Re-enactments can be a lot of fun. Usually. Until a cannon explosion injures nearby children, which happened this weekend in Utah.

Still, usually it's an interesting way to learn about the past. This coming "living history weekend" at Fort Ticonderoga looks promising.

From the press release:

Discover the hazards and hopes of American soldiers at Ticonderoga in the summer of 1776 during this exciting living history weekend,

Saturday and Sunday, June 21 and 22 from 9:30 am – 5 pm! Tours, demonstrations, and hands-on family programs will be presented throughout the weekend to immerse guests in a defining moment in America’s story. Admission to this event is included in a Fort Ticonderoga’s general admission ticket. To learn more about the living history event visit www.fortticonderoga.org or call 518-585-2821.

Highlighted event programs include a lakeside demonstration exploring the use of boats in the summer of 1776 as interpretive staff share the story of the American retreat from Canada and the importance of the Lake Champlain as a supply route on the road to independence at Ticonderoga. Guests will also have the chance to help build camp with soldiers of the Fourth Pennsylvania Battalion as they set their tents and build huts to temporarily encamp below the walls for Fort Ticonderoga.

“Imagine life onboard a boat with merely a knapsack of comforts from home,” said Stuart Lilie, Director of Interpretation. “During this event guests will explore the workings of the bateau, the workhorse of the Northern Continental Army on the water. Watch as bateaux row around the Ticonderoga peninsula to land below the old French Fort, beginning a long summer of rebuilding the army.”

This is miraculous story of how America overcame incredible odds on the road to independence at Ticonderoga. With a smallpox outbreak raging through the Northern Continental Army and morale sinking in the spring of 1776, soldiers rowed by bateaux up Lake Champlain seeking the safety of distance from the advancing British Army. Sick and wanting food supplies, soldiers of the Continental Army lived out of these bateaux for weeks on end, stopping on shore only to cook their rations, soaking wet from lying in the bottom of their boats. By the end of June the Army began to assemble again at Crown Point, only to have smallpox spread even faster. After a council of General officers, General Horatio Gates ordered this long retreat to continue to Ticonderoga.

Event Schedule:

Saturday & Sunday

9:30 am Fort Opens for Visitation

10:15 am Fort Guided Tour (Beginning at the American Flag)

Trace the footsteps of American soldiers in 1776, who converged on the historic French Fort at Ticonderoga to make their stand against a British invasion. Learn how American soldiers put their ingenuity, endurance, and meddle to the test to defend their new nation. Explore on-going preservation efforts that keep their memory alive.

11 am Musket Demonstration (Fort Demonstration Area): Does Hollywood get it right? Imagine what it was like in 1776 to guard earthen walls, keeping a cool head to load, aim, and fire a musket to hold your ground. Make up your own mind about the movies!

11:30 am Breaking Ground: A Tour of the Historic Gardens (Beginning at the American Flag). From Military garrison gardens to a secluded Colonial Revival spectacle of color and light, explore one of the oldest cultivated landscapes in America and learn about the horticultural history of the Ticonderoga peninsula.

1:15 pm Down to the Water Tour (Beginning at the American Flag). With a soldier as your guide, follow a fatigue party down to the site of two massive docks in 1776. Examine the situation and factors that forced the Continental Army in Canada to retreat back to Ticonderoga in 1776. Hear the stories of this retreat by bateau as the boats arrive.

2 pm Musket Demonstration (Lower Field): Discuss bush fighting tactics. How do disciplined soldiers fight in the woods without accidentally shooting one another? Discover how fighting in the woods was more than ducking behind rocks and trees.

2:30 pm “Encamped Just Under the Walls” (Lower Field). Help build camp with soldiers of the Fourth Pennsylvania Battalion as they set their tents and build huts to temporarily encamp below the walls for Fort Ticonderoga. Lend a hand, step inside a tent and imagine what army life was really like.

3:15 pm Fort Guided Tour (Beginning at the American Flag). Trace the footsteps of American soldiers in 1776, who converged on the historic French Fort at Ticonderoga to make their stand against a British invasion. Learn how American soldiers put their ingenuity, endurance, and meddle to the test to defend their new nation. Explore on-going preservation efforts that keep their memory alive.

4 pm Mount Defiance: Witness to History Tour. Oh the stories this graceful hill could tell overlooking Fort Ticonderoga! Ascend to summit of Mount Defiance to get the birds-eye view of this epic military landscape and learn how this height shaped the Fort’s history.

About Fort Ticonderoga: America’s FortTM

Located on Lake Champlain in the beautiful 6 million acre Adirondack Park, Fort Ticonderoga is an independent not-for-profit educational organization, historic site, and museum that ensures that present and future generations learn from the struggles, sacrifices, and victories that shaped the nations of North America and changed world history.

Serving the public since 1909, Fort Ticonderoga engages 70,000 visitors annually and is dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Fort Ticonderoga’s history. Accredited by the American Association of Museums, Fort Ticonderoga offers programs, historic interpretation, tours, demonstrations, and exhibits throughout the year and is open for daily visitation May 10 through November 2, 2014.

The 2014 season features the Fort’s newest exhibit Founding Fashion: The Diversity of Regularity in 18th-Century Military Clothing which brings together for the first time the museum's wide variety of important 18th-century clothing, related artwork, and archeological fragments to illustrate the diversity of clothing worn by the armies who served at Fort Ticonderoga during the French & Indian War and Revolution.

Visit www.Fort-Ticonderoga.org for a full list of ongoing programs or call 518-585-2821.

America’s Fort is a registered trademark of the Fort Ticonderoga Association.