Trail of Courage

34th Annual
Trail of Courage Living History Festival

Step back into Fulton County's Frontier past with a visit to this historic living history festival of pre-1840. Visit historic encampments representing the French and Indian War, Seven Years War, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Plains Indians, Woodland Indians - Miami and Potawatomi life ways, and voyaguers with canoes. Enjoy period music and dance, bagpipes and Scottish dancers, marching fife and drum corps, a frontier fashion show and Indian lore. See demonstrations of early American and Indian skills and wares such as broom making, spinning, candle dipping, flintknapping, Indian beadwork and more. Savor a variety of foods cooked over wood fires: buffalo burgers, Indian fry bread, venison stew, apple sausage, barbecue, homemade fudge, apple dumplings, popcorn and potato chips and fish fried in big iron kettles. Also, ice cream, George Washington’s favorite treat! You'll be sure to find something you'll like! Make your way to the Chippeway Village portraying frontier Northern Indiana of 1832 with its pioneer and Indian crafts, post office, storytellers, Frontier Blab School and 18th century puppet show. Observe muzzleloading shooting and tomahawk contests, blanket trading as well as a canoe landing and fur trading skit. See the Log Trading Post. Canoe rides available. Be sure to visit Chief White Eagle and Bobbie Bear before leaving - they are just outside the Admissions gate. FREE tram rides from FREE parking field to festival! The grounds are handicapped accessible. The museum and Living History Village at the north end of the grounds are open with costumed hosts, admission free.

Click here to view photo album. View the Trail of Courage Schedule here.

Want to participate? Send for an application!

What I love about Trail of Courage
By Marsha Glassburn, Rochester, Indiana - 8/5/06

It's Trail of Courage time once again.
People gather catching up with old friends.
Families prepare for the long day,
Dressing, and primping in the traditional way.

The drums get ready for heartbeat to begin,
Dancers all ready, waiting to walk in,
The MC at the mike ready to speak,
Soon it will be time to dance to the beat.

Fry bread cooking, the smell is in the air.
It's Trail of Courage time the best time of the year!
Crafts everywhere made by traditional hands -
No better place to be in this Native land.

The Circle starts filling with dancers galore:
Elders and youth and tiny tots by the score.
Hats removed and etiquette shown
For the first peoples in this land that we call home.

Veterans walk in carrying their flags -
Eyes getting misty for the respect they had.
The sky so bright blue, it takes your breath away.
An Eagle flying overhead just makes the day!

Soon it will end - everyone will leave.
There will be hugs and handshakes and smiles I believe.
For the Trail of Courage never ends, it always comes back.
This is Indian country, as a matter of fact.

No matter how far, no matter how long,
The first peoples will be there alive and strong.
There is no better place to be
Then going to Trail of Courage, believe you me!

History walks the streets at Trail of Courage Sept. 20-21, 2008

You can step back in time to an entirely different life, when Frontier Indiana history walked the streets, at the 33rd annual Trail of Courage Living History Festival Sept. 20-21 at Rochester. The Potawatomi Indians were marched single file down Rochester's Main Street September 5, 1838, on the forced removal known as the Trail of Death. Since 1976 this festival has honored the American Indians and shown life before the removal when this was still Potawatomi Territory.

Frontier Indiana comes alive with foods cooked over wood fires, period music and dance, traditional crafts, historic camps and trading, canoe rides on the river, and much more. It is produced by the Fulton County Historical Society, Rochester, Indiana. This event combines genealogy of the Potawatomi Indians and the settlers who lived in Fulton County and northern Indiana in the early 1800s with the rendezvous events, stage programs, historic canoe landing and fur trade skit on the Tippecanoe River. Foods cooked over wood fires are for sale. The Trail of Courage will be held at the FCHS grounds four miles north of Rochester on US 31. Admission is $6 for adults, $2 for children (6 through 11), and free age 5 and under. Hours are Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sun. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This year's honored Potawatomi family will be descendants of Abram Burnett. Tracy Locke and 10 year old daughter Erin Locke, Lafayette, will tell their story at 10:30 a.m. on the Chippeway Village stage both days. The Trail of Death Caravan will leave Chief Menominee’s statue at 9 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 22 and retrace the route taken by the Potawatomi in 1838. To register to travel with the group, see www.potatwatomi-tda.org Members of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Shawnee, OK., have received a grant to make a documentary so they will be traveling with the group this year. Also John Bowes from the Smithsonian will come to gather materials for an exhibit on the Trail of Death for the National Museum of the American Indian.

New this year will be D3 Fife & Drum Corp, Detroit, Mich.; Ben Franklin portrayal by Chuck Molenda, Carpentersville, Ill; Marsha Glassburn, Rochester – storytelling, Thistle Mountain, Leo, Ind; - dulcimer music, and author John McMullen, Evansville, Ind., author of “The Last Blackrobe of Indiana and the Potawatomi Trail of Death” will sell and autograph his book and give talks on the stage.

The public is invited to join in the Indian dances 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., which are held in an arena encircled by teepees. The drum will be Massassagan Drum led by Mike Floyd, Chief of the Eel River Tribe. Head dancers will be Glenn and Beverly Barnhill, Bloomington, Illinois. Beverly is a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi and Glenn is Lakota. George Godfrey, Athens, Illinois, member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, will act as emcee. He is president of the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association, and has been dancing at the Trail of Courage since 1988. Godfrey had an ancestor on the 1838 Trail of Death.

The Trail of Courage includes historic encampments representing the French & Indian War, Voyageurs, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Western Fur Trade, Plains Indians teepees, and Woodland Indian wigwam village. A special re-creation of a Miami Village includes wigwams and lifeways demonstrations, such as making cattail mats. There is also a re-creation of Chippeway, the first trading post, post office and village in Fulton County in 1832. Food purveyors and traditional craftsmen set up in wooden booths to demonstrate and sell their wares. Craftsmen also sell pre-1840 trade goods from blankets and in historic merchant tents, offering a variety of items from clothing and jewelry to knives and candles, everything needed to live in frontier days. Canoe rides, muzzle loading shooting and tomahawk throwing contests, and a frontier blab school add to the frontier activities.

Two stages with frontier music and dance present programs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Since the early 1980s FCHS has received grants from the Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts to help pay for musicians and dancers: 42nd Royal Highlanders, D3 Fife & Drum Corp, Aztec dancers, Shakin' Hammers String Band, Mark and Liza Woolever, Thistle Mountain, Steve McPhail – Johnny Appleseed, Chuck Molenda – Ben Franklin, Kim Hoover - Hoots to Howls Wildlife Rehabilitation, Chief White Eagle - Indian lore, Indian dancers and drum. Many volunteers provide programs such as Frontier Frolic dance called by Shirley Willard, Nan Edwards' dogs pulling travois, Schultz family - goats and kids, Marsha Glassburn - Indian storytelling, and Riddle School 4th grade dancers, Hannah Jones - fiddle, Mark Gropp – bagpipes. Both Catholic and Protestant worship services are held at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday.

Pioneer foods are cooked over wood fires. Visitors can feast on buffalo burgers, chicken and noodles, barbecue, ham and beans, fish and chips cooked in big iron kettles, potato brats, apple dumplings, corn on the cob, apple sausage, and more, including ice cream, one of George Washington's favorite treats. Local clubs cook and serve these historic foods to fund their projects: Rotary, Kappa Delta Phi, Swingin' Dudes Square Dancers, Grass Creek Lions Club, and Fulton County Historical Society. A Black family, Harvey and Beverly Jackson, Rochester, do the barbecue and sweet potato pie, and also exhibit a frontier African-American house. Many people come to the festival just for the delicious food!

The grounds are handicapped accessible. Free tram rides are available to bring people from the museum, round barn and Living History Village at the north end of the grounds. The museum and village are open with costumed hosts and free admission.

Volunteers can earn free admission to the Trail of Courage by working half a day. To volunteer or for more information, call the museum at 574-223-4436. Free parking is provided on FCHS grounds. Plenty of free benches are available to sit and rest.

Trail of Death caravan planned for 170th anniversary

Five years have gone by since the last Trail of Death caravan in 2003. The Trail of Death

Commemorative Caravan will travel again September 22-28, 2008, the 170th anniversary. This will be the fifth caravan since 1988 which marked the 150th anniversary of the 1838 Trail of Death, the forced removal of the Potawatomi from north central Indiana to eastern Kansas.

Citizen Potawatomi Nation member and president of the Potawatomi Trail of Death Association, George Godfrey (Bergeron-Bazhaw family) is the coordinator of this year’s caravan. He is being assisted by Shirley Willard, Fulton County Historian, Rochester, Indiana. They will be joined by others to guide the caravan along the route, starting at Twin Lakes west of Plymouth, Indiana, and ending at the Sugar Creek Mission near Osawatomie, Kansas.

If you are interested in traveling on the caravan, call or email either George Godfrey at 217-636-8120 pggg-92@sbcglobal.net or Shirley Willard at 574-223-2352 email wwillard@rtcol.com. Registration forms are available at www.potawatomi-tda.org which has pictures and driving directions for the entire 660 mile trek. The pictures, locations and history can be printed out.

Many Potawatomi will attend and be honored at the Trail of Courage Living History Festival Sept. 20-21 at the Fulton County Historical Society grounds, four miles north of Rochester, Ind., on US 31. A delegation from the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Shawnee, Ok., will video to make a documentary on the Trail of Death, at the festival and on the caravan.

The caravan begins on Monday morning Sept. 22 at 8 a.m. with a meeting at Fulton County Museum, 4 miles north of Rochester on US 31, to get organized and then drive as a caravan to Chief Menominee statue southwest of Plymouth. There a ceremony will be held with George Schricker, Plymouth, Ind., singing the song he wrote about “Menominee, the Man Who Would Not Sign.” The caravan will start traveling about 10 a.m. on the actual route of the 1838 Trail of Death. You are welcome to travel with the caravan for half a day, join it at any point, or go all the way. To locate the caravan on a given day, simply call 217-502-9340, which is George Godfrey’s cell phone. Please be sure to bring a CB radio.

Each individual will be responsible for making and paying for accommodations and any meals that are not be provided along the way. They will lodge in Super 8 Motels in each city on the itinerary.

It took 15 years to get historical markers erected at each campsite every 15 to 20 miles. There are now over 70 markers, all paid for with donations at no expense to taxpayers. This year the Potawatomi Trail of Death Assn. has a new goal: to erect historic highway signs at every turn on the route so that hikers, bikers and motorists can follow the Trail of Death and find the historical markers. The signs are similar to the Lewis & Clark Trail signs. The Potawatomi Trail of Death logo was designed by David Thomas Anderson, Seattle, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. The signs cost $50 each and arrows are $7.50 each. Your donation will be welcomed. Erin Locke, Lafayette, Indiana, baked cookies to sell at her school and earned over $200 to sponsor four Potawatomi Trail of Death historic highway signs. She and her mother Tracy Locke will be the special honored Potawatomi family at the Trail of Courage Living History Festival Sept. 20-21 at Rochester, Indiana.

This year’s caravan will be a spiritual journey and a time for inward reflection. It will become a historical reminder of what many Potawatomi ancestors suffered when forcibly removed from their homes in northern Indiana in 1838. Historians, Potawatomi, and all interested persons are welcome to travel the Trail of Death with the caravan.

Itinerary for Trail of Death caravan 2008

Subject to change. More will be added as the time approaches.

All overnight stays will be in Super 8 Motels in designated city.

Sept. 22 Monday 8 a.m. Fulton County Museum; 9 a.m. Chief Menominee Statue; approximately 3- 4 p.m. visit Wabash & Erie Canal Center at Delphi; spend night at Lafayette, Indiana.

Sept. 23 Tuesday, Lunch at Danville IL Elsworth Park – compliments of Anderson MacIntyre Historical Services, visit Old State Capital plaza in Springfield. Evening meeting at George Godfrey’s house at Athens, spend night at Springfield, Ill.

Sept. 24 Wednesday, Mass at St. Mary's Church in Quincy, Community supper at Quinsippi Island, spend night at Quincy, Ill.

Sept. 25 Thursday, Visit Josephine Gander farm at 9 a.m. Supper 6 p.m. in Moberly Library, provided by Huntsville Historical Society. Spend night at Moberly, Mo.

Sept. 26 Friday, Visit Jackson County (MO) Museum. Dedicate newly-replaced Trail of Death historical marker at Independence, MO., 5 p.m. Spend night at Independence, Mo.

Sept. 27 Saturday, Visit Sugar Creek Mission in rural Linn County, Kan. , then on to Lawrence, Kansas. George Godfrey stated, “Jamison Bear (Osage from Lawrence, former Haskell faculty member, and good friend) said that his wife and sister-in-law will prepare a supper (fry bread, dumplings, etc.....it will be traditional and GOOD!) for us when we get to Lawrence.”

Sept. 28 Sunday, Eat breakfast together, then say Farewell to all at Lawrence, Kansas.

Potawatomi Trail of Death Regional Historic Trail
1838 Indiana to Kansas
Erected 2006 by Manitou Chapter DAR, Rochester IN

Five new historic highway signs were dedicated Sept. 15, 2006. See Trail of Death in this web site for story - click here

Potawatomi Trail of Death Regional Historic Trail highway signs will be erected in Marshall County. Come to the dedication Friday Sept. 14 at 4 p.m. at the Chief Menominee Monument. Go six miles west of US 31 and turn north on Peach Road. Menomonee's statue is about a half mile and is on the east (right) side of Peach Road.

These signs are sponsored by Marshall County Tourism.

See www.potawatomi-tda.org for pictures of Trail of Death markers.