STOCKTON, Alabama — Step back in time at the third annual Stockton Sawmill Days Saturday, Nov. 7 at Baldwin County’s Bicentennial Park, located 1.5 miles north of I-65 at 52233 Highway 225 in Stockton.

The event, held by The Stockton Heritage Association, will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and celebrates Stockton’s history and heritage as home to the first sawmill in the state of Alabama. All proceeds go to the Stockton Heritage Museum.

Step back in time to the days when logging was done with draft animals. Watch as teams are hitched and logs are pulled and loaded. See “pinewoods cattle,” oxen and sheep that were common years ago. Witness log-rolling, pole climbing, cross-cut sawing, boom walking and other feats performed by professional lumberjacks. This year there is also a lumberjack sports camp where the pros work with young and old alike to teach their skills at logrolling and crosscut sawing.

Stroll through living history demonstrations – basket making, spinning, weaving, horseshoeing, blacksmithing, syrup making, gristmill, Indian camp, cooking in cast iron pots with Johnny Nix, piney wood oxen and sheep. Portable sawmills will cut lumber, circular saw blades will be sharpened, horses will be shod. See cooking being done over an open fire, spinning, basket weaving, quilting and other demonstrations. Children can help churn butter, shell corn, gather eggs, hunt for treasure in sawdust pile, talk to “Smokey the Bear” and see “Blaze” the arson dog.

Set up your lawn chair and tap your foot to the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band from Goodlettsville, Tennessee. Enter the buck dancing and/or our fiddling contest. First place is $100, second place is $50 and third is $25. There is no charge to enter the contest. There are two categories: 16 and up; and 15 and under. The time limit per dancer is 45 seconds.

Visit exhibits and stroll through booths of carefully selected and juried “folk art.” See how far the harvesting of timber has come as you compare logging with draft animals to the modern logging equipment used today.

Come early and enjoy “sawmill” biscuits and tomato gravy or “flap-jacks” with sorghum syrup. Later on be drawn by the aroma of fresh fried catfish, cheese grits, turnip greens, corn bread, barbecue, roasted corn-on-the-cob, cracklings, funnel cakes, buttermilk pie, plus other food vendors.

Stockton Sawmill Days continue to grow each year. There will be something for every member of your family to enjoy no matter how young or how old. It will bring back memories to the old and laugher and experience to the young.

Admission is $10 adults; $5 Children (5 to 12); free for children under 5. Take advantage of advanced online ticket sales and credit card purchases.

For more information call 251-937-3738 or like the Stockton Sawmill Days page on Facebook. You can also visit stocktonsawmilldays.org for tickets and more information.