The reconstructed town is run by the National Park Service. In the town visitors can tour reconstructed Victorian stores, talk to costumed interpreters and watch them at work. Civil War soldiers are among the characters who will be encountered there. The Armory, John Brown's Fort and Storer College -- one of the nation's first integrated colleges -- are among the restored buildings on view.
Within the national park, reenactments include the Battle of Harpers Ferry, the surrender to Stonewall Jackson and artillery demonstrations at Bolivar Heights Battlefield. These events recur several times from May through October. Fourth of July celebrations at the national park have featured Civil War reenactors and their regimental bands. Civil War regiments visit the park on weekends throughout the year, demonstrating camps, armaments, garrison duties, parades and the maintenance of security in an occupied town. Medical weekends demonstrate battlefield medicine.
Among other reenactments scheduled for 2011, costumed interpreters demonstrate advances in technology, armaments, medicine and food preservation in the Civil War era. The varied program of living history also includes reenactments about transportation on Virginia's canals. In the town, sessions with a living history gardening interpreter surround the planting of the armory's garden each May and June. Actors deliver the speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson.
Visitors to Harpers Ferry may try their hands at traditional crafts and occupations. On reenactment weekends you can discover what it was like to make arrests and searches, question prisoners or mount guard. In August, follow in the footsteps of the Civil Rights activists' commemorative march to John Brown's Fort in 1906. In October in the lower town, join in Election Day 1860 and cast your vote for the new president. In December, join Civil War soldiers and civilians preparing for Christmas 1864.
The years 2011 to 2015 mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. A program of special commemorative reenactments applies to these years. Commemorations at Harpers Ferry commence in April 2011 with a reenactment of the burning of the Federal Arsenal, April 1861. Sesquicentennial anniversaries of battles and campaigns continue with reenactments of the Battle of Bolivar Heights in October 2011; Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign, April 2012; the Battle of Harpers Ferry, September 2012; the Gettysburg Campaign, July 2013; Jubal Early's march on Washington, July 2014; and the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, October 2014. In 2015, a full year of activities and reenactments concerning the education of the newly freed slaves will be held.
Harpers Ferry lies in the northern Blue Ridge Mountains, within driving distance of Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. Amtrak trains run twice daily from D.C. Parking is outside the town at the National Park's Visitors Center. Shuttle buses take park visitors into the 19th century town. The park opens daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Reenactment activities are held from March through December.
