SEARCY — Pioneer Village in Searcy provides a journey back in time, featuring historic buildings, farm equipment, tools and more.
Pioneer Village will host its 10th annual Spring Open House from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.
The Village is at 1200 Higginson St. in Searcy.
Admission and parking are free, but donations will be accepted.
Elizabeth Heard, chairwoman of the Pioneer Village Volunteers, said all donations are put directly back into the village for growth and maintenance.
“All funds go back into maintaining and improving the village,” Heard said.
Pioneer Village is managed by the White County Historical Society.
“Volunteers like to call themselves ‘friends of the village,’ and we’re a group of people who are interested in supporting the village and helping it grow,” Heard said. “Some of us are members of the White County Historical Society, and some of us are not.”
Heard said the volunteers all work hard and share a common interest in the village.
Pioneer Village hosts Spring Fest, Fall Fest and its Christmas Open House each year.
The spring and fall events include building tours, live music, square-dancing, food, outdoor vendors, displays and demonstrations.
The Christmas Open House started in 2012 and is more low-key.
“We serve our guests a sugar cookie made with a 125-year-old recipe and a cup of hot cider,” Heard said.
Santa is also present with his sleigh, taking wish list requests from old and young visitors alike.
Spring Fest will include a variety of demonstrations, including blacksmithing, spinning, quilting, rag-rug making, beekeeping and woodworking.
Performers will be scattered throughout the village playing guitars, violins, banjos, dulcimers and other instruments appropriate to the village’s time setting.
“We do not allow electric instruments because this is a historic village, and the buildings are from around 1880 to 1900. We try to maintain the activities in the manner they would’ve been in that time frame,” Heard said.
The open house will feature farm animals, antique tractors, toy trains running in the depot building, square-dancing, demonstrations, pioneer games, building tours, vendors and more.
“There’s something for everyone, regardless of age,” Heard said.
“A volunteer recently acquired a 1910 peanut-roasting cart, and we’ll be roasting peanuts and selling them from the cart,” Heard said.
Games for children will include jump-rope, tug of war, walking on stilts, rolling hoops and more.
Costumed volunteers will lead guided tours and share stories in buildings throughout the village, including the train depot, schoolhouse, log house, trapper cabin, blacksmith shop, woodworking shop, old general store, barn and windmill, among others.
“As of last fall, the windmill pumps water, and we’re excited about that,” Heard said.
“That’s the interesting thing about the village — each building has a story that makes it unique. I encourage people to ask a volunteer about the story of each building if it isn’t offered up,” she added.
Vendors will sell goat-milk soap, lotion, lip balm, children’s books, jewelry, peanut brittle, quilted items, hand-carved wooden items, birdhouses, kettle corn and more.
Heard said vendors are allowed to display only things that pioneers would have had access to.
Pioneer Village is also a popular place for school field trips.
“I like to tell children, ‘Regardless of where you live today or what you have today, everybody at one time lived just like we’re portraying here in the village,’” Heard said.
Bill Leach, president of the White County Historical Society, said the village was moved to its current location in 2001.
“We try to show the economic history of White County,” Leach said.
A salt kettle with a hole in it caused by Union troops in 1863 is displayed in the walk-through area near the center of the village.
The White County Historical Society meets for a program each month with topics that range from genealogy to the history of music.
“We’re a fairly relaxed group, and we encourage a variety of programs,” Leach said.
The society’s meetings are open to the public.
The White County Historical Society’s membership fee of $25 per year includes a subscription to The Heritage, the organization’s annual publication, as well as monthly newsletters.
“We did a series of cookbooks awhile back, and the profits helped pay for things in Pioneer Village, like a chimney for the schoolhouse,” Leach said.
You don’t have to be a member of the White County Historical Society to volunteer at Pioneer Village.
“Our mission statement is, ‘Know the past, enjoy the present and plan the future,’” Leach said.
The volunteers at Pioneer Village look forward to the annual Spring Fest, Heard said.
“We’d like for everybody to come out and see us. I think the village will make a lasting impression on them. Our volunteers keep it going,” Heard said. “It takes a village to make it happen.”
Staff writer Kayla Baugh can be reached at (501) 244-4307 and kbaugh@arkansasonline.com.