By DEBORAH BEHRENDS
Illinois Correspondent

GENOA, Ill. — Fundraisers are a lot of work for organizers, but seldom are they as much fun as Pioneer Day at the Kishwaukee Valley Heritage Museum, in the northern DeKalb County city of Genoa.

Members of the Kishwaukee Valley Heritage Society (KVHS) hosted Pioneer Day Aug. 22, which included a reenactment of a Wild West shootout, craft demonstrations, Civil War reenactors, a silent auction, a pie sale and a pork chop luncheon served by the local Lions Club.

Children had an opportunity to wash clothes by hand, make rope, churn butter for homemade cornbread, shell corn, make bean bags, mine for “gold” and enjoy storytime in the shade.
The museum itself consists of an 1882 train depot, the city’s former waterworks building and train caboose. Stagecoach rides drew children of all ages.

“We kind of make it a fun, family day, so we have all kinds of activities for the two-year-olds to the senior citizen,” said Sandy Lyon, of the KVHS.

Proceeds from the silent auction will be used to help restore the caboose displayed prominently in front of the museum, which sits on Illinois Route 72. It was purchased from the Illinois Central Railroad in 1983.

Although it was built around 1950, when conveniences in homes were mostly modern, it’s equipped with a potbelly stove, kerosene lamps, an icebox, toilet, wash sink and bunk beds.

“The caboose is ready for a major repair. It was brought in here and was restored on the property in 1983, and they spent $4,000 to get it sandblasted and repainted,” said John Lyon, also of the KVHS. Even with that accomplished, “we have a considerable amount of work to do.”

Pioneer Day has been held for about 30 years. He said the event is usually well-attended. “We get a reasonable amount of people. We don’t get overwhelmed, but there’s a lot of people milling around the property, especially a lot of kids,” Lyon said.

“We have a lot of kid-oriented activities and a lot of things to learn as adults.”

Sandy Lyon said many volunteers work to help make the event a success.

“You do it so many years, you have your lists, and you have people who have done things for X number of years,” she said. “So everybody just falls into the groove of putting it together one more time.”

The KVHS was founded in 1977 to preserve the history of the Genoa-Kingston area, and since has created WaterWorks Park around the buildings.