December
Wisconsin Pioneers
My first summer teaching at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center, there was a line like no other for the Laura Ingalls Wilder day camp. Children in bonnets, clutching their copies of “Little House in the Big Woods,” couldn’t wait to spend the day living like Laura. We made jam, churned butter, swept out the cabin, and hung laundry on the line. When their parents came to pick them up, they didn’t want to stop scrubbing soapy rags against the metal washboard. “How lovely to see you enjoy doing the laundry,” one mom winked at me as her daughter toiled away. Imagining life as a pioneer was fun for a day – or even a week – but imagining a full-time, year-round life in the sparsely inhabited wilds of Wisconsin in the 1800s is an entirely different matter. Living off the land and truly at the mercy of weather, the seasons, and the resources at hand was trying and often devastating.
Turns out, the parts of her life that Laura Ingalls Wilders shared with young readers calculatingly left out some of the more dark and gritty aspects of pioneer life as she knew it. Her memoir, however, – which was published in 2014 – reveals more details for the non-child reader and spins a yarn of more challenging times for the Ingalls family. Its release in 2015 sparked a run on sales and here’s what a story from NPR reported:
(By the way, no need to spend $400 – the book “Pioneer Girl” is now available from Amazon.)
Even a cursory glance through the University of Wisconsin’s digital collection, “Wisconsin Pioneer Experience,” reveals evidence of the hardships pioneers endured, including sinking ships, hard winters, sickness and death, and the strenuous work required on either farms, lumber camps, or sawmills. But the settlers endured. And even Laura Ingalls Wilder, twenty years after documenting her childhood memories, reflected on that “long ago” time and found many things remain the same. Indeed, what she wrote in the 1950s still stands true:
The “Little House” books are stories of long ago. Today our way of living and our schools are much different; so many things have made living and learning easier. But the real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with the simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong. Great improvements in living have been made because every American has always been free to pursue his happiness, and so long as Americans are free they will continue to make our country ever more wonderful.
To Do This Month:
After reading “Pioneer Girl,” check out “Trials of the Earth,” another gritty memoir of pioneer times – this one from Mary Mann Hamilton, a woman from the Mississippi Delta whose manuscript, much like Wilder’s, was not published in the 1930s when it was submitted, but is reaching audiences now to reveal the strength and fortitude of pioneering women.
Considering the true pioneers of our land were the Native Americans, learn more about the traditions and culture of Native Wisconsin people that exist today with these suggestions from traveler and inside-tipster Peter Greenberg.
Sign up for the Aldo Leopold Nature Center’s mailing list (or become a member) so you can be first in line for the 2017 Laura Ingalls Wilder summer camp.
Visit the Madison Children’s Museum Log Cabin, a 1838 cabin recovered from Walworth County, to imagine life in such small quarters.
Check out the many events happening at Nature Net sites this month on our joint Events Calendar.
Aldo Leopold Nature Center
December Events
Our Favorite Pioneer Books
Pioneer Craft
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For Educators:
Wisconsin Historical Society
If your classroom is studying our state’s pioneering past, the Wisconsin Historical Society offers many resources, including research guides, lesson plans, and field trip options. Lesson plans are created with support materials from primary sources drawn from the Historical Society’s collections or archives. The Society also provides classroom materials, like this Emigrant’s Handbook & Guide from 1851, along with discussion questions, vocabulary words, and suggested enhancement activities.
Of course the Historical Society also publishes textbooks and other publications, including the Badger Biography Series for students age 7-12, and the newly released second edition of the 4th grade textbook, “Wisconsin: Our State, Our Story.”
Maybe you and your students will be inspired to take part in National History Day. There are several competitions and events in Wisconsin this spring – or the Kenneth E Behring National Contest in Maryland in June 2017.
For Families:
Putting Food By
When I was little my grandma told me of “the six weeks of want.” These days, with global food shipping and deeply stocked grocery stores, even a Google search for “six weeks of want” results in a blank stare. Grandma Dorothy told me it was the six weeks after your autumn larder of root vegetables and canned goods may have run dry, but prior to the first garden harvest in the spring. For many farm families of her generation, this was a time of getting by, stretching available food, and trading with the neighbors. To avoid these six week of sparsity, Grandma was an avid gardener and kitchen maven – an expert at “putting food by.” Her basement was brimming with canned goods, pickled produce, a stocked chest freezer, and bins of dry goods (not to mention Grandpa’s ice-fishing gear). I often think about the changes in technology and human habits that have taken place since her birth 100 years ago – and juxtapose that with the fact that just 100 years prior, Wisconsin’s first European settlements were being established. In those quick two hundred years, the notion of any – let alone six – weeks of want have been entirely erased (at least where year-round food availability is concerned). And I wonder, then, what Grandma would think of today’s hipsters bringing back a renaissance of food preservation and appreciation. I have to bet she’d tie on her yellow apron, start a pot of coffee, and begin warming up the Ball jars.
If you’d like to try your hand at canning food, there’s ample information on the web and at the bookstore. Here’s a few favorites:
- Food Safety and Tested Recipes – UW Madison Food Safety & Health
- Canning 101 – Ball Jar
- Recipes online – Simply Canning
- Books – Not Your Mama’s Canning Book
& Batch: Over 200 Recipes, Tips & Techniques for a Well Preserved Kitchen
- Other’s suggestions – The Kitchn
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Betsy Parker is an environmental educator who supports all children, families, and classrooms getting their recommended daily allowance of #VitaminN.