Perfect Weather Greets 44th Annual Trail of Courage
ROCHESTER — Historical re-enactors, Aztec dancers, bagpipers, homemade chicken and noodles, buffalo burgers, home-brewed root beer and a pleasantly warm weekend with a refreshing breeze provided the ingredients for a successful Trail of Courage living history festival Sept. 21-22.
The pre-1840 atmosphere also featured blacksmiths, fur trading, muzzleloader competition, tomahawk throwing, teepees and wigwams, various antebellum cuisine cooked in cast iron skillets over an open flame and a fife and drum corps.
The event, produced and sponsored by the Fulton County Historical Society, took place on the society’s property 4 miles north of Rochester, bounded by U.S. 31 and the Tippecanoe River.
“The primary purpose of the Trail of Courage is to educate the public, to preserve and promote an accurate picture of life in frontier Indiana, as well as other areas and time periods of North American history, with real people in historic clothing, real food cooked over wood fires and real fun,” according to a newsletter written by the society.
“The Festival is based on local history, before the Potawatomi Indians were marched west on the forced removal known as The Trail of Death. The Potawatomi were marched down Rochester’s Main Street Sept. 5, 1838, on their way to Kansas, a journey of 660 miles that took them 10 weeks and cost them 42 lives. Since 1976 this festival has honored the American Indians and shown life before the removal. When Indiana became a state in 1816, northern Indiana was still Potawatomi territory.”
For more information, call (574) 223-4436 or visit www.fultoncountyhistory.org.
Here are some of the sights of the festival. (Photos by Ray Balogh)
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- Re-enactors Steve Kirkpatrick of Edwardsburg, Mich., left, and Wolfraven from “parts unknown” chat while waiting for their venison steaks to cook. They represent pioneers from the era of 1756 to 1812 “in this area of Indiana.”
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- Scott and Ann Harder serve up home-brewed root beer and cream soda. Their enterprise, Bud’s Root Beer, is located in Nashville, Tenn. They have been serving their popular product at various festivals for 27 years.
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- A woodburned sign signals some of the off-the-beaten-path cuisine available at the Trail of Courage.
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- Jacob Dean Swank, 4, son of Jeremy Swank and Jamie Martin of Rochester, digs into his personal stash of freshly popped kettle corn.
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- Indian dances greeting visitors to celebrate Mother Earth were held throughout the festival.
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- Della Snow, 7, left, and her sister, Mazie, 4, enjoy some ice cream treats as mom Katie Snow shares their satisfaction. The family was visiting the festival for the first time. They hail from Mexico, a small town 20 miles south of Rochester.
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- Blacksmith Mark Thomas of Markle demonstrates “hammer time” under his tent at the Trail of Courage.
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- Vickie Meyers, left, and Michelle Pickens, members of Kappa Delta Phi, a Rochester service sorority, dish up the organzation’s popular chicken and noodle soup. The estimated they would serve about 1,200 bowls during the festival, raising money for the charitable projects the sorority conducts year-round.
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- Chuck Young, left, Corey Smith, and Judy Young talk shop outside their tents at the Trail of Courage. They were repesenting troops in the garrison of the city of Berlin during the 7 Years War (1756-63).
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- The festival contained many individual booths, set up among the trees in ramshackle wooden shelters in Chippeway Village, vending various home-crafted products.
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- The River Valley Colonials fife and drum corps provided an educational presentation of fife music and its wartime meaning at the Hillside Amphitheater.
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- The Anderson High School Marching Highlanders provided some bagpipe music at the 2019 Trail of Courage.
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- Aztec dancers regaled their audiences with a colorful whirlwind of entertainment on the Trail of Courage’s Chippeway Village Stage.
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- Ezra Winter, 3, son of Kyle and Ashlee Winter of Wanatah, participates in candlemaking, one of his and his 4-year-old sister, Quinn’s, favorite activities at the Trail of Courage.
