July 3, 2011 at Maplewood Park
“Chautauqua” is the cultural and historic recreation of the traveling lecturers and entertainers that came through Waseca starting in 1883. Music, drama, lectures, from the East entertained and educated midwest small towns until the 1920’s. Admission is just as it was in 1883–”one nickel per person–children and servants FREE!”
Scheduled to appear are The Sacred Harp Singers, House of Mercy Band and the Baptism River Ramblers, Scott and Amy Roemhildt, Al Batt, Chautauqua Children’s Theater, Ed Williams as Johnny Appleseed and The Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater.
The setting is historic Maplewood Park, a remnant of the “Big Woods” forest. The park is located on the south end of Clear Lake.
For more information: www.historical.waseca.mn.us
CHAUTAUQUA REVIVAL
What is Chautauqua?
Chautauqua is a community-based, cultural and social movement that started in the 1870s and flourished in America until the mid 1920s.
During this time there existed hundreds of touring “Chautauquas” that presented lectures, dance, music, drama, and other forms of “cultural enrichment.” The movement is named for a lake in upstate New York that was the site of the first Chautauqua, which consisted of Sunday school teachers lecturing outdoors about the moral issues of the day.
Eventually it broadened and organizers brought in great orators, added music, and later theater. Performing in tents across the country, Chautauquas were once called “the most American thing in America” by Teddy Roosevelt.
We are fortunate to have in our community a well documented history of a Chautauqua assembly that came to Waseca in the late 1800s. Maplewood Park was host to this popular event. People came by the hundreds by rail, boat, carriage and horseback. They came from all over Minnesota and surrounding states.
The Waseca County Historical Society is bringing the Chautauqua event back to Maplewood Park on Sunday, July 5. This event is made possible by a grant made possible by the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council with Funds Appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature and the Waseca Area Foundation E.F.Johnson Family Fund.