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| Largest cedar bucket remains icon for retiring Cannonsburgh chief |
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By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
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Posted: Sunday, July 12, 2009 8:02 am
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The World’s Largest Handmade Cedar Bucket was the Michael Jackson of Murfreesboro.
At least that’s what Fred Trujilio, program coordinator of Cannonsburgh Pioneer Village, said when discussing his 29-year tenure at the Murfreesboro landmark.
Trujilio said it reminds him of Michael Jackson’s death because it was an icon of Murfreesboro and he never realized what the bucket meant until it was gone. Even four years later, people still ask him about the bucket and express regret and anger about its burning.
“People were so hurt by the bucket getting burned,” he said. “I’d never seen anything like it.
“I was really hurt somebody had burned it,” he said, adding since it was burned he’s decided it wasn’t burned on purpose, but instead on accident, maybe from stray spark from the blacksmith’s shop.
“That bucket never did anything to anybody …” he said “If someone started it, they would’ve bragged about it by now.”
The bucket, built by employees of Tennessee Red Cedar Woodenworks Co. of Murfreesboro in 1887 as a promotional tool, is currently off campus, being rebuilt by the Rutherford County Blacksmiths’ Association, he said.
“We hope that before long we will see another cedar bucket,” he said.
Hearing the message about the burning bucket from former Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation Director Dennis Rainier in June 2005 was the worst moment of his time at the recreated old-time village, Trujilio said.
It was one bad time of many good times since Trujilio started as caretaker of Cannonsburgh in 1980. He ends his time there this week when he officially retires.
Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation Department will hold a retirement reception for Trujilio from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, July 15 at the Cannonsburgh Village Gazebo.
Lone Surviving Bicentennial Project
Cannonsburgh Village started as a Bicentennial project in 1976 but had fallen into disrepair and become a shantytown for the local homeless population by 1980.
“It was going down the tubes real quick,” Trujilio said, explaining funding for the project had run out and the city had to take control.
So Murfreesboro Mayor W.H. Westbrooks asked a city employee to move onto the property and serve as caretaker for the village that represents approximately 100 years of early Tennessee life from the 1830s to the 1930s.
Trujilio was working for the sanitation department at the time and his boss Jack Jones asked him to move his family into the Golden Goose House, a yellow way station on the property.
The Trujilios moved in, began cleaning the place up and made it into the tourist attraction it is today.
“We had a vision to make Cannonsburgh a draw for tourism,” Trujilio said about working with Jones and Westbrooks.
“The mayor wanted it to be the biggest draw in Rutherford County,” he continued. “That dream has pretty much come true.”
Including the 45,000 people who attended Uncle Dave Macon Days this weekend, more than 100,000 visitors are expected to visit Cannonsburgh this year.
Outside of the village’s top three events – Uncle Dave Macon Days, Pioneer Days and Harvest Days – the biggest draw is still weddings.
In the beginning, Westbrooks wanted to make the village as self-supporting as possible, so they began renting out the chapel for weddings, Trujilio said.
“It started out as a $10 clean-up fee, now it’s our biggest revenue maker,” he said.
Westbrooks’ vision and Trujilio’s hard work have kept Cannonsburgh open for the past 33 years, making it the last standing Bicentennial project in Tennessee, he said.
Uncle Dave Macon Days
If the loss of the cedar bucket was the low point of Trujilio’s career at Cannonsburgh, then the first year Uncle Dave Macon Days was held there was the high point.
“It’s a perfect fit …” Trujilio said. “There’s not a better setting. This is a perfect setting.”
Trujilio said he first approached UDMD organizer Gloria Christy when the old-time music and dance festival was held on the Courthouse Square.
“I said to her, ‘Imagine it at Cannonsburgh. You could just shake a tree and a banjo picker falls out’,” he recalled.
It took a few years, but Uncle Dave did come to Cannonsburgh in 1989.
“It was a dream come true,” he said.
Uncle Dave Macon Days has become the premier old-time music and dance festival in the nation, drawing in musicians and visitors from across the globe.
Trujilio said his favorite part of Uncle Dave Macon Days is the impromptu jam sessions by musicians in front of the old buildings in the village.
The festival and village go hand-in-hand to preserve pieces of Tennessee and America’s pioneer past.
Trujilio said the focus of both is to introduce younger generations to the hardships of our ancestors and how they made us the nation we are today.
“You can’t go forward with out looking back,” he said.
Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com. |
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