Park celebrates 212 years with reenactment, activities

On Saturday, hundreds of history buffs gathered at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park for the 212th anniversary of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. The evening closed out with luminaries on the battlefield representing lives lost. Clockwise from the top, reenactors representing Andrew Jackson's troops fire flintlock muskets, which produce lots of sparks and smoke; Jake Tiger, from Seminole, Oklahoma hangs stickball equipment that represents one of the Muscogee Creek villages near the Horseshoe Bend before a stickball game; and Rosa Hall provided visitors with insight into the lifestyles and cultures of the early 1800s. Here she was speaking about Muscogee Creek rattles made of hundreds of deer hooves tied to deerskin leggings that female dancers wore to make loud sounds as they danced.