Frontier Day at the History Center

The former Oregon Trail event at Anderson Conservation Area has been rebirthed under a new name and location.
Frontier Days was held on May 8 at the Montgomery County History Center. Initially called Pioneer Days when it was first held at the center last year, Montgomery County History Center curator Dave McFarland said that after last year’s transitional event, this year will be transitional as well.
“The Oregon Trail kind of activity was down at the fairgrounds and then it was out at Anderson and stuff. Last year we started talking about changing it to a new location since they didn’t want to do it out at Anderson anymore. It was suggested the event be brought here, so last year we had it here,” said McFarland. “Before when it was an activity with the Oregon Trail, the teachers and participants have expressed that they’d like to see something a little more along the learning line and everything. On the trail, they’d put up signs and trail markers and kind of do simulations and activities. Here at the History Center we’re going to do something similar, but it’s going to be under the moniker of Frontier Days.”
McFarland said one of the changes of the new event as opposed to the one on the Oregon Trail is the fact that many of the center’s historic old buildings were available for learning presentations.
“We have the oldest church in the county, the Sciola Church out here. We have a one-room country schoolhouse that dates back to about 1870, as well as two log cabins, old barns, not to mention the museum here in the building. Last year, we incorporated elements of the Oregon Trial. This year our full focus is going to be on  Frontier Days. The kids will be learning new things directly in the environments of the old buildings, such as the school house and the church,” stated McFarland.
Despite a short turnaround, overall McFarland said he was happy with how the inaugural event went last year.
“It really went pretty well. There’s always this big shuffle, especially when we were out there at Anderson getting the kids lined up and doing this and doing that. We laid out a map for this event that outlined the buildings being used and made it kind of orbital, which made the flow of the students quite easy to control. When you get half a dozen different classes trying to get through, it gets kind of hectic and can get to be a handful. Now that we’ve got this year done, we’ve got some other buildings and things that we can add next year.”
In addition to the use of the buildings, McFarland was able to incorporate the center attractions during the event.
“We did some things inside the museum with the old natural history, woolly mammoths and fossils and all of that prehistory of Iowa, right up to more modern stuff. The goal was to make this event and those events we will have in the future be exciting and fun and enriching for the kids.”
McFarland said they also had a nice selection of presenters to help educate the kids who attended.
“Last year we had kind of a struggle getting enough volunteers. Now we’ve had to add workstations. We had a gentleman that shared information on Lewis and Clark, a lady that shared information on being a medicine woman in frontier times, and presenters in the church, the school, and the cabins,” commented McFarland.
One big change that took place this year was a limited amount of kids invited to the event.
“Before,  we invited all the local schools, even Griswold and Villisca, to come and be in on it. This year since we’re still ironing out all the details for the Frontier Days program, we just hosted Red Oak students this year,” McFarland explained. “Next year our goal is to bring everybody else back in and really expand it and make this into a major event that takes place here year after year. We specifically hosted the Red Oak fourth graders and they were split into small learning groups. Now that we’ve done this event a second time, we’re going to review what we came up with, see what worked and what didn’t, and then expand on what we need to do differently to make next year’s event even better.”
While the event is seeing some changes from its Oregon Trail days, McFarland said there was at least one familiar face.
“Some of the Oregon Trail presenters made an appearance here, like Faye Mullinex. She was right here at the cabins and doing music and all that. However, in the case of a lot of them, there’s a few older ones that are wanting to kind of retire now. But we’ve got new presenters who are coming on and that really aids us in our hope of keeping this annual event alive and well and attended,” said McFarland.
Another thing that remained the same is the period garb available for the attending youth.
“We had some dresses and then we also got dresses that we inherited from out at the Oregon Trail. The teachers came in and took all of those and got them all jazzed up and fitted so that the kids can wear them. We really wanted to keep the period costuming and things like that for Frontier Day.”
While not on the official map, McFarland said that the railroad tie jail that was reconstructed at the center was a popular destination for the kids.
“The jail really is a magnet. We’ve got the door so you can’t lock each other in, but you can close it. It was kind of interesting because we found an old newspaper account that told about that when the railroads were first coming to Red Oak, that Red Oak was only second to Deadwood, South Dakota for being wild and woolly and they needed a jail. Somewhere they got a hold of a cell door and they built a jail out of railroad ties, so we kind of created best we could,” McFarland stated. “It sits down there between the church and the country school. It’s been kind of a standing joke.  We want to make a sign that says ‘it’s your choice.’”
While they have much of what they need, McFarland said they are always accepting of donations that can be used for this program or others at the center. Additionally, they are also welcoming anyone who wishes to be a presenter for the program in 2027.
“We’ve had a couple request to participate, such as the medicine woman and the Lewis and Clark historian. We hope to see a lot more of that. Myself, I wouldn’t mind seeing the event grow in presenters and destinations to where we just have all these different areas and the kids could go pick and choose the ones they go to and things like that,” said McFarland. “Also, the more presenters we have will make it a lot more feasible to have more schools,” McFarland commented. “I am sure that there’s going to be a limit to what we can do in a six or seven hour day, but the more we grow this, the more options that we’ll have.”
To make a donation, volunteer as a presenter, or just see what the history center has to offer, call 623-2289, email mchsociet@myfmtc.com, visit mocohistorycenter.org, find the history center on facebook at facebook.com/MCHistoryCenter, or stop in in person at 2700 N. 4th St. Regular hours are from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.