Boone County Pioneer Fest This Weekend

For the first time in several years, Kate will not be able to take part in the Boone County Autumn Pioneer Festival. But that doesn't mean you can't!

The festival is free, although donations are welcome to help preserve and recreate local history on the grounds. Soldiers, Native Americans, Farmers, Norwegian immigrants and many other people from Boone County's past will be on hand with gardens, camps, cabins, foods and handicrafts.

Kate has been particularly interested in this festival because the main character from her book Ruth by Lake and Prairie grew up to marry a man who had land in Boone County. Ruth married Harlyn Shattuck and moved out to Boone County to raise her family on Harlyn's acreage.

Ruth died while in her forties, perhaps from complications after her tenth lying-in, but Harlyn soon remarried to take care of his large family, and even increased it by a few. Some of their descendants still live in the area and you can travel down Shattuck Road to the Shattuck Grove Cemetery to see Ruth's grave.

For information on how to get to the Pioneer Festival, see their webpage at the Boone County Conservation District

Even More Winners!

During the school year, Kate speaks to students as an author more often than as an historian. So most of the costuming gets packed away until the summer festival season.

While packing up a couple of weeks ago, Kate discovered a plastic baggie of names that had been collected during the Boone County Pioneer Festival in late September. Apparently they had been carefully protected from the wet weather and never made it into the general pot for the drawing.

Feeling awful that these folks missed the drawing earlier, Kate decided to hold a second drawing and give away yet another family pass to the Naper Settlement Living History Museum. We are proud to announce Loretta as our new winner. Her family pass is in the mail. Congratulations, Loretta!

Congratulations to Pioneer Fest Winners!

We were blessed with some wonderful weather during the Autumn Pioneer Festival in Belvidere and met a lot of nice people during the three days we hung out at our "Bring History Home" display.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to say "hello" and put their name in our basket. Congratulations to our winners: Laura, Sue, Vickie, Carol and Jeniffer! We hope you and your families enjoy your visit to the Naper Settlement living history museum.