From learning about pre-Civil War medicine to how to make adobe bricks, there’s something for everyone at the 35th Annual Fort Lowell Day Celebration, which takes place this Saturday, Feb. 13.
With so many activities planned, the family friendly celebration is “quite an event,” says Frank Flasch, president of the Old Fort Lowell Neighborhood Association.
Having the yearly celebration serves as a way to teach people about the history of the Old Fort Lowell area, which includes a menagerie of characters such as Hohokam settlers, Mexican immigrants, ranchers, farmers and of course, U.S. Army soldiers.
What is now a city park served as an army post until it was decommissioned in 1891. The former commanding officer’s quarters now serves as a museum, displaying artifacts from military life in Territorial days.
“I’m always taken aback by how few people in Tucson know anything about it (history of the area),” Flasch said. “It’s keeping a link with the past and getting people familiar with the uniqueness of the area.”
The event, which is expected to draw close to 3,000 people “if the weather’s nice,” takes place from noon to 4 p.m., starting with the raising of the state flag, accompanied by the 4th U.S. Cavalry Band.
Here are a few of the day’s events:
Blood and Guts Medicine in the 19th Century Southwest
Head to the San Pedro Chapel at 2:30 p.m. for a lecture on the “medical lead-up to the medicine practiced at Fort Lowell” with Tucson physicians, Rudy Byrd and Bob Hunter.
They will also perform a demonstration on battlefield surgical techniques, including “how they bled people and how they took care of bullet wounds and how amputations were done.”
“Although the medicine practiced at the time of the fort would be considered primitive by our standards, it was still far better than that which people had to endure before,” Byrd said. “People were really hardy to put up with the medicine of the time.”
Medicine of the time period was totally different, Byrd said.
“The belief systems precluded any understanding of germ theory or antisepsis,” Byrd said. “And doctors and surgeons were different people.”
No worries if you have little ones in tow. We’ve been assured the demonstration is suitable for all ages and real limbs will not be amputated.
“I demonstrate on myself, but as I like having my blood and body parts where they are — inside my blood vessels and on my person, respectively — I don’t really puncture a vein or do an amputation,” Byrd said. “I just show them how it was done.”
1800s vintage
baseball game
Members of the Arizona Territories Vintage Baseball League — The Bisbee Black Sox and the Tucson Saguaros — will play a doubleheader using the rules, uniforms and equipment of the 19th century.
The rules were different back then. For example, underhand pitching was allowed, and if the ball is caught on one bounce, it’s an out. You’ll learn more at the game, which starts at noon in Fort Lowell Park.
CaValry demonstrations
The B Troop — 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment (Memorial) from Fort Huachuca will conduct a series of drills in the open field of the park at 12:30 p.m.
“It portrays the cavalry in the 1890s,” Flasch said. “Cavalry troops were stationed there, so it’s a look back in history.”
B Troop is a U.S. Army mounted ceremonial unit with the mission of promoting the heritage and traditions of the U.S. Army in the Southwest during the Indian Wars. Its members are all volunteers.
After the drills, “They stay around so the audience can come up close to the animals and ask questions of the soldiers,” Flasch said.
The group provides a great way for people to “take a look back at history,” Flasch said.
