Step into the past at Bentonsport Heritage Day, June 21

Bentonsport, Iowa was a bustling steamboat port and railroad terminus in 1857 – outfitting pioneers heading west and growing a population that would peak at 650.

Transport yourself to those early days from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 21, when Bentonsport opens its doors for Heritage Day and reenacts citizens’ lives during the village’s rise to prosperity.

Temperance – abstinence from alcoholic drinks – is a hot topic, and Mayor Green is gathering folks at noon to discuss what Iowa’s legislature should do about it. The issue affects shopkeepers, rural folks, and law officers. Temperance campaigners hope to bring citizens to their side with songs condemning drink.

You can tour the village in a horse-drawn covered wagon or catch a ride to a specific stop. You’ll hear musicians play period songs and see artisans demonstrate their skills in front of shops selling gifts, antiques, remedies and other products.

Arts and craft vendors will offer goods near Bentonsport’s famed rose garden. Vendors will supply lunch or snacks, including walking tacos and root beer floats at the landmark Mason House Inn. You also can go home with a treat from the pie sale.

Visitors can win a basket containing items from all seven Bentonsport merchants. To enter, just pick up a ticket at any shop and get it initialed at all seven plus the Indian Artifact Museum. No purchase is necessary, and participants needn’t be present at the 3:55 p.m. drawing to win. Visitors can see the basket at the host table, where maps and event schedules also are available.

Cherie Haury-Artz of the Office of the State Archaeologist will host an exhibit in the Bentonsport Shelter House, including a poster of Meskwaki Chief Wacoshashe’s 1830’s era pictographs of more than 100 species of animals, birds and fish. Haury-Artz will display artifacts made from animal bones and speak about them at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Visit a buckskinners’ club rendezvousing along the river east of the pedestrian bridge, a good spot to enjoy cooling breezes. These throwbacks to the fur-trapper and mountainman era are happy to share their skills and stories.

Be sure to wander to the Odd Fellows building on the village’s west end, where items and materials saved from historic structures are available for purchase. At 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., proprietor Terry Philips will demonstrate how repairing historic windows can make them efficient while maintaining architectural integrity.

Parking is controlled to avoid interfering with the wagons. A few accessible spaces are available on Sanford Street around the east corner from the town center.

Heritage Day, a free event for the whole family, is brought to you by the Bentonsport Improvement Association, with sponsors State Central Bank and 1st Iowa State Bank.

Bentonsport National Historic District is on Van Buren County Road J-40 between Bonaparte and Keosauqua.

More information is available at bentonsportheritage.org or on Facebook at Bentonsport Historic District.

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