{"id":726,"date":"2017-09-03T14:52:03","date_gmt":"2017-09-03T14:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org\/Wordpress1-13-2017\/?page_id=726"},"modified":"2017-09-03T14:54:04","modified_gmt":"2017-09-03T14:54:04","slug":"history-abounds-at-annual-aukiki-river-festival-in-kouts-8262017","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org\/?page_id=726","title":{"rendered":"History Abounds at Annual Aukiki River Festival in Kouts 8\/26\/2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Rep. Mike Aylesworth and John Hodson<\/p><\/div>\n

History abounds at annual Aukiki River Festival in Kouts<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By Susan O\u2019Leary Times Correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

August 26, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>John Hodson said he was \u201chonored\u201d and \u201cimpressed\u201d at the Aukiki River Festival on the banks of the Kankakee River on Saturday in Kouts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Hodson, president of the Kankakee Valley Historical Society, which hosts the annual festival, reacted to an Indiana General Assembly proclamation, awarded by state Rep. Mike Aylesworth, R-Hebron, which commemorated the festival\u2019s 10th anniversary.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cDon\u2019t be impressed,\u201d Aylesworth said. \u201cIt\u2019s what needs to happen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Aylesworth read the document \u2014 which lauded the festival for allowing visitors to \u201cexperience life as it was, with over 350 years of history re-enacted\u201d \u2014 in a short ceremony before hundreds attending the festival.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The festival, which continues from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, featured encampments of Native Americans, French voyageurs, fur trappers and traders, and soldiers from the French-Indian, Civil, and Revolutionary wars.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Re-enactors, dressed in period garb, demonstrated the time period\u2019s life skills, including trap and skeet shooting, paddle making, weaving, blacksmithing, fabric dying and campfire cooking under the tall trees of the festival grounds adjacent to the Collier Lodge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>The Collier Lodge \u2014 a hunting, fishing and trapping resort in its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries \u2014 is owned by the historical society. The group has scheduled the beginning of the lodge\u2019s reconstruction for 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Re-enactor Daniel Vogt, of Sheridan, Illinois, was dressed as a 1770s buckskin tanner.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Vogt demonstrated his trade, as he stripped the hair from a deer skin and softened it into leather for clothing of the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s rawhide in your time period,\u201d Vogt said, to a festival visitor. \u201cIt\u2019s half-dressed to <\/span><\/p>\n

Demonstrating old-time black powder shooting were members of the Fort Tassinong Muzzleloaders of Kouts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Member Gregory Johnston said he and some of his group travel as far as Pennsylvania and Arkansas for old-time shooting events.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cI go anyplace I can shoot,\u201d said Johnston, of Dyer. \u201cSome people like to go golfing \u2014 I like to shoot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>While accepting the General Assembly award, Hodson said the original purpose of the festival was to \u201cget public awareness of south Porter County.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are like the red-headed stepchild,\u201d Hodson said. \u201cAll the glory goes to the dunes. We wanted people to also see the beauty of the river.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Hodson said Pleasant Township, where the Collier Lodge is located, was so named because it was such a pleasurable place to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cBut whoever named it, it wasn\u2019t during mosquito season,\u201d Hodson said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Aylesworth said he has long been a fan of south Porter County, and joins with Hodson in honoring the festival and the restoration of the Collier Lodge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThis area is precious and filled with history,\u201d Aylesworth said. “People don\u2019t understand the breadth and depth of it. Its history needs to be preserved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

History abounds at annual Aukiki River Festival in Kouts \u00a0 By Susan O\u2019Leary Times Correspondent August 26, 2017 \u00a0John Hodson said he was \u201chonored\u201d and \u201cimpressed\u201d at the Aukiki River Festival on the banks of the Kankakee River on Saturday in Kouts. \u00a0Hodson, president of the Kankakee Valley Historical Society, which hosts the annual festival,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":713,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"no-sidebar.php","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-726","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=726"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731,"href":"https:\/\/kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/726\/revisions\/731"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}