Mechanics of an event

[Johnny Lloyd]

To the moderator and all:

I have a suggested forum discussion that others might be interested in and it is a "Mechanics of Reenacting/Hosting any Event Authentically".

I'd be rich if I had a nickle if every time I heard someone ask "How do I get this certain permit for an event we're hosting?" or "How do we create flash charges and ground explosives for added realism?"... "How do we buy or we create period-correct trenches/cheveaux-des-frise/gabions/battle wreckage, etc. for added effect?"

Basically, a Mechanics of Event Site-Prep 101 course I feel would be helpful to anyone for common knowledge/expert advice by people that have hosted events before. Complete knowledge from A-Z could be shared to save fellow hobbyists time, money and frustration. (It might also keep someone from being unsafe out of lack-of-proper-knowledge.)

Subject to your questions and healthful debate...:o

Thanks- Johnny

[DougCooper]

To the moderator and all:

I have a suggested forum discussion that others might be interested in and it is a "Mechanics of Reenacting/Hosting any Event Authentically".

I'd be rich if I had a nickle if every time I heard someone ask "How do I get this certain permit for an event we're hosting?" or "How do we create flash charges and ground explosives for added realism?"... "How do we buy or we create period-correct trenches/cheveaux-des-frise/gabions/battle wreckage, etc. for added effect?"

Basically, a Mechanics of Event Site-Prep 101 course I feel would be helpful to anyone for common knowledge/expert advice by people that have hosted events before. Complete knowledge from A-Z could be shared to save fellow hobbyists time, money and frustration. (It might also keep someone from being unsafe out of lack-of-proper-knowledge.)

Subject to your questions and healthful debate...:o

Thanks- Johnny

Johnny - this has been suggested many times and frankly, could be one of the most useful forums ever. Have never heard a good explanation of why it has not happened yet.

[Johnny Lloyd]

Dave-

If that is so, then we need to take action... Johnny ;)

[boreguard]

I concur, a forum for this discussion would be very benifical. Would need sub catagories though to be most productive; i.e. legal, ammenities, sutlers, parking, medical emergencies, cancelation issues, registeration, pre-event site work, civilian volunteer staff, media.

Good idea.

[paulcalloway]

Not sure I've seen that suggestion before but it's a good one. I'll create a folder.

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=110

[coastaltrash]

What board is best for event Organizers to bang their head against...LOL

[Charles Heath]

Pat,

That would definitely be a deeply grained, burled, and knotty wood subject to splintering, crowning, and warping.

I suppose a folder would be a good substitute for those who haven't viewed the Power Point presentation on this very subject. It was a keeper.

[Johnny Lloyd]

To all:

Boreguard has the right idea for sub folders too. We need specifics as sub-categories to be even more effective in this realm.Boreguard's idea above--- i.e. legal, ammenities, sutlers, parking, medical emergencies, cancelation issues, registeration, pre-event site work, civilian volunteer staff, media

As well as a disclaimer on the header saying:

"Try what you will, but you are of your own decisions. This is what has been practiced before by others who have and want to share experience. The AC takes NO responsibility for failure to follow safety when using these suggestions or when you the individual acts stupidly of your own initiative."

I hate legalese. :mad:

I care deeply about the hobby and want to see others do also. We don't need negative press.

Thanks- Johnny Lloyd

[Charles Heath]

Johnny,

That is what threads are for, and I suspect Paul would have a few words to say about the administration of such a number of sub-sub fora, etc. Considering the number of people who organize high quality events stands at about two dozen, some of this may be moot, but at least it has the potential to be educational.

[paulcalloway]

On the subject of sub-categories - hold up.

There's a history lesson in itself here - when we first set up the vbulletin software for the AC, Scott McKay created 100s of folders. He was all about the logistics and soon we had a mammoth directory structure that was too confusing for any to follow. In fact, it was too confusing for the software and our computers to follow and the simple act of listing and editing the folders would stall... it was a mess to administrate.

I see the same thing with other new discussion forums that create so many folders that no one knows what to do with them and they remain empty and just serve to confuse board members and water down the discussion.

We had to go back and merge much of Scott McKay's original folder structure... it took days. The AC now has 110 folders and sub-folders and the school of thought that has developed is - we'll create sub-folders when the volume of discussion warrants the creation of same. That's still the best course of action.

Use the new folder as it is and if the volume of discussion grows, we'll consider creating additional sub-folders.

[Johnny Lloyd]

Sir-
Basically, as "mission and subject necessity dictates", you'll create folders accordingly to avoid confusion and unnecessary sub-folders.

I was just throwing-out suggestions where it should go eventually if successful. I am a neophyte to this particular section, but learning.

Charles has a good point, though... few people want to put on actual authentic events, but maybe a forum folder like this would encourage more to do so if they -think- it can be done??

Ganz genau, mein herr.... Understood and acknowledged.

Thanks- Johnny

[Charles Heath]

... few people want to put on actual authentic events, but maybe a forum folder like this would encourage more to do so if they -think- it can be done??

Yep, one thing is for certain -- the last thing the campaigner, progressive, and hardcore segments of the hobby need is more events, but more people to work on high quality events is something definitely welcomed.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Get the land first.

Make sure there's sufficient water supply.

Most organizers can't get either of the two ideas listed above right.

[Spinster]

And both of those are harder questions than they seem......

How much land is enough for how many folks? How does the variety of terrain and forrestation come into play to make a small amount of land seem large?

How much water per person, at what anticipated outdoor temperature ranges? Do your folks know how to not waste water, or will they spill 5 gallons filling a 1 quart canteen?

Getting some of this down into "rules of thumb" will be awfully helpful.

[Charles Heath]

Terre,

Warlick's Law has served me well: "Water cheap. EMS expensive."

[Johnny Lloyd]

Now ya'll are sounding like logisticians in today's US Army- "Where do we set up? How many people are going to be there? Water supply is where? etc...":p

Niiice- Johnny :cool:

[boreguard]

The best amount of water is unlimited. The best water source is hard mounted small funnel like fittings that can be bought dirt cheap, attached to 1/2 inch faucets, and will fit the neck of a canteen allow for quick fill and no spill. The problem with most water sources is the 1/2 inch water faucet by itself, which is larger than the neck of a canteen... I stand in amazement at the event organizers that wonder why so much water winds up on the ground. Face it a safe water supply will come from a very farby source regardless, so one more ugly step can economize water and make for faster fill ups by water details. So in an effort to make this folder informative, that's my fisrt contribution. ;)

[Spinster]

Chawls,

You've already seen the difference between my water lifting and hauling capacity and yours :D

Especially when I didn't plan on hauling that much water and you being kind enough to help. And I had previously put a pencil and paper to all the rules of thumb I could extract from folks on water amounts. There is no such thing as too much water.

Lordy yes, Chawls is kind to wimmen and children. Don't tell anyone though

[boreguard]

He's such a Ginmen and a wascally wascal !

[Charles Heath]

And I had previously put a pencil and paper to all the rules of thumb I could extract from folks on water amounts.

Terre,

I'm sure this will be filed under "Chawls is being mean and nasty."

Ceteris parabus, reenactors in a campaign environment tend to use less water than those in a static environment. This is mostly due to cooking and cleaning using an incredible amount of water. One of the numbers people tend to leave off their water forecasting is activities. Some activities take enough water to hydrate a company, so combine a few of those with several families, and the water usage quickly quadruples.

Over the past weekend, we had a typical NPS living history with an average of 20 participants for two days. At a gallon per day per participant, that's 40 gallons. The Friday night fill up is about 5 gallons. For sloshing around, I added 20 gallons, and filled a few cans for back up in case some vandal left the water on the in middle of the night. We used approximately 40 gallons. Since I cooked, I was very conservative with the water. In fact 12 gallons were used to extinguish the fire, which has become a real pet peeve of mine since late October 2005.

I didn't see any reason to bring the 210-gallon mushroom tank, so. I used the 65-gallon tank from the infamous mini-me trailer, and the skid for that trailer interior fits well in the bed of the pickup. Since we only had a few people to water, I used a 3/4" brass boiler drain instead of any of the manifolds. Like Neal said, using a reducer saves water. I've consistently run across plenty of supply tubes on clearance tables, and simple leave about 4" of hose on the end of them for the reason he says. In contrast, at the Vicksburg NPS LH this year, the federals used approximately 175 gallons of water. I don't recall if that was a 325 or 400 (or what) gallon tank on the utility trailer, but maybe Pat can chime in here with the headcount and gallon figure for the feds, and maybe the same for the rebs.

I can dig up some of the old and not so old water posts, but most people are darn tired of reading them. IMHO, the biggest advance in the past few years has been the return of water purification tablets, and we can thank Hank Trent for that.

[ephraim_zook]

Ladies & Gents,

Bill Watson found this information in response to someone's question a few months ago; please credit him for it. The link below will take you to a modern US Army Field Manual. Scroll down past "Aircraft Washing". Looks like the army calls for a minimum of 2.9 gals per man per day, max of 3.9 gal/man/day in a temperate zone. KEEP IN MIND that this includes water for cooking, cleaning up, personal hygene, etc.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/10-52/Ch3.htm

The rule of thumb I learned regarding drinking water (this means temperate zone, non-strenuous activity) is 0.5 oz water per pound of body weight per day. A 150 lb person (yeah, dream on) requires a tad over ½ gallon per day. Since we can figure on a certain amount of cooking and cleaning up at most events, the tables in FM 10-52 are probably closer to our real requirements, especially given the wastage mentioned in other posts here.

Ron Myzie

[Charles Heath]

Ron, that info was posted on a regular basis during the great Lyster (Lister) bag debate circa 2003 or so. The Navy version for their Seabees is also pretty useful.

[Hank Trent]

IMHO, the biggest advance in the past few years has been the return of water purification tablets, and we can thank Hank Trent for that.

From a participant's-eye view, I'll never be without them again. The way I see it, they're no more farby than a spigot or water buffalo, since it's a rare event indeed where one can use an actual period hand-pump or safe spring without some modern intrusion for safety's sake. And it's downright cool to look for creeks or ponds to get water from, rather than for water buffalos, and to compare the flavor from a stagnant pond with a quick mountain stream.

Here's an overview of tablet types. http://outside.away.com/outside/2004/buyers_guide/hydration/die_bugs_die.html

I use Katadyn Micropur MP 1. One tablet in a quart will kill bacteria, viruses, and cryptosporidia in half an hour in warm clear water, longer in cold cloudy water. It won't deal with chemicals or heavy metals, but I figure there are as many nitrates in my bacon as I'd get from drinking average farmland runoff for a weekend. If heavy metals in the ground water are an issue, of course, some other option is necessary. Reported medical problems and side effects appear to be the least among chemical treatments, virtually nil according to that comparison website. Filters are another possibility, but for reenacting, are bulkier and more time consuming, and thus harder to disguise their use.

I've used Micropur extensively for both modern camping and reenacting, with no problem. At reenactments, I fill a canteen at a water source, drop a tablet in, cork it up and go on, knowing I can start drinking half an hour later.

It leaves almost no taste, so for better or worse, the flavor of the original water comes through. I've drunk from the Potomac River, the C&O Canal (though I did turn down the canal water in the Williamsport basin--yuck), farm ponds and creeks. On the '57 camping trip that Charles attended with us, our watering spots included a puddle in the woods where a turtle was soaking, a chanel that the beavers dug to float logs into the lake, and a trickling waterfall over the front of a huge recess cave.

I don't know how treatment tablets would work on a large scale. I believe it was done to some extent at BGR? How did that go?

The problems I can see are that there's a psychological barrier that people may need to get over, there's the issue of everyone needing to remember to treat the water and wait to drink, and to think far enough ahead that they can get by needing water in half an hour but not Right Now, and there's the flavor issue where water is stagnant. It wouldn't do for large usage, like needing two or three gallons for a stationary cookpot. But where creeks, ponds, rivers or puddles are available, it gives unlimited freedom of movement and turns modern logistics (where to place the water buffalo) into period logistics (how to find the creek by looking for low spots and tree lines).

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Tablets...iodine crystals...I remember using these years ago in Boy Scouting...many times backpacking in wilderness areas or backcountry you have to make do with water on the spot...

My fav. purification was the iodine crystals Polar Pure...lets not forget a simple method of boiling water as well...this will usually kill all but the nastiest of water-born bacteria.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Thing is, there's certain nasty bacteria that water purification tablets and chlorine just won't kill. They're the bane of modern water treatment plants as well, but their owners can usually pass laws to protect their watershed (i.e., water source) from things like dairy farm manure lagoons where nice little buggers like cryptosporidium and giardia lambia tend to thrive. Runnoff from places like dairy farms can cary water laden with these guys into surface water and groundwater that serve as the supply for a modern community or a well that serves reenactors for a weekend.

It's a bit like driving 70 mph on the Interstate. You can do it and probably not get caught, but you MIGHT get caught, and it's still breaking the law... er... risking a nasty infection.

Personally, I prefer to stay with sanitized water supplies at events that come from sources known to be safe.

[Old Reb]

We relied heavily on natural water sources at BGR. We treated the water, but one thing that was in our favor was the fact that just prior to the event we had good rains and that the area we were using had no cattle and no beaver, thus the water was not contaminated. Also, I had drunk from the streams many times and never died or become ill, so I was the test rat for the water source.

[Charles Heath]

"...nice little buggers like cryptosporidium and giardia lambia tend to thrive."

Kevin,

The Micropur tablets allegedly work well to kill cryptosporidium, but aren't effective against giardia. Thus far, I haven't had any troubles with Micropur, and they are definitely light years ahead of the old iodine type tablets.

The whole business of sanitizing containers and delivery systems has been beaten to death on this forum and elsewhere, but it is another good thing to keep in mind. The crud that builds up between events in tanks, cans, barrels, manifolds, hoses, buckets, etc., can be surprising, and not in a good way.

As Hank mentioned, heading over to the water buffalo isn't the most pleasing view in the world, so a little camoflage from barrels to water huts to faux springs can go a long ways. If anyone remembers the article with the plans for the federal water carts, I've often wanted to build one of those with a barrel and some scraps. Looky, a period solution! The wagons Jack King's brigade uses are another decent idea, and one seen in practice on a regular basis.

[Hank Trent]

I want to strongly emphasize that I am not talking about iodine tablets, which I wouldn't personally recommend, due to flavor and health reasons.

For a campaign or moving event in hot weather, the only problem I'd run into with boiling is logistics. On a hot day walking/marching, I'll drink a gallon a day. That means I'd either need to have a container large enough to boil a gallon at once and carry it all at the start of the day, plus the time to start a fire, bring it to a boil, and let it cool down. Or four times a day I'd need the time and situation to start a fire, boil a quart of water, then cool it enough to transport and/or drink. For me, that's just too much trouble, compared to 30 seconds of dropping in a tablet. (Edited to add: if it were a period activity, I'd be glad to do it regardless of the trouble.) And unless you're always drinking the water as coffee or tea or soup, there's still no period explanation for all that boiling of plain water, so although it requires no anachonistic items, it still requries anachronistic behavior. Yes, I know, you'll rarely see boiling recommended in period sources, but it was one of many random suggestions and certainly not PEC for someone to boil all the water they drank. (Edited to add: this may be one of those personal subjective judgment calls. Is it "more authentic" to engage in a modern-motivated activity for a longer time while using only period items, or to cut the modern activity down to a few seconds by using a non-period item?)

At a cold-weather event, where less water is used, with predictable firewood and halt times, or at a stationary event where there's always a coffee-pot or soup or "hot dishwater" over the fire, I agree that boiling would be practical.

Thing is, there's certain nasty bacteria that water purification tablets and chlorine just won't kill. They're the bane of modern water treatment plants as well, but their owners can usually pass laws to protect their watershed (i.e., water source) from things like dairy farm manure lagoons where nice little buggers like cryptosporidium and giardia lambia tend to thrive. Runnoff from places like dairy farms can cary water laden with these guys into surface water and groundwater that serve as the supply for a modern community or a well that serves reenactors for a weekend.

Kevin, I'm not sure I'm reading the above paragraph correctly. Are you saying that crypto and giardia are the things that purification tablets won't kill, or are you referring to some other bacteria that you didn't name?

Iodine and chlorine-based tablets won't kill crypto, but I'm not recommending those.

The tablet I use is different. It's based on chlorine dioxide and is EPA tested to kill both crypto and giardia.

Personally, I prefer to stay with sanitized water supplies at events that come from sources known to be safe.

So do I. However, the fact is, as you know, that almost all commercially provided water comes from a source, originally, that's unsafe to drink directly from, else there wouldn't be a need for commercial treatment plants. Our commercial water at home comes from the Ohio River, but I wouldn't go down to the bank and drink it straight.

But if it's sanitized by a treatment plant by the thousands of gallons, or sanitized by the quart, as long as it's treated by an EPA-tested method to bring it to approved levels for bacteria, viruses and cysts, and is therefore "known" to be safe, what difference does it make?

I think this is an example of the psychological barrier I was talking about.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Hank Trent]

Kevin,

The Micropur tablets allegedly work well to kill cryptosporidium, but aren't effective against giardia.

Um, actually, they claim to be "The only disinfection system effective against viruses, bacteria, cryptosporidium, and Giardia." http://www.e-omc.com/catalog/products/536/Katadyn-MicroPur-Tablets.html Do you know something I don't?

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Spinster]

That psychological barrier works the other way too.

For BGR, I was hauling civilian water supplies from a park outlet 10 miles away, and filling wood barrels with a food-grade liner on site.

By the time they got to us, the men were so habituated to the idea that their canteen water had to have a tablet dropped in, along with a waiting period, the idea of clean, ready, drinkable water was foreign to them. Several kept checking with whispered references, not quite believing that they could drink all they wanted, and right then.....

[Charles Heath]

"The only disinfection system effective against viruses, bacteria, cryptosporidium, and Giardia.

Hank,

Good catch! The product advertising does specifically mention giardia, yet the Outdoor magazine's review does not. The various third party sources tend to lean hard on chlorine dioxide killing giardia, at least since 1997. Yet another good reason to use Micropur....wait Katadyn isn't an approved vendor. :p

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

To make clear there are many commercially available water-treatment products (tablets/crystals/solutions) that are capable of killing crypto and giardia. My suggestion was not for iodine tablets, I simply mentioned the polar pure (iodine crystals) as an example (and yes they are capable of killing giardia, don't know about crypto~would have to confirm with the company).

http://www.polarequipment.com/treatment.htm

Yes, I realize that on campaign boiling water is usually not appropriate...in static scenarios it may be. Certainly civilian populace (at an event like McDowell) would have an easier time of this, but realizing that much of the water probably should be coming from a well. Our ancestors weren't stupid, and even way back knew the dangers of cantaminated water (rivers/streams not only had natural contaminates, but were also used to provide a median for refuse to be carried away~this is a practice that only "recently" is being corrected). Because our forbearers realized the hazard of drinking water, a variety of other water-based fluids evolved because they were for a time considered to be less hazardess.

What one really has to be careful about is how they are used...

For example, if you were to dunk your canteen in a contaminated/infected stream, and simply pass your purification (tablet/crystal/solution) into your canteen, you still have the potential to pick up the bacteria around the lip of your canteen when you drink from it. A solution to this; before drinking from said canteen place the cork in just enough for the now purified water to run out of the canteen, swish around the lip of the mouthpiece so that the chemicals might disenfect the lip.

Bottom line; to reinforce the discussion, there's no surefast solution to being safe and not being anachronistic. The idea of period "water-huts" or travelling tanks is probably the best solution where a stream is not present but as Charles mentioned before, even here you would want to set something in the tanks to prevent the nasties from self-propagating in your water source.

Alot of this has been mentioned before, and its all good information. I look forward to seeing what other discussions evolve from this new folder as far as event hosting ideas/recommendations. While each of us has there favorite events, it can be an exciting thing for new events to evolve and come about.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Kevin, I'm not sure I'm reading the above paragraph correctly. Are you saying that crypto and giardia are the things that purification tablets won't kill, or are you referring to some other bacteria that you didn't name?

Iodine and chlorine-based tablets won't kill crypto, but I'm not recommending those.

The tablet I use is different. It's based on chlorine dioxide and is EPA tested to kill both crypto and giardia.


....almost all commercially provided water comes from a source, originally, that's unsafe to drink directly from, else there wouldn't be a need for commercial treatment plants. Our commercial water at home comes from the Ohio River, but I wouldn't go down to the bank and drink it straight.



Hank,

Thanks for clearing up the thing about the purification tablets. I did not know the particular type to which you were intiially referring.

As to water sources in general, by "known to be safe" I meant a water source that is regularly tested in accordance with the requirements of the health department having jurisdiction and is therefore "known" to be safe.

I agree with Charles that some events can probably do more to disguise their water supply tank, but if I'm going to compromise on some aspect of my "immersion" experience, I can stomach having to get water from an ag tank with plastic dispensing valves much more readily than I can stomach a period-correct visit from e-coli.

[coastaltrash]

Pat,

That would definitely be a deeply grained, burled, and knotty wood subject to splintering, crowning, and warping.

I suppose a folder would be a good substitute for those who haven't viewed the Power Point presentation on this very subject. It was a keeper.

Ya know, Kevin sent me that file and I never even checked it out. By that point the 4 W's of Event organizing had been answered (that would be "when, who, water, why) Kevin filled a damn big gap in that event that otherwise would have left an "f" in there somewhere.

[Hank Trent]

if I'm going to compromise on some aspect of my "immersion" experience, I can stomach having to get water from an ag tank with plastic dispensing valves much more readily than I can stomach a period-correct visit from e-coli.

We're in total agreement on that. Otherwise, we wouldn't even be discussing the best modern ways to treat water.

If you have any actual evidence that water treated with Micropur is more apt to contain e-coli or any other harmful bacteria, viruses or giardia or crypto than water from an ag tank, I'd be interested, because according to everything I can find, it's equally safe. If it's just prejudice against the "ewww" factor of drinking (treated) water from a creek, I guess I'll just bear my burden as one of those foolish hardcores who eats unrefrigerated meat, drinks bad water and sleeps in the dirt. :D

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[LindaTrent]

I agree with Charles that some events can probably do more to disguise their water supply tank, but if I'm going to compromise on some aspect of my "immersion" experience, I can stomach having to get water from an ag tank with plastic dispensing valves much more readily than I can stomach a period-correct visit from e-coli.I've seen some water tanks at events that I'd rather not drink from. The water going into them might be from a county water source, but the tank itself was somewhat disgusting. On the other hand I don't believe either Charles or Hank got sick after the '57 camping trip (I know I didn't), and due to the drought, we drank some extremely disgusting long stagnant water that I think all three of us questioned. But we gave the tablets more time to work and voila, we're all still here to tell the story.:tounge_sm

FWIW, I found this a while ago on the web Wisemen Trading (http://www.wisementrading.com/water/treatments.htm)
"Katadyn brings you effective water purification with their Micropur MP1 water tablets for disinfection of drinking water. Micropur MP1 Purification Tablets are EPA registered to be effective against Cryptosporidium, Giardia, bacteria, and viruses without using a filter. Micropur tablets are approved by the U.S. Military and the Boy Scouts of America as well... emergency organizations..."

If they're good enough for our boy scouts (see also Philmont Ranch (http://www.troop764.org/Philmont/micropur_use.html)) , our military, and emergency organizations they're good enough for me. :tounge_sm

Hope that helps somehow :D

Linda.

[Charles Heath]

I've seen some water tanks at events that I'd rather not drink from. The water going into them might be from a county water source, but the tank itself was somewhat disgusting.

Linda,

I have, too, and that is one of the reasons we go to great lengths to sanitize the ag tanks and food service grade barrels. Scrubbing the insides with a long handled brush isn't much of a problem, shocking the initial load isn't too bad, but the dust that enters through the vented lid of the ag tanks can be unsightly at times. Normally, over the course of a weekend in dusty conditions, this amounts to about a level teaspoonful in a typical tank.

Probably the worst water I've had at an event in recent memory came from a barrel that had been filled for approximately two years, and left to sit. Needless to say, the taste, texture, turbidity....you get the picture. Cleaning and refilling would have helped quite a bit. Oddly enough, no one became sick from that water. I still scratch my head at that one.

Sometimes wooden barrels have some interesting flavors from the original contents. The cooking and washing water in open barrels at an event last summer had a distinctive bourbon flavor courtesy of Barton Brands (not an approved vendor), but I noticed the attendees filled their canteens from these barrels rather than step over to the water truck parked a couple hundred feet away. Mmmm, tasty.

One of the consistent features of Living History Guild (LHG) and WIG events has been the use of wooden water barrels, and for the sake of appearances, this is a step up. To achieve a manifold effect at one of the last Death March events, three wooden barrels with were set up on notched logs under the shade of a tree, and while 159 gallons of water was a bit of overkill for that location, it worked well. Fortunately, set up, recovery, etc. was made easier by good access. Is this perfect? Nope. Does it beat dipping water out of a garbage can a la Olustee or gallon jugs? Perhaps it does.

On the other hand I don't believe either Charles or Hank got sick after the '57 camping trip (I know I didn't), and due to the drought, we drank some extremely disgusting long stagnant water that I think all three of us questioned.

I even managed to get some lake water by loosening the canteen strap, but the rainwater trying desperately to give us an impression of the waterfall (darn that drought) was pretty good, too. Believe me when I say I've had worse. The water was good, and these modern tablets leave no aftertaste. This is a good thing.

Unfortunately, they may or may not work with larger groups. That would be a good experiment some time with a battalion of 200 or so on a good and happy march. We know some reenactors won't drink water purified in this manner (BGR 2007) and others get skittish when they *think* the water came from a creek (Cactoctin COI 2002) and some just freak out totally at the thought of springwater (Burkittsville 2001) no matter what is done with it. Still, being independent of the great mass of watering infrastructure would be a heck of a fine thing.

[Todd Watts]

Got a question here. Has anyone planned a re-enactment event? There is some interest in the Mid-TN region for a good event (to replace several small poor ones) to draw attention to the Tullahoma Campaign. I am sort of becoming one of the pushers instead of the pushees and really have little idea where to start. What problems came up when you planned yours? What was the cost factor, and what did you learn?

Several folks in the area here are trying in a disjointed fashion to save the Tullahoma Campaign sites that are not yet developed. One way to do this is to get local support and to do that we need to make them realize what revenue the Civil War sites can bring to them if the sites are preserved. A good medium to large scale event can draw the immediate attention about the campaign while at the same time flooding local business leaders with cash. My own intrest came up because I now own land right next to the Liberty Gap battlefields and as I drive around the area I see it is almost wholely undeveloped still, but the big farms on it are noww getting sold and it is only a short matter of time until suburbs spread.

[ElizabethClark]

Todd, scan down the forum section a bit--yes, you'll find quite a few folks here have organized events, and have some good advice. Getting local support for interesting events is a great start.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Get the land for the event site first--locked up, in writing. Don't neglect insurance requirements.

Define the event concept. Market the event to potential participants (without being overbearing about it) and be realistic about expectations and numbers of attendees.

Realistically develop a budget for the event and set the participant registration fee accordingly.

Open a history book, read it, and then do what it says--simple formula.

Keep the event committee size managable; more committee members does not necessarily mean better because lots of folks do not have the will or ability to carry though on their promises.

The person handling logistics (WATER, sanitary, fuel, food & forage, etc.) needs to be well-organized and know what they're doing. Disinfect the water and the tank.

Handle registration in a professional manner--keep proper records, don't sit on uncashed checks for weeks or months. Pay debts promptly.

Follow through--before, during, and even AFTER the event.

[EasySam]

This thread has been dormant awhile, but I am interested about something. All the talk about water needed, there is "the other end" of the question. I'd like some thoughts and suggestions about sinks, latrines, porta johns, etc. I know at mainstream events the little blue houses are easily seen (for good or bad). A little camo paint could help. What are some of ya'lls experiences at more history intensive events. As a plumbing contractor, I do know this unpleasant logistic is extremely important, healthwise. Perhaps even moreso than water supply. It wouldn't take too much for a local county health department to come sniffing around. Without tooooo much detail, how are sinks set up and what about hygeinic papers, leaves or cobs?:D