News Release

Lime Rick Burn: The First Fall at Frederica, November 12, 2022

Date: November 2, 2022
Contact: Phil Officer, 912-638-3639 ext 107

St. Simons Island, GA: On Saturday, November 12, 2022, from 12:00 to 7:00 pm take a step back in time to the fall of 1736 and witness how the first settlers of Fort Frederica built a thriving town in a brand-new world. Living historians will demonstrate how the colonists lived through cooking, blacksmithing, and musket demonstrations; as well as showing how the very walls of the town were built through the making of tabby and the lighting of a lime rick! Fort Frederica National Monument is located at 6515 Frederica Road on Saint Simons Island. The lighting of the lime rick is dependent on weather conditions. 

Fort Frederica was founded in 1736 by General James Oglethorpe. Many of the permanent structures were built from a man-made substance called tabby. Termed the colonial cement, tabby is mixture of sand, water, oyster shells and lime. The first step in the tabby-making process is to burn the oyster shells at very high degree of heat in a lime rick; a wooden structure that resembles an unfinished log-cabin. The shells turn into ash (lime), which is then mixed with the rest of the ingredients. Making tabby is a labor-intensive process. It took a community to build the town. 

Demonstrations will be held throughout the afternoon starting at noon on November 12 and will culminate with a candlelight tour of the town at 6 pm! Join us for this unique look into the daily lives of Frederica’s first inhabitants! 

For more information, please contact Phil Officer at [phone] ex. 114 

www.nps.gov/fofr 

About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 413 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov.