Heavy rains make for a soggy Sultana Festival

Heavy rains make for a soggy Sultana Festival

Small but enthisiastic crowd on hand for second annual gathering

news@theeveningtims.com Rainy weather kept the crowd size small at the 2nd Annual Sultana Heritage Festival. But those who attended the event heard lots of new and fascinating information about the greatest maritime disaster in U.S. history.

“Our attendance was down due to the weather,” said Tracy Brick, Marion Chamber of Commerce Director of Member Services & Events. “But those who came out had a really fun time.”

Brick said about 100 people attended the event, which commemorates the 1865 sinking of the steamboat Sultana which resulted in the loss of over 1,800 of the 2,400 passengers aboard.

The event featured lectures, living history re-enactors, period music, food, and a cannon firing display.

This is the second year Marion has hosted the event in an effort to raise awareness of the Sultana disaster. The tragedy had been largely lost to history because it coincided with the end of the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Marion has a temporary museum containing original artifacts and is making plans to build a larger, permanent museum.

Brick said this year’s lectures were well received and focused on new topics that were different from last year’s lineup.

Nancy Hendricks, author of “Terrible Swift Sword: Long Road to the Sultana,” dressed in period costume and focused on the women who on board the Sultana; Louis Intres, a history professor and Sultana scholar at Arkansas State University, spoke about Chief Quartermaster Reuben B.

Hatch, who took bribes to overload the boat; Dr.

James Armistead of the Naval War College gave the keynote lecture about the legal aftermath of the disaster; and Jake Koch, a ranger at Andersonville Prison National Historic Site, talked about the notorious prison and the men from the Sultana who were imprisoned there.

“The speakers were fantastic,” Brick said. “The people who are there know a lot about it. So it is difficult to present a lot of new information. But I think our speakers had a different aspect where they came from that was different.

“Nancy Hendricks talked about the women. Louis gave a new lecture about Reuben Hatch and a lot of new information that has been collected by the Sultana Descendants Association. Dr. Armistead was incredible. He called it the ‘would have, should have, could have.’ So that was very interesting. And we ended with the lead ranger from Andersonville. So everybody who was there just loved it. They said the information was very good.”

Brick said author John T.

Wayne, who is the grandson of the legendary cowboy movie star, was also a huge hit.

“He had a great time and people loved meeting him,” Brick said. “Everytime I walked by somebody was next to him getting their picture made with him. He sold books and t-shirts and autographed pictures. He said he was really glad he came.”

Brick said it is difficult to predict attendance for any festival, but outdoor events are even more difficult because

they are at the mercy

of the weather.

“It was a great festival. We had all of the elements there,” Brick said. “We were just fighting the weather. It was just miserable. I don’t know what the answer is to that. You can’t control it. I don’t know if we need to look at moving it to a different month or finding and indoor venue. It is difficult to do outdoor events. April and October are the best as far as temperaturwise. But the Saturdays in April and October are just filled with events”.

Brick said she is not sure what they will do next year. That decision will be up to the Marion Advertising and Promotions Commission which funded the event.

But overall she said she was pleased with the event and believes there is definitely interest and growing awareness of the Sultana “I was pleased,” Brick said. “I would give it a Bplus. If nothing else we increased awareness. When you think about a few years ago, nobody knew what Sultana was. So we are accomplishing the goal of creating some new awareness.”

By Mark Randall