Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 4, 1994 TAG: 9411040082
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: EGGLESTON LENGTH: Medium
For the fourth year in a row, the folks from "The Long Way Home," which has undertaken the emotional performance for more than two decades, break camp and move to Eggleston to recreate the scene on a mountain top where Ingles, who had been captured by Indians, finds her way back to her family. Many of the historic characters will be played by their descendents.
"I've done 'The Long Way Home' off and on since I was 7," says Jennifer Jeffries, who will play Mary Draper Ingles, her great-great-great-great-great- grandmother.
"It's usually really cold," says Jeffries, who appears in ragged clothing. "The last few times it's been drizzling or snowing."
Jeffries' job is to come down the mountain "and look like I haven't eaten or slept for 40 days."
In 1755, Mary Draper Ingles was captured from her home in Drapers Meadow (now Blacksburg) by Shawnee warriors. The re-enactment tells of her courageous escape and her return home where she died years later at 83.
This presentation, sponsored by the Giles Discovery Committee, will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday near the Palisades in Eggleston, Va.
Signs will be posted along Virginia 100 and U.S. 460 directing folks toward Virginia 730 and the re-enactment site, said Evelyn Taylor, president of Giles Discovery. The Smithfield Militia and the Mary Ingles Trailblazers, two re-enactment groups, also will be on hand.
Taylor also promises old-time, historical storytelling at the Masonic lodge in Eggleston. Food will be served for a small charge. "It'll be beans and cornbread - something from the 1700s," Taylor said.
Each year, the demonstration has attracted more schoolchildren and other onlookers. Last year, some 350 people arrived to watch the famous scene in local history.
It's about a half-mile hike to the re-enactment site. A wagon will be on hand to carry those who can't walk it.
In case of rain, the re-enactment will be held the following Saturday.
Meanwhile, filming was recently completed in North Carolina for an ABC Television movie called "Follow the River," based on the story of Mary Ingles.
The movie will star Ellen Burstyn, star of "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" and "The Exorcist," and Sheryl Lee, who played Laura Palmer in "Twin Peaks."
The film is due out no later than May 1995.
by CNB