~ Danville's 2013 Iron Heritage Festival ~
July 19, 20, 21, 2013 "Our Civil War Years"

The 15th Year of the Iron Heritage Festival!

 

As the IHF Committee continues to plan the this year's festival we would like to let our friends know some of the events being planned. As we get closer to July this page will continue to change as our plans are finalized.

• The fourth annual IHF Dr. Foss Tennis Tournament. Men, Women and Junior Boys and Girls are all invited to play at the Danville Middle School tennis courts. The Events will be an Open for Juniors (18 & under), Men & Women singles, doubles & mixed and Juniors Boys/Girls singles, double and singles. Mary Rae Pipa director. Click here for Application

• 6:45am – 7:15am – Saturday, July 20 Iron Heritage Festival Quoits Tournament sponsored by the USQA will be held Saturday. Quoits, the predecessor of horseshoe pitching, dating back to ancient Greek Olympics was played by young and old alike, rich and poor. Tournaments went on at every picnic and get together. In Danville, tournaments were played in Montgomery Park at lunch time and in the evenings. The tournament will be played behind the tennis courts on the Danville Middle School lawn. Not only do the 'quoits pitchers' play for the prize money but for the prestige of being the best quoits pitcher in the country! In the past years there were several local teams, one team even won a prize and participated in other USQA events, so get your teams together! For more information about the quoits tournament check out the website at www.quoits.info. Applications can be found at the IHF Company Store and also on USQA website.

• 7:15-8:15 – Saturday, July 20 Start the day by cheering on your favorite runners as they test their stamina. Starting at the DMS at 9am, the runners will travel on the scenic course, our Trail of History for prizes. Applications available soon. Jeff Brandt is director.

 

May 15, 2013 - the IHF Committee is sponsoring a bus trip to Gettysburg. As we tour the Battlefield, Montour Co. native and battlefield guide, Sue Reichen Boardman will highlight the contribution to the war of the  soldiers and regiments from Montour County. Lunch will be at the Dobbin House. Tickets are on sale now at $65 each.  

Sunday July 14, 2013 - 2pm - Dedication of the Revolutionary War Monument in Memorial Park. Join the local Daughters of the Revolution as they honor and remember our brave ancestors who fought for our freedom.

Thursday July 18, 2013 - 5pm - All Sponsors of the Iron Heritage Festival are invited to a reception in the Community Ball Room. Enjoy light refreshments, learn what's happening at this year's festival and meet the 2013 IHF Committee Board of Directors. Music by Mr. Paul Riffon, an accomplished traditional fiddler, who has won many fiddling contests achieving grand champion status.  He will entertain you with some of his favorite old-time tunes, many of the civil war period, his specialty Ashokan Farewell, a song that you will want to hear over and over again.

Thursday July 18, 2013 - 6:30pm - Dedication of the Fountain in Riverfront Park with music by the' Community Band' Our own musical group, The Danville Community Band, formed in 1969 as the American Legion Band.  The band has created a name for themselves, traveling throughout other areas including Germany. They are an example of Danville's long standing musical tradition.

Friday July 19, 2013 - The Dodworth Saxhorn Band, one of our favorites from the past will once again will be back in Danville for this year's festival!

• Chinese Quarter Auction: Check out the IHF Company Store and see what is up for bid in the quarter auction. Buy five tickets for $1.00 and place them in jar of which item you would like to win, you’ve just made a bid! Don’t forget to keep the second ticket and check the numbers which will be posted during the IHF weekend.

• 1pm to 5pm –Out House Dig, behind Hometown Abstract,  223 Mill St. One man’s trash is another’s treasure, and to an historian an outhouse can be a gold mine. Every old home had an outdoor ‘pit’ privy or outhouse until the advent of indoor plumbing.  Garbage items like empty bottles and pottery are possibly the most common, but coins and other valuable items were occasionally lost down an outhouse hole and may be recovered as the outhouse hole is dug. Robert Lee invites you to the presentation of his outhouse dig to see what he brings back from the past as we get a glimpse of how our ancestors lived. 

 

• 3:30 - Canal Park - 'Battle of the Bands' Come and listen to the Excelsior and Dodworth Bands clash with 'music' from the Civil War era. The Excelsior Band will take the Union side and the Dodworth Band will compete with music from the Confederacy.

• 4pm - Mr. Chuck Veit, president of the Navy and Marine Living History Association will speak about 'How the US Navy Won the American Civil War' and his book "A Dog before a Soldier" will be for sale. Presented in the Community Ballroom.

 

• 4pm - ‘Railroads of Montour’  with John Decker at Hawkins Garage, Mill St. Five railroads have served Montour County from 1842 to present. Listen as John explains this history which he has had a lifetime interest and enthusiasm in.   

• 7pm- IHF Parade will be starting at the corner of Railroad & East Market Streets & march down E. Market St to Mill St. and end up at Coles Hardware Parking Lot. (food available 4pm until ?) . Bands marching in this year's parade will include the Union Volunteer Fife & Drum Corp, Dodworth Band, Danville Community Band, Excelsior Band. (click here for parade application)

 

After the Parade the Excelsior Band will be performing at the corner of Mill and Lower Mulberry. and  the Dodworth Band  will perform at Coles Hardware parking lot. We are excited that these bands will be participating in many events throughout the weekend.

 

 

SATURDAY JULY 20, 2013
Open all Day!  Mill Street with strolling entertainers, music stages,
Artisans, food, special stages, Victorian Highwheelers and more!!
IHF Round Corner Stages - Four Stages will be located on Mill Street
Performances at 11am until 4pm - On the Hour and Half-Hour

At the DMS Complex Tennis Tournament, 5K Run, Quoits Tournament, BSA Chicken BBQ

~ At the Civil War Encampment at the DMS all day Saturday July 20, 2013 ~
93rd PA Volunteer Regiment
149th Bucktails
Confederacy of Union Generals
Dodworth Saxhorn Band
2nd South Carolina String Band
Union Volunteer Fife & Drum Corp
Eileen Anderson, Washer Woman

• 8am to 5pm – Out House Dig, behind 223 Mill  Street. See Friday, 1pm for details

• 9am - Au Matin in the Basilica on the grounds of St. Cyril Academy. Concert of Scared music is under the direction of Gail Garman. Guests will include the Dodworth Band

• 10am – Noon – Stamp Cancellation, Outside Danville Post Office

• 10am – DMS Big Mill Train station Train Ride to Bloomsburg ($10).   The train will run 4 times during the day, either to Bloomsburg or Northumberland. The Big Mill station is at the DMS beside the tennis courts. Pre-sale Train tickets will be sold at the IHF Company Store starting in May,  but  only  at the Train station site on Saturday July 20,
• 10am – 5pm Montgomery House open House. Danville’s most historic home is open to the public this weekend. The reproduction of the 93rd PA Vol. Regiment Company flag will be on display as well as the Society's Civil War items.

• 10am-5pm –Danville High School Alumni in front of Premier Studios, Mill Street. Representatives of the DHS Alumni will be available to register alums who are in Danville during IHF. Stop in and sign your class list, find out who is in town and reminisce.  All classes who are celebrating their class reunion this year, are especially invited!

• 10am - Franklin Furnace with Gene Shipe, on Furnace Road off route 642. A direct descendant of Philip Maus, Gene describes the day by day operation of a hot blast furnace.

• 10am – ‘Railroads of Montour’ with John Decker at Hawkins Chevrolet. (See Friday 4pm for details)

• 10am - Faye and Barry Stocker will talk about the Civil War's  'Spies  Raiders  and  Espionage' in the Moose Social Room

• 10am - Canal Park - Ed Petrovich - Danville's own master of the keyboard

• 11am-1pm – Wagon Rides - corner of Mill and West Mahoning Streets, ($3 children, $5 adults)   

• 11am-1pm – Carriage Rides - ($3 children, $5 adults)

• 11am - Canal Park - The Excelsior Band - The Excelsior Cornet Band  is New York State’s only authentic Civil War brass band. Founded in 2001, the band consists of a group of upstate New York musicians who are dedicated to the performance of original Civil War music on actual antique brass band instruments of the 1860’s period.

• 11am -  Van Wagner and friends will present the Coal Dredger and speak on the dredging of the Susquehanna River for anthracite coal that washed down river from the mines and breakers up river. At the River edge at the end of Ferry Street

• 11am - The Dodworth Band is honored to play the introduction of President Abraham Lincoln!  At the Montour County Courthouse Grounds

• 11:30am - Mr. George Turner will speak about the Civil War Prisons. Mr. Turner is a former member of the Bloomsburg University History Dept. and author of local and Pennsylvania State history. In the Moose Social Room

• 11:30am - Mr. James Getty, of Gettysburg, Pa has been portraying Preside Lincoln since 1978. We invite you to the Courthouse Grounds to hear Mr. Lincoln's most famous speech, 'The Gettysburg Address'.

• Noon - Join President Lincoln and a few of his generals at the Doctor's Inn for a bite to eat and conversation.  Dodworth Band will entertain with a few  Civil War melodies. ($) At the Doctor's Inn, West Market Street-

• Noon - Canal Park - Union Volunteer Fife and Drum Band - The Union volunteer Fife and Drum Corp is a historically authentic musical group  specializing in the martial field music of the fife and the deep rumble of the drum.

• 12:30 - IHF Train Ride -to Northumberland (see Saturday 10am for details)

• 1pm - 'Researching your Civil War Ancestors' with Doyle Dietz. If you are into genealogy, you will enjoy this relaxed discussion with Doyle on various ways to hunt for your great, great grandparents and their role in the Civil War. In the Moose Social Room

• 1pm - Canal Park - The Jolly Tars - hear the songs of the North and the South that buoyed the spirits at home and on the front. Performing together since the mid 1990's Jake Laubach and Ken Purcell have a wide repertoire of songs and musical instruments a few of which include a mandolin, ukulele and guitar.

• 1pm - 'Railroads of Montour' with John Decker at Hawkins. See Friday, 4pm for details.

• 1pm -  Van Wagner - The Coal Dredger at the River's Edge at the end of Ferry Street (see Saturday 11am for details)

• 1:30 -  Confederation  of Union Generals - 'Meet the Generals' during a series of questions and answers from the public, in first person and in character, a narrative about their own role and accomplishments during the Civil War. Civil War Encampment, DMS

• 2pm - Canal Park - Dodworth Saxhorn Band

• 2:30 - 'Civil War Drums' by Jack Lawton.  Mr. Lawton, Civil War drum expert will be displaying  drum related items, such as Civil War era drumsticks, slings, leather ears & rope. He describes how calf skin and flesh hoops were used for drum heads, and how to use a calf skin tucking tool. He will also perform  drumming demonstrations  which include drum calls ranging from assembling officers for meetings to sounding retreat in the midst of enemy fire as well as beating cadence that was used for a unit's marching. In the Moose Social Room

• 2:30 - IHF Train Ride - to Bloomsburg (see Saturday 10am for details) ($10)

• 3pm - Civil War Encampment - 2nd Carolina String Band - The 2nd South Carolina String Band performs Civil War music as authentically as possible. The listener will hear the music of the 19th century played on 19th century period instruments in the appropriate style. This is the music as it truly sounded to the soldiers of the Civil War.

• 3pm - Canal Park - Van Wagner - miner, logger, teacher, songwriter, one of Danville's favorite Sons. and always entertaining!

• 4pm - Canal Park - Suzanne Walzer

• 5pm - Canal Park - The Jolly Tars (see Sat 1pm for more details)

• 5pm - IHF Train Ride - re-enactor Terry Diener will tell Civil War Stories. of local soldiers he has found in his research.  (see Saturday 10am for details) ($10)

• 6pm - Canal Park - Echoing Heart - Randy and Josie will take you back in time playing the fiddle, banjo, mandolin and the harmonica.
  
  
• 10pm - Fireworks over the Susquehanna River

 

SUNDAY JULY 21, 2013

• 10am to 3pm Fly-In at the Danville/Riverside Airport, Sunbury Road, Riverside. Celebrate the Airport’s 75th Anniversary while watching the planes fly in. Visit with the pilots, learn about their plans. The radio control flyers will be showing off their skills with tricks for their model planes.  Also for your enjoyment will antique farm machinery, an antique car show and food a vendor with breakfast and lunch available. Plane rides available for a fee.

• 10am - Mahoning Presbyterian Church - Civil War Church service with the musical talents of the Dodworth Saxhorn Band.

• Noon to 3pm – Montgomery House Open House, Danville’s most historic home is open to the public this weekend.

• 1pm – Danville Middle School tennis courts, 2nd Annual Dr Foss Tennis Tournament Finals

• 6:30 pm - Hymn Sing, Bring your lawn chairs (Rain, Mahoning Presbyterian Church) led by the musical friends of the IHF. Montgomery Park on Water Street by the River.

This Schedule will change as the IHF Committee continues to make plans for the Festival. Come back often to see what is new!

Due to the circumstances beyond our control, stated events may be changed as time gets closer.