Where it's Always 1780

The reconstruction of historic Mansker Station in Moss-Wright Park was Goodlettsville's contribution to Tennessee's Homecoming '86, a statewide celebration which urged citizens of the state to seek out their roots and learn their history.

Because the exact details of Kasper's original fort are lost in the mists of history, the modern builders studied descriptions of other forted stations in the Cumberland Valley to get an idea of what the fort must have looked like. From contemporary written descriptions of Mansker Station, it appears to have been substantially larger than the reconstruction, but the close attention to detail shown by the designers and builders of the reconstructed fort more than makes up for this small question of authenticity.

Only materials and methods which were used by the pioneer builders of the orginal forted stations were employed in the reconstruction. Accurate attention to authentic detail shows up in the skillfully joined logs, the use of wooden pegs instead of nails (which were hard to come by on the frontier), and the use of an adze to hew and smooth all of the flat wood surfaces.

Mansker Station is operated as a living history museum, where visitors can get a taste of day-to-day life on the Tennessee frontier. The staff wear authentic costumes and tend to the daily chores that kept busy the lives of the original inhabitants. They are well-versed in the history of the period and are happy to dscuss with visitors the tools they are using, the clothes they are wearing, and other aspects of daily life in the 1780s.

Photographs of Mansker Station