History Center invites you to step back in time this weekend
If you live near the intersection of Salem Road and West Circle Drive, you should hear some loud explosions this weekend. It’s not road construction, an early hunting season, or another round of thunderstorms — it will be dozens of Civil War reenactors firing cannons and muskets as part of the History Center of Olmsted County’s fifth annual Living History Fair.
The concept of “living history” cannot be easily taught in a classroom, and the experience of being immersed in a time period is not lost on two of those involved.
“As the name implies, ‘living history’ brings the past alive in a way that reading about it simply cannot,” historical interpreter Bryce Stenzel said. “For many, watching a living history demonstration or listening to a one-on-one interpretation gets them excited about learning history.”
“The Living History Fair gives people a chance to actually ‘live’ history,” fellow reenactor Terry Norton said, “not try to figure out what some author put in a history book.”
Over 2,000 people were involved in last year’s fair according to the History Center’s numbers, and this year’s fair offers many of the same attractions. Along with the Civil War reenactment, fair-goers can take a lesson in a one-room schoolhouse; watch the Rochester Roosters play 1860s rules baseball; have pictures taken in an old photography booth; and participate in other activities the History Center says “encourages adults and children to learn about the 1800s era and get firsthand experience in the life of a pioneer, soldier, and civilian who would have traveled to the Olmsted County area.”
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For Stenzel and Norton, learning and understanding the past is the key to the future.
“History is like a road map. We can’t know where we’re going if we don’t know where we’ve been,” Stenzel said. “Hopefully, those who attend this weekend will get ‘fired up’ about history and seek to learn more about the Civil War era on their own.”
“This will give people a chance to see medicine as it was practiced in the 1860s,” added Norton, a hospital steward in the reenactment. “It will give the audience a chance to see how primitive it was back then and to understand how far we’ve come today.”
The fair runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $10 per day, and a $15 two-day pass is available through Friday night. Kids under 12 can get in for free, and organizers say the fair will go on rain or shine.
Isaac Jahns is back in Rochester this summer reporting for Med City Beat. The Mayo High School grad studies journalism at the University of Missouri. His main passions are writing music and telling people’s stories.
