ROCHESTER — Historical re-enactors, Aztec dancers, bagpipers, homemade chicken and noodles, buffalo burgers, home-brewed root beer and a pleasantly warm weekend with a refreshing breeze provided the ingredients for a successful Trail of Courage living history festival Sept. 21-22.

The pre-1840 atmosphere also featured blacksmiths, fur trading, muzzleloader competition, tomahawk throwing, teepees and wigwams, various antebellum cuisine cooked in cast iron skillets over an open flame and a fife and drum corps.

The event, produced and sponsored by the Fulton County Historical Society, took place on the society’s property 4 miles north of Rochester, bounded by U.S. 31 and the Tippecanoe River.

“The primary purpose of the Trail of Courage is to educate the public, to preserve and promote an accurate picture of life in frontier Indiana, as well as other areas and time periods of North American history, with real people in historic clothing, real food cooked over wood fires and real fun,” according to a newsletter written by the society.

“The Festival is based on local history, before the Potawatomi Indians were marched west on the forced removal known as The Trail of Death. The Potawatomi were marched down Rochester’s Main Street Sept. 5, 1838, on their way to Kansas, a journey of 660 miles that took them 10 weeks and cost them 42 lives. Since 1976 this festival has honored the American Indians and shown life before the removal. When Indiana became a state in 1816, northern Indiana was still Potawatomi territory.”

For more information, call (574) 223-4436 or visit www.fultoncountyhistory.org.

Here are some of the sights of the festival. (Photos by Ray Balogh)