Wilder Farm in Burke celebrates anniversary in June
POSTED: April 18, 2008
Fact Box
2008 highlights at the Wilder Farm¯June 21, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. — 75th Anniversary of “Farmer Boy” publications, including book signings, performances by Miner Institute Morgan Horses and oxen team, food and music.
¯Sept. 27, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. — Annual Harvest Fest: uncludes Civil War encampment, children’s activities like scarecrow making and pumpkin painting, and live music and food.
¯Normal operating hours are Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday 1 to 4 p.m., with the last tour starting by 3 p.m. The Almanzo Wilder Homestead may be located by following blue signs from state Route 11 east of Malone.
¯For more information, visit www.almanzowilderfarm.com or call 483-1207.
The 84-acre farm on which he lived boasts the only original “Little House” still on its original location, as well as reconstructed barns, a museum/gift shop, picnic pavilion and a walk to the same Trout River in which the Wilders fished, cut ice and washed sheep.
From May 24 through Sept. 30, guided tours are available daily. Visitors on tour can imagine animals in the barn stalls and view 19th-century farm implements from buggy wrenches to fanning mills.
As the tour moves into the not-so-little farmhouse, individuals can envision Almanzo bathing by the kitchen stove, his mother Angeline preparing food in the pantry and the shoemaker working at the cobbler’s bench in the dining room. As special guests, visitors are allowed into the parlor to speculate where the stove black brush hit the wall before climbing the steep stairs to the children’s bedrooms, which include, along with rope beds, a large loom, spinning wheels and other equipment used to manufacture clothing. A peek into the attic from Almanzo’s bedroom reveals a shingle bench, representing the one used by his father, James Wilder.
The year 2008 is a special year at the homestead. On June 21, the 75th anniversary of the publication of “Farmer Boy,” producer/actor Dean Butler will continue filming footage for a documentary — “Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura” — to be released in September.
(Portions of this text appeared in different form in the Enteprise’s 2007 Summer Vacation Guide)
