LAWRENCEBURG, Tenn.
As two slabs of beef spun on Horace Hampton’s homemade squirrel cooker, the unmistakable sound of black-powder rifles echoed through the air.

Hundreds of campers clad in authentic frontier attire mixed and mingled, while kids scurried around the camp with their wooden swords and raccoon-skin caps.

This weekend, the city of Lawrenceburg travels back in time to celebrate one of its heroes, the famed frontiersman, Davy Crockett.

Beginning on Friday, David Crockett State Park hosted the annual David Crockett Days Celebration and Frontier Rendezvous, which features frontier-style camping, food and music, and gives history buffs a chance to live like real-life frontiersman as Crockett did more than 100 years ago.

Marketta Turner, who came to this year’s Crockett Days with her friends and family, is part of a history recreation group from Tupelo, Miss.

Turner said the event is fun for her and her children and is a good teaching tool because it helps people understand how their ancestors lived.

That means no electricity, no video games and no junk food for most of the serious campers at the event.

That’s why Kathy Brown, whose family came with the Turners, was preparing an old-fashioned meal with deer stew and roast cooked over flames, and apple and peach pie.

Turner’s son, 7-year-old Joseph. brandishing a wooden sword and donning a tri-cornered hat, doesn’t seem to mind the primitive arrangements.

“He loves swimming in the creek and catching bullfrogs and crawdads,” Marketta Turner said.

Brian Pennington, of Columbia, Tenn., enjoys handcrafting old-fashioned knives and cutlery, a hobby he picked up at Crockett Days 15 years ago.

“This always is kind of nostalgic for me because this is where I started,” Pennington said.

John Carroll, of Cumberland City, Tenn., said he has attended several rendezvous events, and said he enjoys seeing a lot of the same faces when he returns to Lawrenceburg for Crockett Days.

“There’s a lot of people we see once a year,” said Carroll, who set up a booth selling furniture and other goods. “We all remember each other.”

Carroll said the music that usually starts when the sun goes down and the campfires get going is one of his favorite things about Crockett Days.

“You’ll hear music like you’ve never head before,” Carroll said.

Ginger Welch, of Nashville, said her favorite thing about the event, which continues today, is that it gives children a chance to see how people lived in the old days, so they’ll respect what they have today.

“It gives children a different respect for life,” Welch said. “There’s no TV and electronics, so the have to use their imagination.”

Ty West can be reached at 740-5720 or at ty.west@timesdaily.com.