News Release

ROCHESTER — Frontier Indiana comes alive at the annual Trail of Courage Living History Festival Saturday, Sept. 21, and Sunday, Sept. 22 at Rochester.

The Trail of Courage will be held at the Fulton County Historical Society grounds four miles north of Rochester on US 31 and the Tippecanoe River.

Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children (6 through 11) and free for ages 5 and under. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

There will be period music and dance, traditional crafts, historic camps and trading, canoe rides on the river and much more. This event combines genealogy of the Potawatomi Indians and the settlers who lived in Fulton County and northern Indiana in the early 1800s.

Each year, a different Potawatomi family is honored, and their history published in a folder at the replica 1832 Chippeway Village post office. The honored Potawatomi family had ancestors on the Trail of Death or lived in Indiana before the forced removal of 1838.

The public is invited to join in the Indian dances from 2-3 p.m., which are held in an arena outlined by teepees. The drum will be the TBA Drum, and George Godfrey, Athens, Ill., will be the emcee.

Head dancers will be Jeremy Flook and Jichaela Flook siblings that are grandchildren of Joan “Pale Moon” McClellan. The family runs the frybread and chili booth during the festival.

The Trail of Courage includes historic encampments representing the French and Indian War, Voyageurs, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Western Fur Trade, Plains Indians teepees and Woodland Indian wigwams. A re-created Miami Village includes wigwams and lifeways demonstrations, such as making cattail mats.

Another re-creation is of Chippeway Village, which had the first trading post, post office and village in Fulton County in 1832.

Food purveyors and traditional craftsmen set up in wooden booths. Craftsmen also sell pre-1840 trade goods from blankets and in historic merchant tents, offering a variety of items from clothing and jewelry to knives and candles, everything needed to live in frontier days.

The grounds are handicapped accessible. Free tram rides are available to bring people from the museum and Living History Village at the north end of the grounds. The museum and village are open with hosts and free admission.