CabinFest

Learn and celebrate life on the Prairie in the 1800s at the Cragg Cabin that served as the county’s first tavern, polling place, and post office. Travelers were treated with courtesies and comforts of a frontier inn. Stage coach passengers and drovers moving cattle to Chicago stock yards over the Overland Trail which ran from Bloomington to Chicago often were treated as guests. It is thought that the cabin may have even been part of the Underground Railway (from 1831 to 1863). It was said hundreds of slaves found shelter under its roof on their way to freedom in the North.

Every year, the first Saturday of June, The Prairie Partners call on Partners and friends to help with the Cabin Festival celebrating a simpler time on the prairie. The group lectures to class visits and groups about life on the prairie in the 1800s.