Chalk up another cancellation of a popular event to covid-19.

The Bushy Run Battlefield Heritage Society has canceled its annual re-enactment of the 1763 battle between Native Americans and British and colonial forces during Pontiac’s War in what is now Penn Township.

“There is no way we could put this together in such a short time,” said Bonnie Ramus, president of the heritage society. They would need to notify re-enactors and find sponsors to help defray the cost of the event, including printing a brochure, Ramus said.

The society board this week voted to cancel the event, Ramus said. It is traditionally held the first weekend in August.

“We don’t want to make it a lesser event that it should be … just to say that we did it,” Ramus said.

A battlefield re-enactment that attracts hundreds of visitors would violate state rules against the gathering of large groups. Re-enactors and volunteers alone could easily be more than 250 people, so the re-enactment could not be seen by any visitors, Ramus said.

The nonprofit heritage society, which operates the battlefield site for the state, is hoping by July 20 to open the battlefield museum, with its artifacts and interpretation of life on the frontier and the significance of the battle that lifted the Native American siege of Fort Pitt.

Any plan to reopen Bushy Run or the many other state-owned historic sites must be approved by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, then Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration, said Howard Pullman, a spokesman for the state commission. The state is working on guidelines for the cleaning protocols that must be followed in order to be reopened, Pullman said.

There is no timeframe for the historical sites to submit a reopening plan for approval, Pullman said.

The Bushy Run Battlefield organization intends submit a reopening plan this week, Ramus said.

Volunteers will begin cleaning the battlefield museum June 29, he said. That will give the staff sufficient time to ensure the museum is cleaned before visitors can tour it.

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