October 2006
Out & About:
Go Back to the 1800s at Pioneer Farm Museum
By Janice Lovelace
This fall, take a trip back in time to learn how native people and early white settlers lived in the 1800s. Spend the day exploring hands-on living history at the Pioneer Farm Museum and Ohop Indian Village in Eatonville.
Guided tours led by staff in period costumes are offered continuously on weekends through Nov. 20, starting at 11:15 a.m. Children can experience hands-on farm life, including gathering eggs, washing clothes, using an outhouse, making tools and chopping firewood. After exploring early white settler life, head across the street to Ohop Indian Village to experience the life of the area’s native coastal Salish people. Learn about harvesting plants, fishing and winter activities.
The Pruitt family started the farm in 1975. According to Valerie Sivertson, one of the eight Pruitt children, her father was an educator in Kent and her mother a lover of old artifacts. Trained as an early childhood educator, Mrs. Pruitt saw an opportunity to meld her love of children with her interest in antiques. She started with tours of the farm for schoolchildren, and later the family developed a non-profit organization, which runs the farm today for public tours. Although school and community groups are still the largest users of the farm, it is open to all with an emphasis on learning through hands-on experiences.
Pioneer Farm
The one-and-a-half hour tour of the 1887 homestead starts with the Stubbs cabin. This original cabin, moved from the Lake Tanwax area, was donated by the family’s descendents. Mrs. Stubbs fixed 25-cent meals for travelers, so the table inside is set as it would have been for guests. The cabin also contains an organ, which she loved to play, and an old sewing machine. Although the stairs are no longer safe for visitors, a mirror is set up on the main floor to see the loft sleeping area for five. Visitors are asked not to touch the fragile furnishings.
The next stop is a fun one for the whole family – the barn with a variety of animals. Visitors can milk the cow, with the assistance of the guide, or hunt for eggs in the chicken coop, or just have fun jumping in the hay pile at the far end. The lamb and sheep are kept for wool. Learn how they are shorn and how wool is spun. Pet a pig, rabbits, goat and horse.
Right next door is the forge, where families made their own horseshoes and other farm implements. Visitors can to try their hand at molding and hammering horseshoes. Make sure to pump the bellows to keep the coal fire hot enough.
If that’s too hot, move outdoors to the wood chopping and sawing area. Firewood was necessary to make it through the long fall and winter. Practice sawing wood and shaving the bark off it. It is harder than it looks!
The final stop on the farm tour is a large cabin built in the style of the time. It provides groups a chance to experience inside activities, like cooking, cleaning and schoolwork. Visitors can grind wheat into flour and mix it together to form dough to knead for bread. Step outside for an opportunity to wash on the old washboards and put clothing through the wringer. Clothes were hung out to dry outside or by the fireplace on cool or wet days. Children will also have the chance to experience what toys and lessons were like before video games and computers. They can write on a slate board with soapstone or play with the small wooden toys.
Large groups can book an overnight experiential stay in the cabin and enjoy meals cooked over a campfire, old stories and morning chores.
Ohop Indian Village
Bring a sack lunch and then stay for the Native American Seasons tour offered at 1 or 2:30 p.m. Located across the road in a more forested area, the village highlights lodging for three seasons. It represents typical life for the coastal Salish tribes that lived in western Washington. An overnight experiential stay is available for larger groups.
The first site, usually located near water, is the winter home where the family would stay from first frost to last frost. The walls are plank boards, making a sturdy, more permanent house than a summer place. Visitors learn how to roll fibers, make clothing, fix food and work on crafts. Children also have an opportunity to work on a whale petrogylph located just past the house.
The next site is a fishing village, which would be set up
facing the river. The walls are open, with mats to roll down for cooler
nights. The family would catch fish and dry it here. Several families
would share a smoke house. Visitors can learn to throw a fishing spear,
braid fiber to make a net, make tools and work on a canoe. Children will
learn about the different types of canoes used for different tasks.
The third site is an example of more transient lodging used during harvest
season. Women were the primary gatherers of roots and berries –
from camas bulbs in the spring to huckleberries in the fall – so
the shelter was passed from mother to daughter. Mats made of cattail plants
or cedar bark cover the sides. Here children learn about different animals
that were hunted by seeing and feeling their skins. Learn how to start
a fire with sticks and dry vegetation.
If you spend the whole day, you’ll have a well-rounded view of how all of the South Sound’s early residents lived.
Getting there: The farm is located at 7716 Ohop Valley Road in Eatonville. Take Interstate 5 to Highway 512 East. Continue to Highway 7 South. Travel about 23 miles to Ohop Valley Road, turn left and go about .7 mile to the entrance on the right. It is open Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., until Nov. 20. It is closed in the winter, and will re-open in mid-March. Admission prices for the Pioneer Farm are $7.50 for adults, $6.50 for children 3-18 and seniors. Admission prices for the Native American villages are $7 for adults, $6 for children and seniors. 360-832-6300. www.pioneerfarmmuseum.org
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