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A tour of the times

Remembering heroic actions in the face of tragedy

—Daily Freeman-Journal photo by Carol Foltz A flower arrangement was left at the Gardner family’s burial site. Pictured from left are Carolyn Miller, director of the Mulberry Center Church Museum; Esther Lehman, a staff member at the Wilson Brewer Historic Park and Museums; Veronica Guyader, executive director of the Fort Museum and Frontier Village; Cheryl Patrou, director of the Wilson Brewer Historic Park and Museums; and Jessica Einwalter, assistant curator and historical adviser of the Fort Museum and Frontier Village.

Dozens of people boarded a bus Saturday morning to travel 160 years into the past.

The trip was a collaboration between the Wilson Brewer Historic Park and Museums in Webster City and the Fort Museum and Frontier Village in Fort Dodge.

The Spirit Lake Massacre Remembrance Tour was a fundraiser for both institutions, and a new venture.

“This is the first time we’ve ever done this, so it was kind of a gamble,” said Veronica Guyader, executive director of the Fort Museum.

“I was pleasantly surprised at the interest in the subject matter,” she added, referring to the tragedy of the Spirit Lake Massacre.

-Freeman-Journal photo by Carol Foltz A wreath was placed by the monument to the victims of the Spirit Lake Massacre and the members of the Spirit Lake Relief Expedition. Pictured from left are Bob Younie, a member of the Fort Dodge Historic Foundation; Lindsay McCormick-Welch, a member of the Wilson Brewer Historic Park Committee; and Bob Erickson, a member of the Wilson Brewer Historic Park Committee.

During the tour, each person was given a name of one of the people involved in the Spirit Lake Relief Expedition.

Narrators told the story of the relief expedition. Participants heard about the severe conditions suffered by the heroic volunteers who made the historic trip.

The trip went through Livermore, with a narrative stop at Lott’s Creek, Emmetsburg with a stop at the Palo Alto County Museum, the Gardner Cabin Monument in Arnolds Park, and the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend.

Some of the participants are related to Henry Lott or Abbie Gardner. Three women — Carol Murphy, of Fort Dodge, her daughter Landra Carroll, of Manson, and her sister Paulette Harris, of Greene, are related to both of them.

In addition to the history lesson, participants received a bag of information and gifts from the Wilson Brewer Park and Museums and the Fort Museum and Frontier Village.

-Freeman-Journal photo by Carol Foltz Carol Murphy, of Fort Dodge; her daughter Landra Carroll, of Manson; and her sister Paulette Harris, of Greene, stand in front of the plot where the Gardner family, Abbie Gardner-Stone and her sons are buried. The three are descended from Henry Lott and Abbie Gardner.

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