August 1, 2012
The Kings Mountain Herald | www.kmherald.net
Page 3A
Revolutionary War Display
at Belmont Historical Museum
By Alan Hodge
Special to the Herald -
There’s a battle raging at the Belmont Historical Museum.
Actually, the fight is a scale model recreation of the October 7,
1780 Revolutionary War Battle of Kings Mountain designed and
built by Evan Ridlon of Mount Holly.
Ridlon’s love of history and scale modeling led him to create the
diorama complete with over 200 miniature soldiers, trees, rocks, and
landscape representing the shape of the Kings Mountain battlefield.
“I became interested in scale models as a child building airplanes,
ships, and tanks,” Ridlon said. “Then I moved on to historical gam-
ing with miniature soldiers.”
To create the soldiers for his Kings Mountain battlefield, Ridlon
started with soft plastic figures then hardened them with floor wax.
Next, he painted each and every one of them in correct uniform col-
, ors ranging from bright scarlet to buckskin brown.
“The size of the soldiers and trees is one inch equals 72 inches,”
Ridlon said. “So a soldier one inch tall would represent a man six
feet tall.”
To make the diorama’s battlefield, he used sections of green Sty-
rofoam sculpted in the shape of the Kings Mountain landform, The
diorama on display at the museum is about 2-feet wide and 4-feet
long and is part of a larger display Ridlon has at home that’s twice
that size.
“The diorama is part of a larger war gaming board,” he explained.
In addition to the figures and landscape, Ridlon has placed mark-
ers at strategic points on the diorama explaining what officers were
in charge of troops at that spot. One of the markers shows the posi-
tion of Major William Chronicle, a native of the Belmont area, who
was killed in the fight. A NC Highway Historical Marker recogniz-
ing Chronicle is actually on the museum grounds.
According to Ridlon, the entire set-up shows the final phase of -
the Battle of Kings Mountain when Patriots were encircling British
and Loyalist troops and ready for the final charge.
Ridlon credits his wife Sherry for helping him with the project.
“She did a lot of the historical research,” he said. “One of the
photo/Alan Hodge
Evan Ridlon of Mount Holly has built a diorama of the battle of Kings Mountain that is eurrently on tisplay at the Belmont His-
torical Museum. He hand painted over 200 toy soldiers for the piece.
facts she uncovered was that Daniel Boone's father fought in the bat-
tle.”
For Ridlon, his Battle of Kings Mountain modeling looks like it
will be-an ongoing thing. He plans to expand the scope of the dio-
rama and add even more detail.
“So far, I've been working on it for about a year and half,” he
said. “It is constantly evolving.”
Though the “portable” version of the diorama is currently edu-
cating folks that stop by the museum, Ridlon says that when that gig
Mary Neisler Kings Mountain
Rotary Club’s Citizen of the Year
Brenda Lovelace, Andy, Neisler, Mary Neisler, Scott Neisler, and Rotary President Jonathan Rhodes at last week's meeting
of the Rotary Club. Mrs. Neisler won the Rotary Club's Citizen of the Year award.
Mary (Mrs. Charles)
Neisler is Kings Mountain Ro-
Shirley Brutko, who made
the nomination, cited Mrs.
beautiful,” said Mrs. Bruko.
Mary Somers met her hus-
field.
The Citizen of the Year
is up he will be glad to set it up wherever oe it might be appreciated.
“I hope it fosters an interest in history,” he said. “Especially in
children.”
Sales tax holiday
this weekend
With the dawn of another
school year mere weeks away
the. clock is ticking on buying
school supplies, but shoppers
may see some savings this week-
end as the state suspends its sales
tax on certain items for 36 hours.
North © Carolina's annual
back-to-school tax-free weekend
starts at midnight Friday and
continues through midnight Sun-
day. Over the weekend, shoppers
will save 4.75% (neatly 5 cents
on every dollar) in sales taxes on
purchases for back-to-school
items, ranging from clothes to
certain electronics. Local sales
taxes (2.75% - nearly 3 cents on
every dollar in Cleveland and
Gaston-counties) will still apply
‘to purchases.
Under state guidelines, the
following items will be exempt
from sales tax this weekend:
+ Clothing, footwear and
school supplies of $100 or less
per item
* School instructional materi-
als of $300 or less per item
» Sports and recreation equip-
ment of $50 or less per item
+ Computers of $3,500 or less
per item
+ Computer supplies of $250
or less per item
Clothing accessories, jew-
elry, cosmetics, protective equip-
ment, wallets, furniture, items
used in a trade or business, and
rentals are not covered by the ex-
emption and will be subject to
the applicable tax.
For more information, visit
www.dorne.com/taxes/sales/sale
stax_holiday.html
tary Club's Citizen of the Year
for 2012.
The prominent Kings
Mountain woman was hon-
ored for longtime community
service at the civic club's re-
cent meeting at the H.
Lawrence Patrick Senior Cen-
ter.
Mrs. Neisler was recog-
nized for her service in many
areas in the community.
"I am very humbled," said
Mrs. Neisler, adding, "I love
Kings Mountain."
Neisler's accomplishments in
downtown beautification and
revitalization in the historic
district, her work in the Kings
Mountain Historical Museum,
her activity in First Presbyte-
rian Church, and recalled that
she won the first Gateway
award from the Kings Moun-
tain Business & Professional
Club. }
"Mary is very familiar to
local people who see her in
her little red truck doing good
work to make our community
band, Charles Neisler, over 50
years ago at a Tommy Dorsey
concert in Charlotte that she
was attending with her sister,
Jenny (Mrs. Bob) Maner. The
Neislers have been married for
51 years and are parents of
five sons, Andy, Scott and Lee
Neisler. Mr. Neisler, now re-
tired, was active for a number
of years with Neisler Mills
and Dicey Fabrics.
Co-chairmen of the citizen
award committee were Brenda
Lovelace and Doug Satter-
KM Walgreens now
open for business
Walgreens is now open
for business in Kings Moun-
* tain.
Chris = Robinson, who
grew up in Kings Mountain
and is the son of Barry and
Doris Robinson, says that
shoppers will get a new ex-
perience in drug store shop-
ping at Walgreens.
The 12,000 square foot
business includes a phar-
macy and photo lab. and
many amenities, including
on-line shopping if the cus-
tomer prefers. "You can
order on line and we'll have
your merchandise or pre-
scriptions ready for you to
pick up at the store," said
Robinson.
The new Walgreens em-
ploys a staff of 20.
ward is given annually to a
non Rotarian and includes the
prestigious Paul Harris Fellow
award, a $1,000 contribution
to Rotary International in
honor of the recipient.
Cleveland Feeds: Shelby
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Kings Mountain Weekend Weather
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Saturday
July 21
Sunday
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Scattered Storms - 89°
Isolated T-Storms - 86"
50% Chance of 30% Chance of 30% Chance of
precipitation precipitation precipitation
Night time Low 70° Night time Low 69° Night time Low 69°
Isolated T-Storms - 84°
Partly Cloudy - 85" *
10% Chance of
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Night time Low 89°
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