PROGRAMS AND PRESENTATIONS

The Wild Horse Creek Company offers several general interest programs and presentations to historical, church, and civic groups needing an interesting program after a meeting, dinner, or as part of their regularly scheduled events. Our popular PowerPoint programs run about forty-five to fifty minutes in length and include a question-and-answer segment following the presentation. The presenter brings all of the equipment required to conduct the program unless the location is unusual in its configuration. Presentations have been made to as few as fifteen people and as many as three hundred.

Lewis and Clark and Me
The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803–1806), headed by Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, was the first American overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back. In 2008, the presenter spent twelve weeks following the trail of the most famous expedition in U.S. history. Find out what happened to Lewis and Clark during the expedition, and how the Corps of Discovery is interpreted today. This PowerPoint presentation includes handouts and other visual aids.

An Evening with the Journals of Lewis and Clark
This program explores the journals that Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark wrote during their epic journey with readings by the presenter along with photographs of the scenes described. This PowerPoint presentation includes handouts and other visual aids.

So Many Brave Men:
A History of the Battle at Minisink Ford
For the first time in more than thirty years, a new history has been written about the only Revolutionary War battle to take place in the Upper Delaware River valley. This new book, with the same title as the program, was written by Mark Hendrickson, Jon Inners, and Peter Osborne and reveals new archival material that has been rediscovered. This PowerPoint presentation explores the history of the battle and the importance of it on the lives of the settlers who lived in the valley during the Revolutionary War.

Perseverance and Vigilance:
The History of the Decker Stone House
The Fort Decker Museum of History, owned by the Minisink Valley Historical Society, is a stone house that is one of the most historic buildings in Port Jervis and the surrounding area. It was built by a Revolutionary War patriot, Lt. Martinus Decker, burned by Tory Mohawk Joseph Brant in 1779, and then used as a canal hotel during the 1820s. It served as a private residence until 1958 and it remained vacant until the Society purchased it in 1970. This PowerPoint presentation takes the viewer through its historic journey from a French and Indian War trading post to a Revolutionary War fortification to its present use as a museum with exhibits and eighteenth-century cooking demonstrations.

Great Graves
This PowerPoint program explores the various styles of graveyard and cemetery art from the 1700s to the present day. Examples of many styles are drawn from cemeteries throughout the region. This program will encourage the viewer to visit cemeteries and graveyards for years to come. The program also includes a handout of material related to cemeteries, epitaphs, and preservation.

The Silent Cities:
Graveyards, Churchyards and Cemeteries
This program demonstrates how graveyards and cemeteries developed in America beginning with simple family plots on farms and continuing to elaborately designed cemeteries. Examples of the various stages of development are shown in this PowerPoint program which includes a handout of material related to cemeteries, epitaphs, and their preservation.

Theodore Roosevelt:
The Champion Of The Strenuous Life
Theodore Roosevelt was one of our nation’s most important presidents (1901-1909) in the twentieth century. TR was known as “The Conservation President,” setting aside millions of acres of land for future generations to enjoy. Roosevelt also believed that the federal government needed to be a powerful counterbalance to the large and powerful corporations being created at the time. He was beloved by many of his fellow citizens until he died in 1919.

Franklin D. Roosevelt:
A Rendezvous with Destiny
This PowerPoint program looks at the life of one of the twentieth century’s most important leaders. He led America through the Depression and World War II, the greatest conflagration the world has ever seen. His influence on the twentieth century was profound and still impacts each of us even to this day, sixty-six years after his death.

Eleanor Roosevelt:
First Lady of Courage
This PowerPoint program chronicles the life of one of the twentieth century’s most important women. She was an ardent supporter of the disenfranchised, civil rights, and the poor and an able political partner of her husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She wrote more than twenty books and was the author of the daily newspaper column called My Day.
 

We Can Take It:
The Roosevelt Tree Army 1933-1941
This PowerPoint program explores the rich legacy left by the Civilian Conservation Corps across the country. The CCC boys built much of the existing landscape in many parks, forests, and wildlife refuge areas including dams, roads, vistas, lakes, and buildings. The CCC was one of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s passions and among his New Deal’s most notable successes. It provided much-needed employment for millions of unemployed young men and was the most important conservation work project ever undertaken in America’s parks and forests. Peter has written four books about the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Willa Cather:
Writer From the Prairie and Enduring Gift To Our Country
This PowerPoint program explores the important literary legacy left by Willa Cather, one of the most important women authors of the twentieth century. Born in Nebraska, she wrote of the struggles on the Great Plains but also a variety of other topics including the American Southwest. Her best-known books are O Pioneers, My Antonia, and Death Comes To The Archbishop.

Nebraska Sign-posts: The Nebraska Legacy of Robert Henri
The years that Robert Henry Cozad, later known as Robert Henri, spent on the Nebraska prairies were formative ones. From 1873 to 1884 the Cozad family established and developed the town of Cozad, named for Robert’s father John. This program explores Henr’s time here and also how his artistic career began in Nebraska. Also, his experiences with an array of interesting characters and early pioneers influenced his pioneering approach in both producing art and teaching it. The program will also explore how the Nebraska chapter of Henri’s
life became known to many more than twenty years after his death, and which ultimately was the inspiration for the creation of the Robert Henri Museum and Art Gallery.

The Blast That Changed The World: The Shooting of Alf Pearson
This presentation explores the life-changing event that occurred on October 14, 1882, when John Cozad shot and killed Alf Pierson, a deputy sheriff and rancher. John vanished immediately and Robert and Theresa Cozad remained to sell off the remaining land and buildings that they owned in early 1884. Then they too disappeared and the family regrouped in New York City. All of the family members changed their names and identities. The men of the family, both before and after the shooting, had been involved in a number of controversies and occasional violent activities. Finally, this will be an effort to tell the story fairly and with context.

In addition, the mysteries that surrounded the family’s disappearance continued until the 1950s when it was revealed publicly for the first time what had happened to the Cozads. Since then, there have been a number of publications that revealed the entire story including Mari Sandoz’s book Son of the Gamblin’ Man.

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