will work with you to find an agreeable date. You may bring your group to one of our campsites (Historic Saint Mary's City, Maryland; or Fredericksburg, Virginia), or we can bring an Encampment to your site.

The standard fee is $85.00 per participant for a three-day, two-night Encampment, and $70.00 per participant for a two-day, one-night Encampment. Groups in excess of 50 receive a $5.00 discount per participant. The fees includes all food, accommodations, clothing, activities, materials, and direction. There is a minimum of 25 registrants per Encampment.

We require a non-refundable deposit of $300.00 to complete the registration.

Download the Encampment Registration Form and complete the form.

(You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader version 5.0 or higher to read this file; if you don't, get the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader for free.)

An Encampment includes numerous standard activities; however, if you select the three-day, two-night program, there are many activities that you must choose when you register.

You specify the arrival time, departure time, and registration deadline date when you register.

Fax the form to our toll-free fax number 877.354.6856.

The individual registrants pay the sponsoring organization, and the sponsoring organization is responsible for making a single payment on the day of the event for the outstanding balance.

To assist you in coordinating the event with your patrons, we create a special webpage just for your event. This webpage identifies the date and location, a registration form, the nature of the event, a list of activities, a schedule, your contact information, a list of what to bring, directions, and other useful information. It is our hope that this makes coordinating the event simple and not burdensome. You can examine an example webpage--your webpage will be tailored to your event.

Standard Activities

Each Encampment includes numerous standard activities:

Shooting a Flintlock Musket

• Flintlock Firearms: Participants get to fire an actual replica of a Colonial flintlock musket. The Staff introduces participants to firearm safety and the historic use of the firearm.
• Continental Army Encampment: Participants sleep in period reproduction tents from the 18th Century.

Officer's Tent

• Rudimentary Drumming: Participants will be introduced to some of the rudimentary camp calls of the 18th Century using authentic snare drums. The staff will explain the importance and purpose of drumming to the Continental Army.

Making Beeswax Candles

• Colonial History : Participants receive an introduction to Colonial history during night-time readings.

• Campfire Cooking: Participants take turns cooking, preparing, cleaning, and serving authentic Colonial meals over an open fire. But best of all, they get to eat the delicious meals! A three-day, two-night Encampment includes five meals, and a two-day, three-night Encampment includes three meals.
• Tomahawk Throw: Learn the mechanics and technique of properly throwing a tomahawk at a wooden target.

• Colonial Store: Participants shop in the Colonial Store for period reproductions. We recommend that you bring $10-50.

Wearing a Shift, Mop Cap, and Bodice

• Colonial Games: Participants play several games that were common among children during the 18th Century, such as Graces, Nine Pins, Quoits, Tug-O-War, Cup & Ball, Jump Rope, Jacob's Ladder, Nine Man Morris, and others.
• Indian Necklace: Participants make an authentic necklace made out of buffalo bone and buffalo horn hairpipe, glass beads, and waxed linen cord.

Indian Necklace-Making

• Monkey Bridge: (Available only at the Historic Saint Mary's City) Test your dexterity and skill on the Monkey Bridge. Can you make it across? We don't think so!

Additional Stations

• Campfire Fudge: Cook delicious campfire chocolate fudge. (We'll even give you the recipe if you ask nicely.)
• Quill & Ink: Copy a section of an 18th Century boyhood exercise with a real feather quill pen, water-based ink, and an ink well. George Washington copied the Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation when he was in grade school in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Wearing Indian Warpaint

• Candle-Making: Make your own hand-dipped candle out of beeswax.
• Pioneer Journal: Construct a Pioneer Journal. The Pioneer Journal is constructed of paper with a leather cover, and bound with deer sinew.

Marquis Tents at an Encampment

• War Paint: Examine pictures of typical Indian face-painting styles. Listen to firsthand accounts of colonists who were captured by Indians, such as James Smith, who was captured and held from 1755-1759 by the Caughnawaga Indians during the French and Indian War.
• Sword-Fighting: Learn fencing techniques using foam-padded dueling sabers, bucklers, spears, and long swords. Safely learn how to attack in groups and individual maneuvers.

Sword-Fighting

• Bracelet-Making: Make a bracelet out of cord. This activity helps students learn useful knots, work with their hands, and make a craft that they can wear with pride.
• Doll-Making: Participants make a either a male or female rag doll out of cloth and yarn.

A Creative Rag-Doll Design

• Knot-Tying: Learn the art of knot-tying (and untying) through learning some of the basic knots (the half-knot), stopper knots (overhand stopper, figure-eight knot), bends (square knot, sheet hitch), hitches (half-hitch, full-hitch, bowline, flying bowline), and some specialty knots (blood knot, sinnets, monkey chain, monkey's fist, cat-o-nine), and others.
• Print-Making: Make prints using decorative print blocks and ink. Decorate your prints to personalize them.