Conner Prairie’s annual celebration of Indiana’s farm heritage will return this year on September 20-21, 2008. Country Fair is your chance to see how fairs have evolved over the years! Conner Prairie’s Liberty Corner will feature a recreated 1886 agricultural society fair including tool, garden and textile displays, livestock exhibitions and temperance pledges. You may be asked to help judge the poultry competition or to join in on a debate for women’s rights. Jump on a hayride or watch an antique tractor parade. Discover the importance of fairs in the past and how farmers relied on them to learn the latest in the agricultural community.

Come out to the country for some good old-fashioned fall fun! Shell corn, throw a tomahawk, cheer on the base ball team and sample some homemade pies and heirloom apples. Play the original 19th-century games, try your hand at plowing, participate in a scavenger hunt and browse the Power Show for a look at historic farm equipment and dozens of antique tractors. 

Highlights:

Antique Tractor Parade

Line up along the parade route for a look at antique tractors that will thrill all ages!

1886 Liberty Corner Agricultural Improvement Society Fair

This fair takes you back to old-fashioned farm fun! Pie-judging contests, historic livestock exhibitions, textiles displays, garden displays, preserves, the mysterious Tent of Wonders, performances by the Hard Times Theatre (a Conner Prairie medicine show), temperance and suffrage rallies and more.

Historic Base Ball

Batter’s up! Try playing base ball 19th-century-style with the White River Base Ball Club during Liberty Corner’s Agricultural Improvement Society Fair.

Historic Power Show

Antique tractors and farm equipment displays and demonstrations.

Country Market

Shop for handmade items such as: Jewelry Painting honey, soap, beeswax candles, woven rugs baskets, fossils, decorative wreaths, handmade copper sundials, trellises, arbors, sprinklers.

Farm Activities and Agricultural Demonstrations

Plow a field and meet the oxen up close and personal. Learn about our agricultural past as you see threshing demonstrations. Gather around the Zimmerman home and become a farm hand where you can help with chores, such as: feeding the livestock and corralling the chickens.

Live Entertainment

During both days Fields of Home Bluegrass Band –and Witch Hazel People will be performing all day.

Especially for kids

Meet at Liberty Corner for some fun competitions including hoop races, croquet and other games! Bat a ball and run the bases with the White River Base Ball Club. Explore Colonel Whitley’s mysterious Tent of Wonders – is it magic of the mind or not? Help judge the poultry contest or sample a piece of pie or jump on a tractor pulled hayride.

In honor of Country Fair Conner Prairie will feature a variety of historic farming demonstrations, an awesome display of antique tractors and implements, as well as historic livestock breeds all over the historic grounds. You can even take a wagon ride pulled by an antique tractor. Help press cider and sample crisp heirloom apples. Look for the winners at the museum’s annual heirloom vegetable and flower competition, where our culinary section will give guests an opportunity learn about 19th-century jellies, butters and preserves. Guests can also register to enter the 2009 culinary competition in the Museum Shop. Watch as Conner Prairie’s own magnificent draft horses and oxen demonstrate plowing.

Don’t forget to visit the Museum Shop to stock up on your favorite fall foods such as gourmet soup mixes and dips, apple butter, pumpkin butter, candy sticks and more! Plus your favorite festival foods will be available for purchase outside such as: BBQ sandwiches, turkey legs, roasted corn, pumpkin squares, kettle korn and lemon shake-ups! Gather the family, have some fall fun and explore your Indiana heritage.

The Apple Store Returns to Conner Prairie!

There’s no substitute for the delicious goodies you’ll find at the Apple Store – crisp apples covered with tasty, gooey, caramel, refreshingly cool apple cider and slushies and mouth watering puffy popcorn just to name a few! Stop in for a bag of hand-picked Apple Works apples, a gallon of sweet pasteurized apple cider or lovely holiday decorations, handmade Conner Prairie pottery and gourmet food items. The Apple Store is open from 11am-5pm, Tuesdays through Sundays through November 2.

Conner Prairie, a nationally acclaimed outdoor history museum located at 13400 Allisonville Rd. in Fishers, Indiana, is in the greater Indianapolis area, six miles north of I-465. Museum Center and indoor exhibits open year-round; outdoor historic areas – Lenape Indian Camp, 1836 Prairietown, 1886 Liberty Corner, Conner Homestead – open April-October. Closed Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Day, New Year’s Eve and Day. Open in April, Thursday-Sunday; May-September, Tuesday-Sunday; October, Wednesday-Sunday; November, Thursday-Sunday; December, Tuesday-Sunday; January-March, Thursday-Sunday. Special programs offered year-round. General admission: April-October, $11/adult, $10/senior, $7/youth ages 2-12, under 2/free; November-March: $4/person, under 2/free. Memberships available. Museum Shop open year-round – closed Mondays. For information, call 317.776.6006 or 800.966.1836 or log onto www.connerprairie.org.to verify hours and admission costs for special events and programs, or to make reservations.

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