The four women from Florence, Ala., asked dozens of questions as they watched huge pans of bread being placed into the huge bake oven at the Fort Gibson Historic Site.

They listened with interest as Rory Montgomery, a maintenance technician at the park, talked about the bread-baking process used by the troops stationed there nearly two centuries ago.

They were fascinated as they learned about how the oldest town in Oklahoma got its start, said Betty Tatum, one of four guests attending the event as guests of Mark and Sherry Young. The Youngs invited the women to tour Fort Gibson during a break in a national Church of Christ workshop being held in Tulsa.

“I love the uniqueness of your town,” Tatum said.

The four were among several dozen visitors to the park for bread baking day. In addition to the women from Alabama, they came from Sapulpa, Oklahoma City and other cities. There were a few from Fort Gibson. The park seldom draws the locals, he said.

He understands that.

“I moved to Fort Gibson in 1983 and started working here in 1989,” he said. “I don’t remember going here until I started working here.”

But no one should overlook the opportunities for learning about history that are offered at the historic site, said Theresa Terron-King, who watched the bread baking from a cane-bottom chair across the room.

She was dressed in clothing of the period when soldiers used the bake oven, but quickly pointed out that as a woman, she would not have been in the bakery when it was in real operation. There were some women at the fort – officers wives and laundresses – not cooks.

Terron-King and her husband, Allen King, have been volunteer re-enactors at the fort for about 10 years.

Both intend to return for the Heritage Days event later this month. She hopes to bring her hand-cranked sewing machine that women at the fort would have used in the later years of its operation.

She hopes there will be a large turnout of young and old – locals and those from throughout the state – to get a taste of what life on the United States’ westernmost military post was like in 1823 and beyond.

Reach Liz McMahan at 684-2926 or lmcmahan @muskogeephoenix.com.