On Saturday, February 18, 2017, from 11 am to 4 pm, join living history park rangers and volunteers to recognize the father of our country, President George Washington’s, birthday. Experience a mid-19th century holiday when locals celebrated the town’s significance that had grown around Washington’s “Mother Arsenal,” the U.S. Armory, which supplied the country with weapons for national defense. Fifty years after the factory’s birth, the town citizens continued to celebrate Washington, who created local jobs for gunsmiths and mechanics. Following John Brown’s Raid in 1859, the slave-holding south was “armed to the teeth” and ready to defend against further attacks. Included in those armed and ready were the armory workers of Harpers Ferry, who formed slave patrols and carried armory-made weapons.
