Visitors to Prairie Village may find the outdoor museum of Great Plains history easier to drive into and out of due to the efforts of a local Eagle Scout candidate.

Aric Olson, a Wentworth-area resident, constructed a number of traffic control signs and an entrance sign for the historical recreation site located west of Madison. Olson, 18, built and painted six stop signs, six 5-mph zone signs and an entrance sign located near the Prairie Village gift shop.

He completed the work as a community-service project needed to earn Eagle Scout honors. Olson said that the signs also filled a need that Stan Rauch, Prairie Village executive director, wanted to see filled.

“It had been brought up among our troop leaders that (Prairie Village) needed this job done,” Olson said. “I spoke to Stan Rauch and he thought it was a great idea.”

The project consisted of cutting the signs from plywood, mounting them on a PVC pipe as a support, and adding a wooden base. The rest of the work included painting the wood with a coat of primer and two coats of paint for the colors and lettering.

Olson, a Troop 5 member, constructed the stop and speed zone signs so they are portable. That feature allows the volunteers at Prairie Village to move the signs wherever they’re needed among the small network of unpaved streets that connect the dozens of historical buildings, agricultural displays and outdoor arena areas.

Olson said that he joined the Boy Scouts when he was in the fifth grade. His two older brothers, Andy and Aaron, were scouts and “it seemed like fun.” His older brothers are also Eagle Scouts.

“They were a top reason for joining, and there was a lot of fun along the way to where I’m at now,” Olson said.

His younger brother Austin joined the scouts about three years ago.

According to Olson, one Boy Scout trip that he especially enjoyed was a visit to Maui in the Hawaiian islands. His group spent some of its time near Lahaina, a town that started as an ancient fishing village.

“The trip to Maui in 2009 — there were the beaches, culture — everything was different from here at home,” Olson said.

Olson said that he wants to continue in Boy Scouts as an adult leader.

His Eagle Scout ceremony is scheduled at 2 p.m. on Feb. 25 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Madison.

He is the son of Steve and Kristie Olson.

©Madison Daily Leader 2012

The old carousel at the entrance to Prairie Village may be going away soon, if members of the Prairie Pasque Questers have their way. But it will only be gone for a time.

Cecelia Wittmayer, president and public relations officer of the local Questers, and Mickie Kreidler, vice president, are embarking on a campaign to raise funds to refurbish and restore the carousel.

The Questers is a study club devoted to fostering an appreciation for antiques and their collection. It was started in 1944 by Jessie Elizabeth Bardens and has since spread around the world.

“A major objective of our group is to encourage the preservation and restoration of existing historical landmarks,” said Wittmayer.

Gwen Larsen is secretary and historian of the local club and Rae Lynn Maher is treasurer.

Last summer, the local Questers contacted Carousel Works, a firm in Mansfield, Ohio, whose sole business is the manufacture and repair of carousels. Jim Jones, a 23-year veteran of the business, came to Madison to view the Prairie Village unit.

“What you have in Madison is a completely unique carousel,” Jones said in a recent telephone interview. “I know of only one other machine like it in the country, and that one is for sale in California. What makes the Prairie Village carousel so special is that it obtains its motion from below the ride horses. Most carousels and merry-go-rounds, as they sometimes are called, operate from a crank mechanism overhead.”

Jones admitted that he had never seen a machine like the one in Madison. The carousel at Prairie Village dates back to around the turn of the century and was manufactured by the firm Herschell-Spillman in New York between 1903 and 1920. Jones said he would place the actual manufacture of the machine closer to the 1903-05 time period.

For years, the carousel toured towns all over the Midwest as the centerpiece of the Thomas Shows, a carnival based in Lennox. Sometime prior to the 1950s, the ride was replaced with a newer machine and the old merry-go-round was dismantled and put into a barn in North Dakota.

The harsh North Dakota winters were hard on the old machine, but in the mid-1950s, efforts were begun to restore the machine. The job fell to Floyd Caryle, who took five years to reassemble and restore the carnival ride.

In 1966, Joe Habeger, one of the original founders of Prairie Village, and others contacted Art B. Thomas to see if the carousel could be purchased. Thomas agreed and the historic carousel has been a fixture at Prairie Village ever since.

Several improvements were made to prevent damage to the ride over the years, including building a roof over the carousel and a cover to keep rain and snow from reaching the mechanism during harsh weather. But the constant operation of the ride, which now has been switched from steam to gasoline power, has taken its toll.

Karen Becker, who several years ago served as manager of Prairie Village, and her family instigated the latest efforts to restore the ride. She got the local Questers interested in the project.

Kreidler wrote a grant asking the state Questers to provide money to have Jones evaluate the machine. In June, the state Questers will have their convention in Madison and it is expected the project will be discussed.

In the meantime, the local club will pursue fund-raising efforts in the hopes of obtaining approximately $300,000 that it will take to restore the Prairie Village carousel.

Once the proper funding is obtained, the Carousel Works crew will come to Madison, disassemble and transport the ride to Ohio, and then do a complete restoration. Jones said it could take up to a year to complete the work.

Once refurbished, the carousel will be returned to Prairie Village and reassembled.

“This will not be a museum piece, although it certainly is of that caliber. Rather, it will be returned to the service for which it was originally built — that of a carnival ride. Although the actual restoration cost is far less than $300,000, the remainder of the money will be used to transport the ride to and from Ohio and hopefully build a new cement foundation under the ride. The carousel now rests on a dirt floor.

Jones declined to estimate the value of the carousel in its restored condition, but he said that because there are only two or three in existence, it is very rare.

“Certainly, Prairie Village and the Madison community can be proud of what they have. Many towns, including Mansfield, Ohio, where I live, used carousels as sort of a calling card or a local attraction,” he said.

SOME HISTORY
Allen Herschell, a Scotsman born in 1851, is thought to have built the Prairie Village carousel. He came to this country in 1870 and with partner James Armatige began the manufacture of steam engines. While seeking medical treatment, he reportedly saw a carousel in operation and decided to build one himself.

His partner didn’t buy into the idea, but Herschell went ahead anyway and took two years to build his first merry-go-round.

During the 1890s, his firm built over 300 carousels, selling and shipping them throughout the world. The ride was extremely popular, but the economy took a turn for the worse in 1899 and eventually the firm failed.

Reorganized as the Herschell-Spillman Company, the firm prospered and became America’s premier carousel builder, staying in operation until 1955.

Earliest examples of the carousel go back to 1800, but mass production of the rides didn’t begin until 1860 when the Dentzel brothers, German wood carvers, came to this country.
The carousel animals, like those on the merry-go-round at Prairie Village, are made by gluing together blocks of basswood, cottonwood or popular, then carving them into various animals.

The horse figure is the most popular, but some rides have lions, tigers and even sea creatures. Painting and attaching saddles and other trappings come next. Rides today usually have animals made of fiberglass and other materials.

Wittmayer and Kreidler hope to be able to raise the necessary funds to restore the Prairie Village carousel.Jones said one of the most common approaches is to have community groups or businesses adopt a horse figure on the ride. The Questers would also like to see school groups and children get involved in fund-raising.

The theme being kicked around to help restore the local carousel is “You’ve Got A Ticket To Ride.” Plans are also being explored to assemble and publish a cookbook with proceeds going toward restoration of the carousel.

THE CAROUSEL at Prairie Village may be restored if the local Questers can raise funding for the project.

Prairie Village sponsored its second annual Pumpkin Train this year to support restoration efforts on Chapel Car Emmanuel. Local and area parents brought a total of 315 kids to Prairie Village for an opportunity to ride the Prairie Village train to the pumpkin patch.

Prairie Village manager Stan Rauch said considering the drizzly morning weather,
organizers were happy with the turnout and were appreciative of the all the
support.

Prairie Village has a new addition. The long-awaited arrival of the Overby Machine Shop took place on Friday.

Telkamp Housemoving, Inc. of Brookings brought the nearly 100-year old machine shop from Mellette near Aberdeen to Madison. The moving company left at 8:30 a.m. and arrived at Prairie Village at about 4:00 p.m. On site for the arrival was Glen Overby and his daughter, Fran Gylling. Overby’s father John and uncle Theodore originally built the machine shop and purchased the equipment in 1913.

Prairie Village announced the addition of the building in 2010. Officials first anticipated its arrival that fall. Plans then changed with the hope of its arrival before the 2011 Steam Threshing Jamboree in August. A late installation of a cement foundation for the building, however, pushed back the arrival of the building until now.

The 24 X 24 foot building will feature a variety of equipment all purchased in the early 1900s through Sears & Roebuck for $701.

Equipment within the machine shop includes turning lathes, wood lathes and a combination piece that has a band saw, table saw, plainer and press drill all in one. Other items include a forge, trip hammer and large anvil.

Equipment within the machine shop is powered by a 6-hp gas engine connected to shafts that run across the upper part of the building.

Due to the size of the building, Overby said, his dad and uncle strategically placed their woodworking bench in front of a window so longer pieces of wood could be fed out through the window.

The brothers used the equipment in the machine shop until the early 1920s. Overby said his dad married in 1922 and had offers over the years to purchase some of the equipment in the shop. “Dad refused to let it go,” he said.

Overby said that he had used the equipment in the shop occasionally over the years. His hope is that the movement of the building will allow more people to see the building and what it was used for.

“We were fortunate to make arrangements to have it come to Prairie Village,“ he said. “We’ve known about Prairie Village a long time. We were looking for a place where it could get more exposure.”

A group of volunteers and family members has been doing fundraising to cover the cost of not only moving the building and its contents but also laying the cement foundation and ultimately restoring the building.

Overby said repairs are planned on the outside of the building and he hopes some of the equipment can be in working condition for the 2012 season at Prairie Village.

This year’s Steam Threshing Jamboree attracted strong crowds for the three-day event at the historic village west of Madison. Stan Rauch, manager at Prairie Village, said the 78-degree weather was ideal for visitors on Friday and Saturday. Even with a morning rain shower on Sunday, events were back on track by 10:30 a.m.

As always, attendance is difficult to measure, but Rauch said several factors indicate it was another big show. “We had a lot of tractors this year,” he said. There were 700 tracors on display with 153 in Friday’s machinery parade. “That’s the most we’ve had on a Friday since 1998,” Rauch said. Saturday’s machinery parade featured 212 entries. More than 1,000 people also rode the train on Saturday. “Overall, it was a big success,” Rauch said.

This year’s show featured stationary engines, orphan and acreage tractors, and regional lawn and garden equipment. Rauch said that feature attracted 58 exhibitors, some of which showed multiple machines. “I suspect overall it might not have been as large as the last couple, but it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t highly successful,” Rauch said.

Once again, the flea market maxed out at about 100 vendors and the Auxiliary Kitchen was extremely busy, even running out and having to replenish its offerings. “That’s one indicator that it was big,” he said. “The Cook Shack sold a lot of food. Indicators like that show it’s a good, sold jamboree.”

Camping demand was high also. “We were definitely full to the gills for camping,” Rauch said. Most electrical camping sites are reserved within a couple of days of the previous year’s jamboree, but Rauch said not all those campers come the following year, and most call in advance to cancel their reservation so their camping spots can be used by someone else. When cancellations come in, Rauch said, people on the standby list are typically notified that an electrical site is available.

Campers and exhibitors are also coming earlier each year. “It seems that each year people show up earlier,” Rauch said. “Where we really notice it is with the campers.” Rauch said he has no problem with getting campers settled early in the week, but a few came as early as the weekend before the jamboree and were surprise to find campers in their spots. When that happened, Rauch said, he explained that those campers were at Prairie Village for regular weekend camping and the Jamboree didn’t start until the following week.

This was the first year that golf cart rentals were available. Rauch said all available golf carts were rented by 11:30 a.m. Saturday and rentals were a little slower on Sunday, but he heard several comments from visitors saying they wouldn’t have been able to come, had the carts not been available.

As the books close on the 2011 Jamboree, work commences on the 2012 anniversary event which, by all accounts, could be one for the record books. “Next year will be immense,” Rauch said. “We’re getting so much interest already.” The 2012 feature for the 50th Anniversary Threshing Jamboree is John Deere. Rauch said that feature alone is guaranteed to draw a big crowd. Because it’s the anniversary celebration, board members already plan to extend the jamboree by another day, starting festivities on Thursday. Officials are already looking at parking needs and potential needs for transporting people to the grounds.

“We know next year will be huge,” he said. Attendance over the past few years has steadily increased, Rauch said, and 2012 could be the largest jamboree in history. Details continue to come together, but Rauch said that The Great Pretenders, which performed this year, have already committed as entertainers in 2012.

Hosting a four-day Jamboree will be tough on volunteers however. “They already work hard for the three days,” Rauch said, indicating that this year the Cook Shack even opened a day early.

A new bathroom and shower house got plenty of use this past weekend at Prairie Village. Prairie Village Manager Stan Rauch said the new facility was completed Thursday, just in time for the Motongator Joe’s Country Music Festival.

The facility was made possible through an $80,000 donation from Harold and Helen Boer of Lyons, who have been long-time supporters of Prairie Village. Rauch said the new facility was designed by the Boers and not only features additional restroom facilities and showers, but also a new tractor registration area.

“It really is a very nice building”, Rauch said. “We are immensely grateful for their complete donation of the shower house. The new shower house will have immense positive impacts for years to come”. The tractor registration office is incorporated into the south end of the building.

Construction of the building began in May and was completed by Gepperts Construction of Crooks, a contractor hired by the Boers for the project.