The Fall Harvest Festival in Quitman
- Ongoing: until Saturday, October 31, 2009
- Sunday:
- Friday:
- Saturday:
- Where: 2 miles north of Quitman. From Ark. 225/356,turn onto Wesley Chapel Road & drive about one-half mile
- Cost: Free - $6
- Age limit: All ages
The Fall Harvest Festival in Quitman is more than its name implies. Experience the Arkansas Frontier on a working farm, beginning Sept. 25. The event incorporates education into hands-on fun, such as picking pumpkins, feeding farm animals, visiting an enchanted forest, touring an Indian village and mining for treasure, just to name a few.
The Festival
While the festival lasts from Sept. 25 until Oct. 31, all of the special activities offered for the public are on weekends only. The farm is closed on Sundays and hosts field trips for preschool through high school students by appointment during the week.
"During the week we cater to the schools that come out, and on Saturday we cater to the families," explained Linda Johnson, who owns the farm with her husband James.
The farm is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each Saturday for "Family Day." The cost is $6 per person and free for children under the age of 2. Admission includes access to the farm, attractions and special events.
Live music will be featured on three of the festival weekends. Bring your own lawn chairs and hear gospel music on Sept. 26, country bands on Oct. 10, and bluegrass on Oct. 17. Shows will take place at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on those Saturdays.
Western attire is appropriate for Cowboy Weekend on Oct. 3. Lawbreakers and Peacemakers, a performance troupe, will re-enact elements of the Wild West. Scheduled for Oct. 24 are a talent show, open to anyone, and a Pumpkin Princess Pageant for babies up to age 18.
"It's not an ordinary pageant in a pageant dress. It's not a Halloween costume party either," Johnson explained. "You dress as what you think the Pumpkin Princess would look like. So they are being judged on creativity, beauty and personality."
Trick-or-Treat Weekend will be Oct. 31, although Johnson said there will be no tricks, only treats. Children will receive bags of candy, and can wear Halloween costumes if they choose. Activities offered include a pumpkin hunt, which is like an Easter egg hunt except in this case plastic pumpkins are filled with goodies. Children can also pick and take home a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.
"It is a fall harvest festival because it does include pumpkins and fall activities," Johnson said. "Eventually we are going to include apples and peaches and fall flowers, and all those things that involve the fall harvest."
The Farm
"It used to be a pumpkin patch only and we called it 'Pumpkins and More,'" Johnson explained. "This is the 11th year for the pumpkin patch and activities. This is the third year it's been 'Arkansas Frontier.'"
The goal of Arkansas Frontier is to educate and entertain the whole family in a way that demonstrates how people lived and were self-sufficient in the 18th and early 19th century.
"We are a real working farm," she said. "We have beef cattle. We have the farm animals." Children can feed goats, donkeys, llamas, miniature horses, rabbits, geese and chickens.
Also on the farm is a one-room school house, dog-trot house, Indian village, covered wagon, and Liberty Hall. The buildings and village are replicas. Living history demonstrations will take place at many of these historical elements during the Fall Harvest Festival. For example, a teacher in pilgrim attire will show visitors what it would have been like to attend school 100 years ago. In addition to sitting in the old desks with ink wells, kids can play old-fashioned recess games such as paddle wheel, stilts, button buzzer, and corn shuck dolls. Children will be encouraged to explore the teepees of the Indian village, touching the skins and seeing how they built a fire.
The Johnsons and several friends perform the history re-enactments. All of them are retired teachers.
In addition to learning about farm living and history or U.S. presidents at Liberty Hall, kids can experience a wagon ride, frontier golf, dino dig, duck races, enchanted forest, pedal car races, train ride, and gemstone mining.
A stroll along the trail through the enchanted forest not only brings visitors to a re-enactment of Thanksgiving with pilgrims and Indians, but also upon fun-loving characters such as Hansel and Gretel, Johnny Appleseed, and Little Red Riding Hood. Johnson added that this is also where people may get a glimpse of the wild things that live in the woods, like deer, squirrels, raccoons, birds, turtles and frogs.
In the duck races, kids use a hand pump to push water and their duck down the line. Children mine for gemstones by washing their bag of mining rough in the water of the 30-foot sluice to uncover treasure. The gemstones in each bag are identified. A large sand pit serves as the digging site for children ages 2 through 10 to uncover dinosaur eggs and dinosaurs, which they can take home. Most of these activities serve an educational purpose, while others such as the pedal cars or train are more for the fun of it.
"We wanted to be very educational," Johnson explained. "We were teachers and we have tried to design this so it will go along with the curriculum taught in the classroom. We have teacher kits that help to extend the things they teach at school. We tried to coordinate it for all the different age levels."
The farm also offers a picnic area, playground, free drinking water, bathroom facilities, concession stand, and a gift shop. The latter sells crafts and gifts related to the Arkansas frontier.
Johnson said she is working toward opening for a spring festival, and eventually may add a cowboy-themed summer event.
The farm is located two miles north of Quitman. From Ark. 225/356, turn onto Wesley Chapel Road and drive about one-half of a mile. Maps and details about the farm can be found on the Web site, www.arkansasfrontier.com. Or, call 501-589-3122 for more information.
Quitman is situated near Greers Ferry Lake and the Little Red River. This area, which extends from the Ozark foothills to the edge of the Delta, is popular for fishing, boating, golfing, hiking, biking, and hunting.
This event was posted Sept. 22, 2009 and last updated Sept. 22, 2009
