Visiting Forestville: The Minnesota Historical Society Restoration

Inside Forestville State Park is the Minnesota Historical Society’s restored village.    The kidlets were really excited about the prospect of visiting another Minnesota Historical Society site after having just been to Split Rock.  They also have great memories of the Forest History Center in Grand Rapids.  All of these places have guides dressed in period garb role playing characters important to the site, and the kidlets seem to be at the perfect age for these experiences.

Forestville was a village that was settled as homesteaders were acquiring farmland.  At an important intersection on a couple of important routes during its day (one was a stage coach route), it was anticipated to be a city that continued to grow.  When the railroad decided to bypass Forestville, people started moving away, and the history of this little village changed course.  Preserved at the site are several barns and outbuildings and a magnificent general store that is attached to a house.  All the buildings are filled with antique items allowing guests to step back to the year 1899.  The guides are great about answering questions and giving the kids and grown ups a slice of what life was like years ago.

The owner of the store was also a notary and politician.  Inside his house we learned that it was the youngest daughter’s job to empty all the spittoons and chamber pots.  The Banana decided she would be lobbying very hard for a baby sister.  It would have been Mr. TOF’s job to churn the butter.  By age 10, girls pretty much knew everything they’d need to run an entire household.  I found that amazing.  I didn’t know how to run a household when I was 22.  I still don’t, most days.  And running a household now is a lot easier than it was then.  YaYa is just under two years away from being married off.  The men in the area typically spent 1/3 of their income on tobacco products!  Yikes!

When we got to the last barn, the guide told the kids to climb right up in the buggy, “You’ll probably never get another chance in your life to sit in an antique buggy.”  They climbed up within seconds, and we got to learn about some of the different tools.  It was interesting to think through what had and had not been invented yet, and how people compensated.  It gave me a bigger appreciation for what problem solvers people are.

The contraption on the left is a cider press.  There were so many neat things to take pictures of, but I didn’t take that many.  I was too busy listening and learning. We ended up arriving late in the day, which meant that we were just a bit rushed before things closed up for the day, but we all really enjoyed getting to experience the things we did see.  There was also a wedding happening outside while we were on our tour, which was fine, but a little distracting at times.  More time would have been good.

The most fascinating parts for me were learning how the household was run and learning a bit about the people who lived there.  Dr. Peds really thought the store was neat.  It was!  We could have looked around in there for a long time!  There were so many neat old items to see.