June 5, 2023 -Homestead Prairie Farm and Bethel Schoolhouse have opened on weekends for the summer season. Discover 1860s rural Illinois with a visit to Homestead Prairie Farm at Rock Springs Conservation Area, and see what a one-room schoolhouse looked like in the early 1900s at Bethel Schoolhouse at Friends Creek Conservation Area.
The restored one room log home is open for tours every Saturday and Sunday from 1-4pm in June through October, and the schoolhouse is open the first Saturday from May through October from 1-4pm. Admission is free for all ages. No reservations are required.
Homestead Prairie Farm is built around the Trobaugh-Good House located at Rock Springs Conservation Area. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and embodies life on the Grand Prairie of Illinois in 1860.
In addition to touring the home, you can also walk through its active Heirloom Garden, featuring authentic varieties of vegetables and herbs that would have been grown in the nineteenth century. The gardens are maintained by volunteer Master Gardeners of the University of Illinois Extension, and its produce is donated to local food charities.
Homestead Prairie Farm also hosts history programs and special events throughout the season. Upcoming events include the annual Independence Day 1860 on Saturday, June 24, and more: MaconCountyConservation.org.
The Bethel schoolhouse sits at the trailhead of the Friends Creek Conservation Area This one-room schoolhouse was built in 1901 and is one of the last remaining in Macon County. Visitors will get to view pictures from when the school was still in session, see the cast iron wood-burning stove, and learn about the history from one of the knowledgeable staff.
“It’s so great being able to have these two historic properties on our site,” says Marketing specialist, Ashton Nunn. “With the Homestead Prairie Farm, it’s unique in that it was the home of regular, everyday people. No one rich or famous resided there, so it’s a great look in to the lives of your typical family in the 1860s. The Bethel schoolhouse is a fun place to visit as well with large windows that have a great view of the prairie. It’s set up like it could have been back in the early 1900s, so it’s easy to imagine what it would have been like to sit in that room like the children did all those years ago.”
To learn more, click HERE.
