Conner Prairie Interactive History Park Oct. 3, 2013

Conner Prairie History Park 
Oct. 3, 2013

In Process-----

 We spent the first hour inside the Welcome Center doing science projects like these---electricity, building a windmill...etc. fun and educational.

This is a idea of the beautiful grounds...pasture lands and sheep, horses, pigs, cows, goats...

I took a few pictures of each of the FOUR HISTORIC PLACES WE VISITED:

Our first stop:

Lenape Indian Village:

1836 Prairietown:

 

This woman did the best job creating a real life scenario for us---it was as if we really walked back in time.  She was really making a great meal.  You can see the eggplant, egg, and flour on the table that she used to make the dish she is cooking on the fire.  She had some bread dough rising; and another bread already done on the table. 

Here she is teaching the young girls how to knead the dough properly.

This is another home (not the kitchen/cooking woman).  Here the woman was really knowledgeable and happy to share with us how to make "ink" from black walnuts---pick up walnuts off the ground; peel off the soft green shells; wait one year; crack the hard shells; then boil the hard shells in water for hours until you get the darkness and consistency you desire.

As we walked into her home she had a large wooden tray of 'sun-dried tomatoes'.  She shared with me how to do this process: cut up the tomatoes in thin slices; sprinkle with salt, and lay out in the hot sun for a week.

The white/tan jar with the wood/paper/and rock on top of it is her batch of vinegar she is making.   She told us the process for making vinegar--which she was doing in that jar--is to cut up apples and put them in water; and cover the top; and stir them one time a day; and continue this process for six or seven months--and you have vinegar!

This boy was using a stick to write with the walnut ink.

 

Conner Homestead:

 Indiana's first brick home where William Conner lived with his family from 1823 to 1837.

Here is the candle making place--we didn't make candles this time; but we have done it here before.  You dip your string in the black cauldron of wax, slowly, layer after layer as you build up a nice candle.

This is the schoolroom--the teacher walked out as we walked in...so we taught ourselves...just like at normal!!

1863: Civil War Experience: 
We Hoosiers volunteered to defend the state from Confederate General John Hunt  Morgan and his raiders.  This place was so fantastic--each building had interactive media presentations....hard to explain...but, it was as if we had just arrived the day after the Confederates had attacked this small town.  One store was still smoldering; and there were live characters interacting with us, telling us what happened "yesterday".  Again, hard to explain how cool this was....and how they had walls and windows turn into screens that would have people "talk to us".

See the soldier sitting on the chair?  He is a mannequins, and inside the closet was a movie that was activated by motion that was like the soldiers were talking to each other.  They had a lot of these set-up's between mannequins and interactive screens.

What a great day!

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