On Friday we headed north to Chillicothe via the Dickson Mounds, a Native American burial ground. Parts of the Dickson Mounds site were occupied by people as early as 100 A.D., and parts continued to be occupied by Native Americans until the 1700s. Kelly remembers visiting the Mounds with her grandmother in the 70s – back then, the excavated graves and skeletons were open to the public. In 1992, after continued protests, the graves were resealed. What was once a viewing stand onto an open grave is now a solemn, darkened room.
The Museum gives a good explanation of the Native cultures that inhabited the site, and a context for the Mississipian people who built the burial mounds here and at Cahokia, Illinois (which we visited on an earlier trip). Settlements such as these at the Dickson Mounds and Cahokia were central nodes in a vast, complex trading network that spanned all of North America and well into Central America and predated the European arrival by hundreds of years.
Dickson Mounds is also in a beautiful location, out in the middle of nowhere with a great view for miles around. In fact, on our way to the Mounds, we were surprised to find ourselves driving through wetlands which we didn’t remember from the last time we’d driven up Route 78. Turns out that we remembered correctly; last time we had passed through, it was farmland. Subsequently, they removed the levees that had held back the waters of Lake Chautaqua (we assume) and let the land revert to its original state. In this picture, you can still see a couple of trees that once stood on a farm property.
This work was funded in part by the Nature Conservancy and with funds raised by the annual
Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp. As a result, lots of great territory is being reclaimed and protected for fishing, hunting, and birdwatching.
That may sound like a contradictory mix, but the truth is, both birding and responsible hunting can co-exist. We saw lots of Great Egrets and a bunch of unidentifiable ducks. We also saw lots of tiny, brilliant blue dragonflies.
We got to Chillicothe just before supper time. One good reason to visit Chillicothe is that it’s so close to Lacon, home of Kenyon’s Place. This is a restaurant where you can get a fried chicken dinner with spaghetti and tortellini, your choice of two sides, a corn fritter and bread: a dinner that could feed about four people, but which you can consume in one sitting with the proper mind-set and perseverance. (Though frankly, we find the spaghetti and tortellini a bit of overkill and have taken a pass on that since our inaugural visit.) Uncle Vern and Aunt Ruth took us here on our first visit to Chillicothe in 1992. On our second visit to Chillicothe, a few years later, our Kenyon’s experience was pre-empted by an exciting trip to the emergency room in Peoria (Sara + barbecue + more barbecue + Ted Drewe’s concrete custard + soda pop + chips + 100 degrees Fahrenheit = Peoria emergency room). Instead, we hit the Steak ‘n’ Shake at about midnight.
After dinner, Uncle Vern took us for a preview of the next day’s attractions at Three Sisters Park. We’re talking about a lot of tractors.
Later, Kelly’s cousin Kirby and her husband John showed up with a bunch of kringles imported from Racine, Wisconsin. The kringle is a sinfully delicious Danish pastry; Kirby brought apricot, chocolate pecan, and cherry. It had to wait until morning; in the meantime we had a couple of beers and quite a few laughs before hitting the hay.
The next morning, most of us got up bright and early to eat kringle and get ready for Farm Heritage Days. Uncle Vern, 2008 Tractor Champion, had to leave early to wipe the dew off his tractor and shine her up.
Eventually we all headed over to Three Sisters Park, filled with anticipation.
Farm Heritage Days had several attractions, such as the chainsaw woodcarver:
A coal-fired steam engine:
There was a blacksmith from whom we bought a nicely wrought hook and a slick litle rebar snake. There was also a restored turn-of-the-century farmhouse, bake sale (including Kirby’s tractor cookies, which were scandalously underpriced at only 25 cents each), and goats.
Kelly got into the spirit of things and bought a Farm Heritage Days t-shirt, which Aunt Ruthie made her change into in the back of the car. She apparantly "shielded" Kelly from view but we all question how effective that could have been in a wide-open field.
Other top-drawer attractions included tractor pull competitions -- for old and young.
People tend to dress in the colour of their favorite tractor. This boy is a fan of Allis-Chambers -- the orange tractor in the top photo. Here, he's pedalling a John Deere. Seems kind of silly, doesn't it?
Truth is, the best tractor in the world, bar none, is the red tractor: McCormick Farmall, later International Harvester, now Case-IH.
There also happened to be sheep dog trials going on in a different part of the park. An amazing thing to watch.
We saw maybe a half dozen different dogs at work.
If you ask me, it was pretty hard work for the sheep, too.
It was close on 90 degrees -- dogs and sheep got mighty hot. The sheep had a little tent but the dogs all jumped into the pool when they were finished. (Cocktails were served later, on the Lido deck.)
Lunch, pork chop sandwiches and lemon shake-ups, was generously provided by John and Kirby. Following lunch was the highlight of the day, the tractor parade.
Uncle Vern, as last year’s champion, was at the beginning of the parade, but apart from him, this was Sara's favourite entry:
We enjoyed the tractor aesthetic.
It was a fine day.
