Road Trip to a Real Fort - Worth a Stop

We took a road trip a few weeks ago and I wanted to share one of the stops on our trip. This fort is just off  I-15 where it merges with I-70. It is about a mile off the highway but was worth the stop. 


There are signs on both highways telling you it is a historical site and best of all, it is free and they have personal guided tours. 


The staff were all volunteer and were great. 


The fort was resurrected a few years ago and since that time, they have been adding all the out building as at one time the only thing left was the shell of the fort due to a fire by a squatter sheep herder living there according to the tour guide. 


They built a barn to the exact measurements that was once there. It is built with pegs rather than nails and you can see it in the picture to the right. 

They were planting a garden while we were there. There is a working black smith shop and billows. They have an ice house. There are fruit trees still from the orchard.

They have a video in a cabin that was built and lived in by the man who built the fort. They moved it from another part of the state after the fort was renovated and revived. They also had the voice of an old man who lived at the fort as a child telling a story of his brother accidentally shooting him and claims he was the only person shot at the fort.


They have a bunk house where they tell you where the term "sleep tight" comes from showing how ropes used to hold the bed mattress up and they would tighten the ropes so you would "Sleep tight!" An interesting thing in the photo below, they have a picture on the wall to the right of the fireplace. It is a woman's face looking off to the left. It is made of human hair. I had never seen that before anywhere else.
 
They have a telegraph room and talk about the kitchen and how many people would stay and how much they would charge. 

They have some actual items from the family that built the cabin in some of the rooms and talk about the work involved in living there. 

The best part was the toy they give you that they make there. It is like a button on a string. You spin it around and around and it keeps spinning as long as you move your hands back and forth. It has "Cove Fort" burned into the wood.

Prince number one had never played with that type of toy before and my girls have all had a similar toy so we enjoyed watching him try to figure it out. He got it after a second but it was cute watching him figure it out. You can see it dangling from his neck in the top photo and playing with it in the car in this photo. The toy is free. The entire tour took about an hour or less. It was nice to have a free tour and visit. 

They mentioned they have a few days where they have a festival and have mountain men etc but I didn't get the details. I'm going to look up and see if they have a site or online calendar and post a link. Here is a link to their page. I am sure you can contact them for more information if you are driving through that way.

It was fun to see the fort and you can see how thick the walls were. I bet they felt very safe living there. Great site to visit if you are passing through!