Camp Wilton is a free, family friendly open house that brings Revolutionary War and colonial history to life through hands-on, interactive experiences for all ages. Inspired by the two week encampment of the Marquis de Lafayette and Continental forces at Wilton in May 1781. The event highlights the 1753 house and original site’s role as a gathering place for military and Virginia leaders during the Revolution.

RAIN or SHINE!

Registration is free but recommended!

This program follows historian, Richard Bell as he traces the global ripple effects of the American Revolution through the lives it disrupted, reshaped, and destroyed. Participants will meet a Native matriarch striving to preserve a fragile alliance, a Prussian officer forging a new identity abroad, and a Boston schoolteacher cast far from home. Bell reveals how the war sparked a transoceanic refugee crisis, fueled antislavery movements, and inspired uprisings from Ireland to India. Rather than a neat founding moment, the Revolution emerges as a complex, high-stakes conflict spanning continents and oceans, driven by commerce, diplomacy, propaganda, and chance. This fresh perspective reimagines the Revolution as a deeply interconnected global event with lasting relevance today.