The Campton Township’s big event of the year, the annual Prairie Fest at Historic Corron Farm, 7N761 Corron Road, Campton Hills, IL, is set to take place at 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26. There is no charge for admission, and refreshments will be served, ladies and gentlemen.

Raffle prizes will also be offered, as well as a 50/50 and quilt raffle to support the dairy barn rehabilitation. The 1^st Brigade Illinois Volunteers will lead the flag dedication ceremony at 1:30 p.m. followed by dancing provided by Fox Valley Mixers and Bachelors N Bachelorettes Square Dance Clubs. Music will be provided by Beierman Theater.

Children may take a turn at the hand-cranked corn sheller and feed the corn to the resident goats, view Native American artifacts, take a nature scavenger hunt. The tractor-drawn wagon ride through the Oak Savanna and restored prairie is a popular activity for children and adults. Mule-drawn wagon rides around the homestead will also be offered.

Visitors can tour the stately 1850s red brick home built by Robert C. Corron. Step back in time in the hired man’s house and view artifacts from the late 1800s and early 1900s found on the farm. A recent grant from the Thornapple Questers has allowed volunteers to archive family letters from the Battlefields of the Civil War and letters related to the Chicago Fire, as well as other interesting ephemera such as Income Tax Receipts from 1861-64 and Illinois tax receipts dating back to the 1860s, and the actual receipt for milk that was shipped to Chicago during the Columbian Exposition!

The Corron Farm Preservation Society is an Illinois not-for-profit. The 1875 Dairy Barn sustained some wind damage and the Preservation Society has begun fundraising and pursuing grants to rehabilitate the structure. The dairy barn was featured in “A Barn Sampler, Rural Architecture in Kane County” prepared for Kane County Urban Development by students of Landscape Planning from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1977. Recently Corron Farm Preservation received a matching grant from the Kane County Riverboat Fund. Funds raised by CFPS at Prairie Fest will go towards the barn restoration.

Corron Farm was the first Open Space acquisition by Campton Township in 2002. With the help of volunteers, the Township has accomplished many projects including prairie restoration, the rebuilding of the front porch on the brick home and the rehabilitation of the hired man’s house, which was a finalist in the 2006 Governor’s Home Town Award.

For more information about Corron Farm, Campton Township’s Open Space Program, or to become involved as a volunteer, visit www.camptontownship.com.   Corron Farm Preservation Society can be found on Facebook or on the web at  www.CorronFarmPreservationSociety.org.

SOURCE: Corron Farm Preservation Society press release