This year, the United States of America celebrated and Douglas’ Heritage and Honor Committee spent the summer commemorating the milestone! Parades, block parties and baseball games. And the archive began compiling photos, flyers and memories to preserve the history of the 250th.
In honor of the 250th, let us take a look back to when Douglas Saluted America’s 200 Years of Independence. On Saturday, October 2, 1976, the Bicentennial Observance was held, put on by the Douglas Bicentennial Committee. It included a Parade, with judging of parade floats, musical performances by marching bands and corps, and the Bicentennial Choir, and ended with dancing.
While the archive does not have much, we are able to give you a glimpse back in time with A Chronological Record of the Town of Douglas, 1776-1976, Bicentennial Parade, Saturday, Oct. 2, 1976. The photographs were taken by Bill Baron and presented to the Douglas Historical Society on March 28, 1979. The original album in the archive has a handwritten index for the photographs. The linked digital album has any provided descriptions underneath the corresponding photograph.
Also included, we have the Douglas Salutes America’s 200 Years of Independence Program. This program actually provides very little in the way of information. Historical Notes on the Town of Douglas by Charlotte Coppola, a very interesting read, but only a few pages long, the Bicentennial Committee, the Bicentennial Observance Schedule, and a page with songs and poems that honor America.
However, the rest of the booklet, to a historian, can actually be quite interesting. It is simply full of ads that were bought to support the bicentennial celebration. These ads are businesses, and organizations, and families. Most people might just flip through these pages quickly. But instead, take your time. Look to see what businesses were in town fifty years ago. There weren’t any street numbers, any idea where those businesses were located. Are any of those businesses still around? What organizations were prominent in town during the 1970s and who was who in those organizations? What about the families? Is your family there? Through materials like this, historians are able to get an idea of what the town’s culture and identity at that time was.
So take a stroll back fifty years and see how Douglas saluted America’s 200 Years of Independence and what parts of 1976 Douglas still resonate with you today?