Author photo

By Dena Wood
The Times 

Local History Honored at Pioneer Fall Festival

This year’s event will honor the city’s sesquicentennial

 


WAITSBURG – Waitsburg’s annual Pioneer Fall Festival, a community celebration honoring local history, is just around the corner.

On Sunday, Sept. 20, visitors to the Bruce House Museum complex will step back in time as they enjoy food, music, games, historical demonstrations, a vintage fashion show and museum displays.

The festival kicks off with a nondenominational church service on the Bruce House lawn at 11 a.m., followed by the introduction of the Pioneers of the Year.

Visitors are reminded of yesteryear as they tour the grounds, taking in the arts and crafts booths and enjoying demonstrations of lost arts such as blacksmithing, lace making, wool spinning, sack sewing, candle making, and more.

Pianists and vocal groups will entertain in the Bruce House parlor, groups and individuals will take turns on the stage on the museum’s lawn, and Bluegrass musicians will jam on the porch of the adjoining Wilson-Phillips House.

The vintage fashion show, which takes place on the Bruce House lawn, is always a favorite festival event. New this year, is the Pie-Oneer Fall Festival pie baking contest, with tastes of pie available for purchase and whole pies auctioned off in a silent auctions.

A party isn’t a party without food, which will be well-covered by local restaurants and groups. The Q Wood-Fired Grill will serve buffalo burgers, baked beans and green salad; the Whoopemup Café will be dishing up chicken and sausage gumbo with cornbread; and Gleason’s Galley will be on hand with coffee and pastries.

L&B Kitchens will stick with tradition, serving their wheat berry chili and nachos. Rainbow girls will have drinks for sale; the Waitsburg Presbyterian Church will be on hand with hot dogs; and the local Relay for Life team will serve ice cream, which will go perfectly with those pie samples!

Throughout the day visitors can tour the several museums and displays on the property.

The restored Victorian Bruce Museum was taken over by the Waitsburg Historical Society in 1971 and restored by local volunteers. The house features historically accurate rooms filled with period antiques, many donated by local families. The Carriage House houses a display of a vintage school room.

The Wilson-Phillips House next door is filled with theme rooms, including a military room, barbershop, a hat and dress room and more. The main room is reserved for rotating displays, and currently showcases Indian artifacts. (See Page 7 for more information.)

The Wilson-Phillips garage is filled with memorabilia from Wait’s Mill, and the building behind the WP house holds a large-scale model of the mill. The model is still a work-in-progress, but new additions have been made since it was last displayed at Waitsburg Celebration Days in May.

Or, visitors can simply take advantage of the opportunity to stand in the shade and shoot the breeze with the many other locals who have come to do the same. The Pioneer Fall Festival is hosted by the Waitsburg Historical Society as a service to the community.

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 

Powered by ROAR Online Publication Software from Lions Light Corporation
© Copyright 2024