FAIRFIELD – Jefferson County Conservation hosted an Outdoor Adventure Night Tuesday, Aug. 6, featuring nine activities spread throughout Jefferson County Park.

The activities included kayaking, spear throwing, hatchet throwing, fishing, archery, a BB gun shoot, toy making and more. Jefferson County Naturalist Austin Roe said that his initial tally showed 159 people participated in the event, which puts a bow on the conservation office’s summer programming.

“This is our culminating summer event, with a bunch of activities kids get to do at camps, and now they get to bring their families out so parents can participate, too,” Roe said. “This is probably our biggest event.”

Roe said an event of this size requires a lot of help, and they try to have two volunteers at every station. He said most of the events are tried and true standbys that previous naturalist Brittney Tiller had at her outdoor camps. Roe said he wanted to have a wide variety to reach children with different interests.

“At the nature center, we have archery and BB guns, so that hits a hunting interest,” he said. “If someone is not into hatching throwing or spear throwing, we have pioneer toys so they can do something a little more calm and relaxing.”

Roe said last year’s event was plagued by both rain and extreme heat, but the weather this year was perfect, cloudy and in the low 70s.

At one station, kids used frog nets to see if they could find any frogs hiding along the shore of a pond. Their nets caught more than just frogs, such as snails and dragonfly nymphs.

Sierra McCarty and her daughter Kolby tried their hand at hatchet throwing. Sierra said that was her favorite activity of the evening, while Kolby said kayaking was her favorite. Kolby said she comes to a lot of the conservation office’s programs, such as its kayaking events, moth nights, and activities in the nature center. She said her favorite activity was doing the Explorer’s Camp, a four-day field trip.

Inside the nature center, volunteers Gerry Garles, Therese Cummiskey and Gay Chapman showed children how to make toys from the frontier era. These included making buzzsaws, Eskimo yo-yos and bullroars, a toy that makes a low hum when swung rapidly.