FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 13, 2005
Contact:
Jill Engstrom
Independence
Chamber of Commerce
www.indkschamber.org
Independence
,
Kan.
– On Saturday, June 11, 2005, life as Laura Ingalls Wilder knew it
on the
Kansas
prairie in 1869 will be revisited at the sixth annual Prairie Days
Festival. The festival
at The Little House on the Prairie site near
Independence
,
Kansas
is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and admission is
$2.00.
The
Little House on the Prairie site is located on U.S. 75 highway, 13
miles southwest of
Independence
. Watch for highway signs pointing to the historic site.
This year’s
festival will include a children’s Character Contest. Participants
are encouraged to dress in the roles depicted in the Little House on
the Prairie novels. Prizes will be awarded to the top contestants.
Musical
entertainment will be held during the festival, and various food
vendors and artisans will be on hand to sell food and show off their
hand-made wares. In addition, the Wilson County Old Iron Club will
demonstrate antique farm equipment. Wagon rides will be available
throughout the day.
Scheduled
entertainment includes a young cowboy poet, Little House
re-enactments by the Mike Bush Family, and much more! A complete
listing of entertainers will be available soon.
The
Little House on the Prairie is home to a replica of a log cabin used
by the Ingalls family depicted in the novel “Little House on the
Prairie” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The site also is home to a
one-room schoolhouse used in
Rutland
Township
, and the old Wayside Post Office also is located on the grounds of
the historic site.
The Charles Ingalls
family made
Rutland
Township
their home in 1869-71 before moving to
Wisconsin
and eventually to
Minnesota
. Laura Ingalls Wilder would use the
Kansas
prairie and her childhood experiences as the initial setting and
storyline of her many novels. Her stories later became a television
series.
The Independence
Convention and Visitors Bureau, The Little House on the Prairie, and
several
Independence
businesses are sponsoring the event. Prairie Days Festival sponsors
include: amazon.com, Coffeyville; Atmos Energy, Independence;
Cessna, Independence; Commerce Bank, Independence;
Val DeFever, Independence; First Federal Savings and Loan,
Independence; First National Bank, Independence; Hasselmann’s,
Independence; Independence Community College, Independence; Jake’s
Hardware, Independence; MATCOR, Independence; Mercy Health System of
Kansas, Independence; and Radiant Electric Cooperative, Inc.,
Fredonia.
For more
information on the festival call the Chamber of Commerce at (620)
331-1890 or visit the Little House on the Prairie Web site at www.littlehouseonetheprairie.com.
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