Buchanan Theatre will host a Botetourt County 250th Anniversary event with a locally produced short film about Looney’s Ferry, the introduction of the newly published history of Botetourt County and the performance of the county’s 250th Anniversary song.
The theater will hold four presentations over the weekend on August 28-30. A limited number of free tickets are required to ensure proper social distancing at the presentations. Tickets must be acquired in advance.
David Austin and Ted McAllister wrote and recorded the 250th Anniversary song, “Where My Home and My Heart Meet.” They will open the performances with the song and will have four-song anniversary CDs available at each presentation.
Malfourd “Bo” Trumbo will introduce the historical short film “Looney’s Ferry: Western Migration in Botetourt County.” The film uses Joshua Fry’s and Peter Jefferson’s 1755 version of their map of Virginia to introduce Looney’s Ferry on the James River at what is now Buchanan.
“In the mid-1700s, maps had developed into a primary means of describing how people saw the world. This short film attempts to use a map created in such a time to focus on one seemingly insignificant location, Looney’s Ferry, for closer examination. The 1755 version of the Fry/Jefferson map included Looney’s Ferry as the most western English made influence, Trumbo said.
Hannah Austin researched and wrote the script for the film and interviewed several local residents who bring context to the ferry and its location, and its importance to the settlement of what was then Virginia’s western frontier that became Botetourt County. Trumbo’s son, Tyler Trumbo, handled production of the film that was researched and written by Hannah Austin.
The Botetourt County Historical Society commissioned retired The Fincastle Herald Editor Edwin McCoy to write a history of Botetourt for the 250th Anniversary. McCoy will speak briefly about the book at each presentation. Copies of the book will also be available in paperback and a limited number of hardbound editions. McCoy will also sign copies of the book after the presentations.
Titled Chronicles of Botetourt, the book provides a look at the area’s geography and history before Europeans arrived, then tells about the formation of the county and its evolution. Chapters in the 350-page book review Botetourt’s history of local government, schools, churches, agriculture, mining and industry, transportation and military involvement; along with a look at some of the county’s citizens in a chapter “Not Everyone Was Famous.”
Copies of the book are also available at the Botetourt County History Museum in Fincastle.
The presentations are Friday, Aug. 28 at 6 and 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 30 at 3 p.m.
Free advance tickets are required for the presentations and are available at Buchanan Town Hall, Buchanan Theatre (during regular movie hours) and Botetourt County History Museum (from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Saturday).
