Rocky Tales — Two Prophetstown Campsites

I shouldn’t have let twelve days go by since my last Rocky Tales post because we’ve traveled many miles and through many states since then. Good thing I have tons of photos to jog my memory. After Lake Erie, we went to Prophetstown State Park, Indiana, which was a phenomenal state park, and then to Prophetstown State Park, Illinois, which was not.

First up, Indiana. What a cool state! The skies that greeted us as we drove through were gorgeous. However, when we settled in West Lafayette at the Prophetstown State Park, the weather that night almost caused us to abandon ship and find a motel. The rain was so hard on our little Rocky, the thunder so loud nearby, and the lightning so fierce AND close, we had to stay put. There was a strike closer than I have ever known.

The next day, we were glad we stayed. It was one of the prettiest, well-kept campsites we’ve been to yet.

At the state park, there was a working farm museum with two Sears catalogue houses from just before and just after the turn of the 20th century.

Amazing how nice a home you could buy from a Sears catalogue. But then, you could buy anything from them and needed to when you were out on a farm, far away from any nearby town.

You can walk through these historic homes and touch anything. The kitchens were my favorite part, and I took loads of photos. This surprised me in the parlor of the larger farmhouse. A little risque entertainment:

Of course, there were also musical instruments, an ancient phonograph player, an early radio, and more. And with the hard work of farm life, the farmer’s wife needed those distractions, if she had time after cooking, cleaning, laundry, plucking chickens, making sausage, etc.

This ad is from the early 20th century:

More of my fascination with early home appliances:

I noticed the last person had hung the phone upside down, so I gave it a try and replaced the receiver right side up.

There was a sweet little writing desk, and this workhorse of a typewriter:

The barns were fascinating, too. And I found a treasure inside one:

On the farm, there were friendly chickens, adorable pigs, a pair of tightly mated horses, goats, sheep, historic carriages, and more. I bought a dozen freshly gathered eggs. I have so many fun photos, but I am sparing you the animal ones.

Also on the state park property was a reconstruction of a Native American village and a poignant “Circle of Stones” memorial to commemorate the various first peoples.

The famed warrior Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, leader of the Purification movement,  founded Prophetstown. They believed the Native peoples had to band together to survive, and thus, various tribes/nations moved there. The U.S. government felt threatened and wiped out the large town. There wasn’t anything left to look at, but the gravity wasn’t lost on us.

After a few days there, because we try to give ourselves at least two nights before packing up, we drove on to Illinois. That state park by the same name was right on the edge of Prophetstown, a modern, small city. When I saw the river, I mistakenly thought we were on the banks of something grand, namely the Mississippi. Whoops! It was still ahead of us. We were actually on the aptly named Rock River.

We broke our rule and only stayed one night. My favorite part at the second Prophetstown was meeting a dog whom the park host had adopted directly from Chicago O’Hare’s bomb-sniffing dog unit. Apparently three-year-old Belle preferred to receive belly rubs from people at the airport than doing her job. She would have been sent to a regular shelter for adoption or euthanization if not for the kindness of the park host. Sorry, no photo, but she was a gorgeous black lab.

From Illinois, we zoomed on westward to … Tune in next time as I searched for frozen custard!