Five Medals festival returns to Ligonier

May 2—LIGONIER — A weekend-long historical reenactment festival is back early this year and bigger than ever.

Five Medals at The Trace festival organizers chose to move the annual historical reenactment festival to springtime to coordinate better with other regional events and the result is more reenactors are able to attend.

"We're actually at record registration this year," said organizer Mike Judson.

They're expecting over 200 reenactors.

"The artisans provide a look into the past, and artisans have created this knowledge, most of them on their own, and to be so accurately represented, really, it's chilling," said Jennifer Lucht, organizer and reenactor.

The living history educational experience will feature rope makers, tin smiths, copper smiths, blacksmiths, chocolatiers, period-accurate coffee, historic textiles makers, soapmakers, artillery, and more. There will also be a team of oxen named Lewis and Clark, and a new demonstration of flint knapping, among other new activities coming to the event.

"Part of our mission as a nonprofit is to preserve the history, and this is a very active area in the history of our state and our country," Judson said.

Organizer Michael Dragoo, who exhibits classical cooking techniques at the festival as well as on YouTube through Townsend's channel, said he became interested after he noticed that many of the reenactors weren't showing the daily life of historical people.

"We wanted to just bring the every day," he said. "Instead of just seeing the charts and lines of your past, you can see them in a more 3-D manner. That's what I try to get across is to just pay honor to your relatives. Some of them gave everything so you could be here and they had no idea who that future person was but they did that so you would have opportunities."

Dragoo recently released a book dedicated to historical cooking techniques.

"We are all still learning, too," said Jennifer Lucht. "We're not finished."

Five Medals at The Trace festival is named after an Elkhart River Potawatomi chief, named Five Medals (Wanyanoshonya in Bodwéwadmimwen). Dragoo recalled Five Medal's push for agrarian society alongside the pioneers as Americans pushed further West. He traveled to Washington, D.C., with Little Turtle to meet with then-president Thomas Jefferson to make his requests known ahead of the War of 1812.

The first white settlements came to the area around 1829 and festival honors the time before that, from the middle 1600s up through the War of 1812.

"It's a love of history and a love of teaching and sharing," Judson said.

Organizer and reenactor Allan Lucht became interested as a child watching Davey Crockett and Daniel Boone at reenactments.

"A lot of people do immense amounts of research on the clothing and the food," said Lucht. "My family's always been into history and everything and one thing led to another and this was fun. Next thing you know, you're dressed up."

Jim Nelson's family also had a passion for history and his dad would take him to local historical sites which sparked a passion as an adult that led him to historical reenactment.

"It honors our ancestors to go back and remember them and remember what it took good or bad to develop this country," Judson said.

Education Day is this Friday and schools from Columbia City, Goshen and Elkhart are already planning to attend. Allan Lucht said even just the clothing is a great learning experience for kids to experience the clothing of the time.

The cost for admission is $8 for adults, and free for children younger than 12.

Five Medals at The Trace will be open to the public from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday at Stone's Trace, 5111 Lincolnway South, Ligonier.

Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.