HWSP to host Declaration signing, other events in June

Interpreters at Historic Washington State Park are hoping to share the historical significance of the Fourth of July holiday with a special program this Sunday, June 2.

The park will be hosting a reading and signing of the nation’s Declaration of Independence on three occasions on June 2: the first at 10:30 a.m., a second at 1:30 p.m. and a final event at 3:30 p.m. All three readings and signings will take place in the 1874 Courthouse Visitor Center.

Following the reading, attendees will be invited to sign their own “John Hancock” to a copy of the Declaration that they may then take home.

In other upcoming events at Historic Washington, the park is hosting its 17th Annual Red River Heritage Symposium on July 22.

The focus of this year’s symposium will be on “Business and Trade.” The event will feature four speakers who will focus on the impact of commerce and trade in the Great Bend region of the Red River in the nineteenth century.

Specific topics and speakers include “Trade with the Caddo Culture in Northwest Louisiana, 1806” by Dr. Jeff Girard, archeologist at Northwestern Louisiana University at Natchitoches; “Excavation and Understanding of Trade through the Steamboat Heroine” by Nina Chick of Texas A&M University at College Station; “Money and Banking in the Red River Region” by Chris Adams of Historic Washington State Park; and “Henry Merrell: Industrial Missionary to the South” by Josh Williams of Historic Washington State Park.

To register, contact the park visitor center at (870) 983-2684.

Historic Washington State Park is located in Washington on Highway 278 southeast of Nashville.