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Surviving the chill of winter
Celebration of pioneer tenacity is aimed at Olympic visitors
By Carma Wadley
Deseret News senior writer
Over the past 150 years, we have made peace with winter. We have harnessed energy to keep us warm; developed production, warehousing and transportation systems that bring the most exotic goods to our tables; we have developed the means and enthusiasm to make sport in the snow.
Not so on the frontier, where winter was an annual endurance test, and months of preparation were required to simply survive. In those days, winter was harsh, bleak and unforgiving — yet not without a few bright spots.
That is the winter you can find at This Is The Place Heritage Park's "Pioneer Winterfest," running through Feb. 23. The park, about five miles east and 150 years back from downtown Salt Lake City, is presenting a full slate of activities to let visitors experience daily life during frontier times.
The park has mounted a "Candlelight Christmas" program that takes place on December evenings, but this is the first time for daytime winter activities, said Andrew Lambert, director of communications at the park. The facility is operated by a nonprofit foundation and offers a complete pioneer village, Old Deseret, for visitors to wander through.
Winterfest is particularly geared to Olympic visitors, said Lambert. The park's proximity to Salt Lake City and its rich interpretation of the pioneer lifestyle of the 1860s make it easy for visitors to experience the past, he said. And winter brings a whole new appreciation for pioneer life. You can see how hard it was to keep warm, the work required to prepare food, the chores that had to be done outside, the animals that were be cared for. "And you can participate in some of the experiences and games the pioneers used to keep their sanity during bleak winter days."
Activities include guided tours of Brigham Young's farmhouse, demonstrations of cooking on the hearth at the Gardiner cabin, spinning and wool carding at the Jewkes home, pioneer dancing at Social Hall, and rugmaking and needlecraft at the Fairbanks home. You can learn all about gold and banking on the frontier at the Hooper and Eldredge Bank, investigate how herbal medicines were used at the Drug Store, see an old printing press in action at the Deseret News office and enjoy popular music of the time at the Andrus Inn.
Schools were quite active in the winter, notes Loyce Powell, a volunteer interpreter at the one-room schoolhouse. "Brigham Young was adamant about education," Powell said, "and schools were built all over." Tuition was often collected "in kind," as eggs or chickens. Or perhaps the schoolmaster would stay at a pupil's home for a week or two.
The schools were very strict, and children get a big kick out that aspect, said Powell. Rules, such as boys on the right and girls on the left, no talking and the dunce corner. "Students say, 'Wouldn't the teacher get in trouble for punishing students?' But in those days, if students got in trouble at school, they would likely be in far more trouble at home. In a one-room school, other family members were probably in the class as well, and would tell parents. You couldn't get away with anything at school."
Over at the ZCMI Co-op store, visitors can check out the newest shipment of goods. "It takes 45 days to get a shipment into the valley," notes Arlene Darger. "Luckily, our latest shipment did come in." So, you can see (and even purchase) the latest styles in top hats and frock coats. "We have drop-front trousers to die for," said Darger. This innovative piece of work allowed men to fix the size with a tie in the back, and then they didn't need a belt or suspenders."
Also popular are the bright red "union suits" — so named because they were a union of top and bottom. Or, perhaps milady would like a "tussy-mussy" — a small vase that allowed her to keep a nosegay of flowers and gracefully pass it under her nose in the presence of gentlemen. "People only bathed two or three times a year, you know. So this made life ever so much more pleasurable," said Darger.
Spanish fans were all the rage, and there was a whole art and communication form involving the fan. "A woman could say, 'I wish to speak to you,' or 'follow me,' just by where she touched her face with her fan. Or, maybe she would paste a set of rules or a tidbit of conversation inside the fan."
In addition to the daily-life activities at the park, a couple of special presentations will be offered on a daily basis.
Resident thespian Michael Bennett is presenting a half-hour show called "Man of the Mountains," which tells of frontier life through the eyes of Caleb Stockton, a fictional Shakespeare-quoting member of the Ashley Company, who describes life in the West between 1825 and 1840.
"It was a delightfully romantic period that many people don't know about," said Bennett. "And so exclusive to the American West."
Also performing daily is Kevin McNiven, a singing cowboy from Wyoming, who yodels with the best of them. "The legacy of the pioneers and the cowboys was so important," McNiven said. "I try to help keep it alive through music" — songs that tell of "being saddled up and soaring between the future and the past."
The visitors center at the park is also hosting a "Utah Product Bazaar," featuring a variety of handmade crafts and demonstrations. Alice Dalton, for example, demonstrates lace-making. She shows the differences between Danish, Swiss, Russian, French, Spanish, German and English lace. Though similar, each has distinct characteristics.
Lace was important to the pioneers, she said. In spite of all the hardships, "they liked pretty things. And the only way to have them was to make them. The mall hadn't opened yet."
Pioneer men took equal pride in their saddles and tack, said saddle-maker Paul Bouck. In the early years, there weren't a lot of good saddles around, and men had to make do. But by the 1880s, they had begun to create specialized saddles for breaking horses and roping.
Spinning was also an art form, said Shirley Marshall. "It's all in practicing until you get the hang of it. Otherwise, your yarn will be bumpy and uneven."
The basement of the Visitors Center houses the international quilt show, sponsored by the Utah Quilt Guild. And upstairs, you can get dutch-oven chili and hot chocolate to warm your innards after a walk around the village.
"If you've visited the park in the summer, you'll find a totally different experience in the summer," said Lambert. It will make you think about those long-ago hard winters. And maybe the inconveniences of modern cold spells won't seem so bad, after all.
E-mail: carma@desnews.com
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February 15, 2002
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