By Ed Lowe
Senior Writer
An occasional movie or TV show will take us to an earlier time. "Little House on the Prairie" was an example. But sitting in the comfort of your living room, holding your TV's remote to block out commercials and pausing to pick up the phone do not really express the sense of the times being depicted on the screen.
Conner Prairie, located in the suburbs of Indianapolis, on the other hand is a living history museum which encourages adults and kids to experience life in an earlier, less sophisticated time. It isn't a trip back to our roots. Instead it is a view of how our present lifestyle began. It's fascinating.
Conner Prairie originated when pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly bought the homestead of William Conner in 1934 and began his restoration of what was considered the first brick farm house in central Indiana. Using the restoration principals developed in Colonial Williamsburg, Lilly spared no expense in rehabilitating the old house.
Conner, himself, had come to Indiana in 1801 or 1802 as a fur trader. He married a native American woman and had six children with her. Then, in 1818 he was an interpreter for a treaty that sent the entire Delaware tribe, including his wife and children, into an exile in Missouri. Later, he remarried and had another large family. Ultimately, he amassed a large tract of land, built his house on the banks of the White River, and became a legislator and a rich man. Conner lived until 1855, and in 1871 his holdings were sold.
Lilly added regularly to the Conner land holdings and established a foundation to operate what was to become Conner Prairie in the northeastern Indianapolis suburb of Fishers. Historical buildings were acquired from other central Indiana locations and moved to Conner Prairie to create the most extensive living history museum in the Midwest. The first elements of Conner Prairie opened in 1974 and it now consists of 1400 acres. Its stated mission is to commemorate mid-America in the 19th Century. The site is now the sixth largest living history museum in the United States, a list that includes Williamsburg, Mount Vernon, Monticello and Plymouth Plantation.
In 1994, a new orientation center and office complex was opened to house a series of exhibits that explain the outdoor aspects of the facility. In addition to the chronological description of Conner Prairie, some farming implements, Lenape (Delaware) tribe artifacts, and explanations of the economic growth of the area are included. Visitors find an excellent dining facility, meeting rooms and a small theater.
It's outdoors where Conner Prairie comes to life. Among the 300 employees, 137 act as costumed interpreters to explain the periods in which they lived. A tram is available to take visitors to the beginning of the exhibits — about a mile from the Visitors' Center. From the drop-off point, it's a short walk to the Lenape encampment and trading post. Lenape (whom the white pioneers called Delaware) had already migrated from the eastern seaboard.
During his early days of fur trapping, Conner built a trading post. Now, one of the main interpreters at the trading post is Michael Pace who, for the past two years, has been at Conner Prairie explaining the songs, dances and rituals of his people. Pace is the great-great-great grandnephew of William Conner. Pace is dressed authentically in clothes and moccasins handmade by members of his family.
He told us that there are now 14,000 Lenape Indians in Oklahoma and New Mexico. The trading post contains authentic trade goods — beads and trinkets — and a selection of fur pelts that were common during those days two centuries ago. There are beaver, fox, and raccoon hides laying on the trading post's table. In the camp visitors learn how to drill holes using a handmade primitive drill. They can learn Indian beading, or how to grind corn using a mortar and pestle, from interpreters.
History marched on at Conner Prairie, and in another part of the complex is a village called Prairietown which dates from 1836. Again, costumed interpreters are on hand to discuss the events of the time with visitors. These enactors, in addition to being in costume and assuming specific roles, are also fixed in time. It is 1836. They are not aware of any events that follow in history.
You can meet the village blacksmith and his apprentice, visit the potter's and carpenter's shops, or talk to the schoolmaster or the doctor's wife. Each has a name and has created a unique identity.
There were many school children on field trips at Conner Prairie and they participated in the happenings of Prairietown. For example, a sudden "fire" threatened one of the buildings and the children were organized into a bucket brigade, bringing buckets of water from the town well to the site of the fire. Granted that, by the time the buckets arrived at the fire, most of the water had been spilled on the ground, the kids felt that they had contributed to extinguishing the "blaze."
Yet another section of Conner Prairie is the Zimmerman Farm. This puts visitors into a setting circa 1886. Mrs. Zimmerman, another role-playing enactor, guides children through the kitchen and out-buildings on the farm. There are animals, and as "Mrs. Z" takes a brood of kids to the hen house, she picks real eggs from the nests and carefully hands one to each of the children for very careful transport to the house. The 10-year-olds cup the eggs in both hands. One little boy was stunned — he looked at Mrs. Z and exclaimed, "It's warm!"
Kids are allowed to slop the hogs in the barnyard. They also pet goats and sheep who graze nearby. As we approached the house, 10-year-old Nancy was sitting on the front porch in full costume, churning butter by hand. She is one of 100 youth interpreters who volunteer their time to make the experience of Conner Prairie more authentic.
One special program at Conner Prairie is called "Weekend on the Farm." Beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday until 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, families participate in total immersion in 1886 farm life. They split wood, tend the stove fire, prepare 19th century foods from 19th century recipes, feed livestock, clean stalls, tend the garden (and, in season, pick vegetables for dinner), and do the laundry. All this is done under the watchful eyes of the well trained enactors — Mrs. Zimmerman and her "daughters."
The house has no electricity or running water. There's outdoor plumbing and, beside each bed, a chamber pot. The experience isn't for the faint of heart, but it is ultimately authentic. Charges for the experience for a family of four are $500 including all meals, lodging and activities. If a parent would like his child to experience life before supermarkets and shopping malls, this is an excellent opportunity to move back to a different world, if only for a weekend. There is space available for 12 people on any given weekend. Reservations are always essential.
The original William Conner house offers regular tours. The sophistication of the 1823 house is quite amazing and, despite that fact that it contains only four large rooms, some with authentic furniture, their flexibility makes it seem much larger. Out buildings, including a loom house, make Conner's home seem like a self-sufficient complex for something built in the wilderness during the presidency of James Monroe.
The final section of Conner Prairie is designated Pastport. Here, docents and enactors help visitors milk a (fiberglass) cow, learn to play with toys and games that were common during the period of the exhibits, make candles, wash clothes with a washboard, and learn about the construction of flat boats. Those barges were the primary means for transporting goods from the farms of the Midwest downstream to New Orleans and the rest of the world. We learned that the lumber used in constructing the boats was then sold in New Orleans, sometimes for more than the produce they carried, and the boatmen hiked back home. It was an annual trek, but a profitable one.
There are extended activities conducted at Conner Prairie. The annual season runs from April 1 through November, but activities continue indoors throughout the year including hearthside suppers in the Conner home. Special events are planned throughout the year. Summer weekend concerts are provided by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Corporate events and picnics are also held there in meeting facilities.
Conner Prairie has designated the Frederick Talbott Bed and Breakfast, immediately across the road from the Conner Prairie entrance, as its official inn. Owners Susan Muller and Ann Irvine have assembled a group of buildings to house their inn and a small conference center. They host daily buffet breakfasts in the modern 10-room facility. On weekend mornings, Susan prepares her very special French toast and creamed eggs — both gourmet delights.
Conner Prairie is a unique way to link generations. Grandparents are still able to relate to some of the tools and practices of their own grandparents. Children can compare their modern lifestyle with that of ancestors they have only heard about or met through faded pictures.
History may be hard stuff to learn about from school books. But living it in the context of Conner Prairie puts a whole new dimension to the process. It's a way for kids to learn that fruits and vegetables don't necessarily come from the supermarket. And it's a way to reconnect with a simpler time where everything was more hands-on than it is today. A person leaves the world of TV for a world where entertainment was available only in stereopticon slides or homemade games, from pianos played in the living room or from adventures described in books about far away places by writers like Mark Twain and Jack London.
Resources:
Conner Prairie: (800) 966-1836 or www.connerprairie.org
Frederick Talbott Bed and Breakfast: (800) 566-BEDS or www.fredericktalbottinn.com |
