Grayslake commemorated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and America’s milestone birthday by welcoming spectators to Central and Gelatin Parks for a Revolutionary War reenactment over the weekend.
Reenactors from the North West Territory Alliance (NWTA) portrayed roles including soldiers, doctors, artisans, officers and campers.
Central Park became a battlefield with artillery smoke, marching troops, and cannon fire.
Gelatin Park offered ample space for white tents and a church parade. The morning also began with a somber honorarium for the deceased.
Before the morning and afternoon battles, people could visit with historians who explained artifacts and customs of Revolutionary War time.
Colonists and the British Crown forces wowed Sunday spectators with their authenticity as they channeled what could have happened during the Revolutionary War period of the 1770s and 1780s.
The 2026 event was a launch Revolutionary War reenactment held in the village of Grayslake and hosted along with the Grayslake Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual SummerFest. The reenactors marched in the annual SummerFest parade on Saturday.
“Grayslake is proud to celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by bringing a Revolutionary War reenactment to our parks,” said Katie Brethorst-Stockwell, deputy director of the Grayslake Heritage Center & Museum.
“One of the first large celebrations ever held by the early Lake County settlers was an Independence Day flag-raising in what is modern-day Libertyville, which they had named Independence Grove,” Brethorst-Stockwell said.
“Remembering and celebrating the famous document has been a Lake County tradition since 1836,” she said.
Brethorst-Stockwell explained the “several connections to the revolution in both Lake County and in Illinois.
“There was a western theater to the Revolutionary War, and an entire Illinois campaign where the Patriots captured Kaskaskia and Cahokia from the British,” she said. “Today, there is an active chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Libertyville. There are two Revolutionary War veterans buried in Lake County, Henry Collins and Reuben Hill.”
Descendants of Roger Sherman — one of the signers of the Declaration — marched in the SummerFest parade and will give a presentation later this year at the Grayslake Heritage Center & Museum, Brethorst-Stockwell said.
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“While many consider Illinois and Lake County to not be a part of the revolution, there are more connections than meet the eye,” she added.
Seated in folding chairs near the cannon fire were Izabella Buell of Bristol, Wisconsin, and Tyler Montano of Grayslake. Buell tried to muffle the sound by putting her hands over her ears.
The sound of the cannon was “pretty loud,” Buell said with a smile.
For Montano, the cannon fire’s extreme sound “was great.
“You could feel like this boom through your chest as it fires,” he added. “You watch it shoot the sparks all the way down the field; that’s awesome.”
Jarrod and Jamie Smith of the Lake Villa area brought their children Jane, 7, Hudson, 9, and Sawyer, 11. Seeing a reenactment is much better than learning about the Revolutionary War via iPad screens and videos, the Smith parents agreed.
Family members learned about cannons and then cannonball sizes, which were “very neat to see,” Jamie Smith said.
The cannonballs ranged in weight depending on size, with some displayed on a table weighing three pounds, an approachable size for children to access.
“They actually got to touch the cannonballs,” Jarrod Smith said. “You can’t touch them on a YouTube screen, can you?”
Through the reenactment, he said he hoped his children would “just get an appreciation for it and understand where our country started, and what the people had to go through to get us to where we are today.”
Spectator Justin Bender of Wauconda said the war is “a very underrated piece of history that nobody really likes all that much. But I think it’s worth looking at.”