June 8, 2017
MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. — Storyteller Judi Tarowsky will present “Burning Springs –The Forgotten Story” at 1 p.m., Saturday, June 17 at the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex in Moundsville. A question and answer session will follow. The hour-long program is free and open to the public.
The program tells the Civil War-era tale of the West Virginia town of Burning Springs, an oil boom town in Wirt County on the banks of the Little Kanawha River, and the events that happened on May 9, 1863. Confederate troops commanded by General William (Grumble) Jones marched on the town, and set fire to the oil field. The blaze destroyed the town, but no civilian lives were lost. The raid was considered so sensitive to the Union that no newspapers reported the story, and no federal record exists of it.
Judi Young Tarowsky graduated from West Virginia University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, and began her career with the Wheeling Intelligencer before working for The Herald-Star in Steubenville, Ohio, and The Wheeling News-Register. In 2008, she started her own company, Red Horse Writing Service, Ltd., and studied to become a professional storyteller. She received a graduate certificate in storytelling in 2010 from the University of North Texas School of Information Sciences. In 2006, she won first place in the Inaugural Annual Strand Theatre Story Telling Festival’s Adult Amateur Liar’s Contest and placed second in 2007. Her work appears in the digital web concert, “Spinning Yarns Storytelling Concert,” at http://www.courses.unt.edu/efiga/SpinningYarns/index.htm.
For more information about activities and programs at Grave Creek Mound, contact Andrea Keller, cultural program coordinator, at (304) 843-4128 or andrea.k.keller@wv.gov or visit www.facebook.com/gravecreekmound and www.twitter.com/gravecreekmound.
Operated by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex features one of the largest conical burial mounds built by the Adena people between 250 - 150 B.C. and ranks as one of the largest earthen mortuary mounds anywhere in the world. Exhibits and displays in the Delf Norona Museum interpret what is known about the lives of these prehistoric people and the construction of the mound. The complex also houses the West Virginia Archaeological Research and Collections Management Facility.
Admission to Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex is free. The Delf Norona Museum, located at 801 Jefferson Avenue, is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday. Outdoor access closes at 4:30 p.m.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History is an agency within the Office of Secretary of Education and the Arts with Gayle Manchin, cabinet secretary. The division, led by Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith, brings together the past, present and future through programs and services focusing on archives and history, arts, historic preservation and museums. For more information about the division’s programs, events and sites, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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