River Town, a web-based video series, ‘takes a look back at everyday rural Harnett County, North Carolina in the adventurous 1850’s.’ The series uses local talent and citizens to portray real people and tell real stories about the history of Averasboro, aka River Town. The cast also includes locally ‘known’ people like NC State Senator Ronald Rabin.
Campbell Creek at the Cape Fear River, the river featured in River Town
The series has been featured in local papers such as the Fayetteville Observer and the Dunn Daily Record, and on an episode of WRAL-TV’s Tar Heel Traveler. Plus River Town’s facebook page has over 1600 likes.
River Town is a drama, and it has twists and turns in the storyline but a lot can be learned from watching it, too. For example, in Season 1 Episode 4, I learned about turpentine farming, an occupation that shows up many times in the census records of my North and South Carolina ancestors. In this episode, the actors actually perform the necessary tasks to farm turpentine.
Season 3 begins this fall. Go to River Town’s youtube page to watch seasons 1 and 2. Each episode is less than 15 minutes long, so you can easily binge-watch and be current before Season 3 begins.
Know of other web-based video series like River Town? Please comment if you do!
Copyright © 2014 Nancy H. Vest All Rights Reserved
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