CHESTERTON, Ind. — Chickens and a 900-pound steer are among the farm animals that have returned to a stretch of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore once worked by a family of pioneers.

 

Most of the chickens at the old Chellberg Farm were delivered by Bill Smith, a full-time agriculture instructor and part-time park ranger, along with some of his high school students at nearby Westville, a farming community of about 5,000 people on the southern tip of Lake Michigan.

Some were just chicks when brought into his classroom, and raised with help from his students until they were large enough to turn over to the farm. Smith said chickens during their time at the school are kept in pens and let out into a school courtyard to stretch their legs.

“We have a little animal menagerie during the school year,” he explained.

Chellberg Farm, now a popular tourist attraction, started with 40 acres in 1869, then five years later doubled in size, according to the National Park Service. It was established by Swedish immigrants, Anders and Johanna Chellburg, then was taken over by their son, Charles, until his death in 1937.

His son, Carl, kept farming the land until 1972 when he sold the property to the National Park Service (NPS), which later restored the 1885 brick farmhouse and opened the building for public tours on weekends. The acreage is also used for staging “life on the farm” events from the time period the Chellbergs originally worked the land.

Animals were kept on the property until about a decade ago, when the farmer employed full-time at the site retired and, with resources too strained to fill the position, the decision was made by the NPS not replace him, said Bruce Rowe, its public information officer.

The chickens and other animals were donated, he said. About a dozen were first added back to the once-empty coop in 2016 after Geof Benson, who  operates the nearby Dunes Learning Center, volunteered to bring animals back and arrange for their care.

A 4-H family and a retired veterinarian were lined up to help provide care for the animals. Twenty more chickens from the high school students came this year and so did four ducks, a billy goat and the steer. The  “back in time” experience of being there is noticeably enhanced by having more than just pictures of animals to show, said Rowe.

“Having the real thing there makes a huge impact,  particularly on children but really even on adults, as well. It’s a much more powerful image when you’re seeing the real living breathing animal as opposed to just a sterile sign or interpretative brochure.”

The animals are being kept on-site during the visitor season, then returned to their owners during the winter. More could be added in years to come, depending on the number of volunteers.

Rowe said having animals helps educate not only where food comes from but how farmers made it in history, strictly working the land. “They had no choice, of course, to be sustainable, or they wouldn’t have survived,” he pointed out.

Smith has been both a teacher and park ranger for more than 30 years. His classroom teachings vary anywhere from animal sciences to fixing farm machinery and other equipment.

“We try to incorporate it into as many different classes as we can,” he said.

Tours of the farmhouse are offered during the summer every Sunday from 1:30-4 p.m. and for special events on select weekends in the fall. The grounds are open seven days a week for people to roam and see the animals. “We’re very excited to have animals back at Chellberg Farm,” said Rowe.