Heritage Craftsmen to Highlight County History Fair
Craftsmen demonstrating the skills used on the Illinois frontier will be part of the Centennial History Fair, a part of the LaSalle County Historical Society’s centennial observances, in Utica Saturday, April 21.
The History Fair will feature student competition at the Waltham South School, at Canal and Division Streets. History Fair competition will continue in the county through April and students can display their projects in Utica. The State History Finals will be conducted in May at the Springfield History Fair and many in the local competition are expected to participate downstate.
The History Fair projects will be on display in the school gymnasium from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and awards will be presented at 1:30 p.m.
The craftsmen demonstrators will be located mainly near the intersection of Clark, Mill, and Canal Streets. The museum and its living history sites will open at 8 a.m. and craftsmen are expected to demonstrate until 2 p.m.
The Society’s Clark Street blacksmith shop will be the location for smithy Dan Etheridge and Windsor chair maker Jim Coonan. Live alpacas will be featured in the yard of the one-room schoolhouse, just east of the museum. Ed and Karen Rogers will demonstrate spinning and weaving with alpaca fur.
An exhibit detailing the Illinois and Michigan Canal, LaSalle County mining, and other county industries will be presented by Larry Bird at the gazebo on Canal and Mill Streets.
Charles Hess will demonstrate the craft of woodturning, a vital craft on the prairie, in the museum’s 1875 barn on Clark Street. Across the street from the barn Mike O’Connell will explain and demonstrate honey making and bee keeping in the 1800s.
Coopersmith Arnie Bandstra will show History Fair goers how barrels were made by hand during Illinois’ early days. He will be crafting wooden pails on the museum’s front patio.
The museum’s Pioneer Room will feature quilter Jean Hulslander as she explains and demonstrates a skill used on the frontier by almost all women.
Contact the museum at 815-677-4861 for further information regarding the History Fair or the Historical Society’s Centennial activities.
