Sometimes you don’t need a time machine to travel to the past. You just need a good old fashioned South Dakota summer festival. Each year the Fort Sisseton Historical Festival allows visitors to step back in time and catch a glimpse of life as it was when the fort was in operation in the 1800’s. This year the fort celebrates its 150th birthday. It’s an enduring piece of the landscape of South Dakota.
It’s been a long time since I’ve attended the Fort Sisseton Historical Festival. I ask my mom, Jeanette Underwood about the last time we attended the event.
“Well I had a three year old, and I had one that was going on nine months, which was you, and you were teething, and you cried the whole time, and it rained,” she says.
Fortunately, my mom and I are having a better start this time around. The sky is blue, the temperature is pleasant, and there’s a cool breeze that lasts throughout the day. Several stone and brick buildings surround a large perfectly manicured lawn, with a flag pole in the center. Fort Sisseton was established in 1864, and spent 25 years as a military post before being handed over to the newly formed state of South Dakota. For more on the Fort’s history, I turn to the expert: Katie Ceroll, the Northeast Regional Supervisor for the Game Fish and Parks Division of Parks and Recreation.
“From there, the State of South Dakota decided to lease some of the buildings, so they were a hunting lodge,” Ceroll says. “It was a stock company headquarters. Actually part of the grounds was used as a target, practice bombing range WWII, during that era. And then skipping back, I almost forgot, the WPA camp that did the first conservation on the buildings.”
The site became a state park in 1959. You can read about the Fort’s history inside many of the buildings on site. But each year since 1978 the Fort Sisseton Historical Festival allows visitors to see that history come to life.
“We are in the military encampment. So right now you’re seeing reenactors that are set up in a Civil War era style encampment,” Ceroll says.
Ceroll starts our tour in one of the living history areas. White canvas tents house men in union military uniforms. There’s the smell of smoke from cook fires as women prepare the day’s meals.
In one of the tents laundress Tracy Bergemann demonstrates how laundry was done 150 years ago.
“What they’re doing here is they’re taking dirty clothes and they’re getting it wet in the water, and they’re using the homemade lye soaps to rub it on the washboard or on the soiled clothes,” Bergemann says.
It’s quite the process, but Bergemann says she loves this role. She says it’s a great way to spend time with family, meet new people, and enjoy history.
“I still think I was born a century too late. I could live like this every day. I absolutely love it,” Bergemann says.
Bergemann has done laundress work at the festival since she was eleven years old. Now she brings her kids.
Eleven year old Garrett Harland is here at the fort for the first time. He’s recently been enjoying something the original fort residents may not have had easy access to. The evidence of a chocolate ice cream cone is smudged on his face.
“It’s fun here because I like working on the fire,” Harland says. “I also like running around and playing with my friends. I also learned something when I was here. They told me that this was the only fort that wasn’t under attack.”
Harland is right, the fort was never involved in any official military battles. Regional Supervisor Katie Ceroll says the site was originally named Fort Wadsworth, and put here as a result of the 1862 U.S.- Dakota conflict. There’s an exhibit at the festival called commemorating controversy, examining the events surrounding the fort’s beginning. She says it’s important for visitors to see the full picture.
“So when you’re here, you’ll see that the fort was established out of conflict, there’s no denying that,” Ceroll says. “But when you look around hopefully you’ll be able to get the full picture of history, and so we’ll do better with our future then.”
Ceroll says the fort has a layered history, and the festival showcases various parts of the past.
Wearing a red bandana and holster at his side, Canton resident Steve Swanson looks every bit the quintessential American cowboy. He tells me in order to for a whip to crack, I’ll have to break the sound barrier by flinging it nearly 800 miles per hour.
“All you’ve got to do is you’re going to make a big lift, you’re going to go all the way to the back, you’re going to flick it at the very end,” Swanson says.
There are many other sights and sounds of the past that come alive at this event. There’s mine sluice operating for the kids, military drills on the lawn, dance lessons in preparation for a costume ball, and music.
While listening to fiddle music in one of the tents, a woman floats past wearing an 1860’s style dress. Hoop skirt, bonnet, white gloves, arm in arm with a union soldier. I feel like I’m on a movie set. Brigette Weisenburger has been coming to the festival for about twenty years. Earlier she was in the military camp, portraying daily life. Now she’s dressed as an officer’s wife.
“Well I wouldn’t do laundry,” Weisenburger says. “I would have spent my morning writing letters and planning dances for the enlisted. And I certainly would be able to dress a little less practical.”
Had I lived 150 years ago, I would have been an officer’s wife. I hope.
And of course, some women were, and some people were soldiers and laundresses and cowboys. But the fact is, they were all here. And Regional Supervisor Katie Ceroll says that’s part of what makes Fort Sisseton such an enduring place.
And over the course of 36 years, the festival itself has become a part of family histories, including mine.