“Remoted” – Day 387 (Wednesday)

It was another quick walk down memory lane when Facebook Memories reminded me that on this date in 2011, the ribbon cutting was held to officially open the Fort Defiance Civil War Park and Interpretive Center in Clarksville. It was a beautiful, sunny, warm Tennessee day.

That's me in the goofy sunglasses
at the ribbon cutting!

Early on April 7, 2011, I had posted on Facebook “Fort Defiance Interpretive Center ribbon cutting today! I hope I don’t do something really stupid like cry when I see my script writing credit in the video.” It was followed later in the day with “update: did not cry during my video credit … it was much earlier during the National Anthem. Was super glad to be wearing big Hollywood sunglasses.” 

While Clarksville never saw battle during the Civil War, it was occupied over a four-year period by both Confederate and Union forces. There are diaries chronicling the time period, which were part of the research. The marketing agency I was lucky to be working for, BLF Marketing, partnered with local historians to research and write the information for the interpretive panels along the walking trails and the museum exhibit. We teamed with a local brilliant video producer to create the film, “Crossroads of Change: Clarksville Tennessee 1861-1865,” shown in the theater at the interpretive center. The video and exhibits tell the story of Clarksville during the period of occupation.

The Fort Defiance project is high on the list of favorite projects of my career. It was exhilarating being part of the historical research and script writing, and seeing my name in the scriptwriting credits the end of the film was an extra bonus. The project is a huge, mushy, fond spot in my heart and a high point of my time in Clarksville. It’s not often I got to spend weeks eyeballs deep in researching history and grand projects like this one don’t come along every day, except maybe in my dreams, which means I'll be bragging about this for a very long time.