A trip to Heritage Canyon in Fulton includes a peek at 19th-century farm life, thanks in part to the efforts of a Whiteside County farm family. The former limestone quarry consists of 12 acres with nature trails and buildings reminiscent of life in the 1800s.
When the late Harold and Thelma Wierenga bought the land in 1967, they built a home and began constructing historic buildings including a log cabin, a schoolhouse and a church. In the mid-1980s, Whiteside County Farm Bureau President Don Temple learned about Heritage Canyon when his daughter visited with a school group. Wierenga needed some materials to finish the church.
“We were tearing the battens off of our barn,” Temple says. “He came and got those, and we also offered him a picket fence. When he came to look at that, he saw the original farmhouse we were going to tear down and burn.”
The house had been home to a family of five who settled in the area during the Civil War era. It became a summer kitchen when a larger home was built on the farm. By the time it caught Wierenga’s attention, it was full of junk.
“He said, ‘I’ll take the pickets, but what about the building?’” Temple remembers. “And I said to my wife, Karen, ‘I don’t think we’re burning this building.’”
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Transporting History
The family explored ways to move the house but decided they would have to dismantle and rebuild it. In the meantime, Wierenga suffered a heart attack, limiting his physical activity.
Temple took shingles off the roof and numbered the roof sheeting, upstairs floor pieces and joists. He cut the corners with a chainsaw and laid the four walls on a hayrack. The family chiseled the fireplace out brick by brick, which Wierenga hauled to town in multiple trips with his station wagon.
“There was a smoking room upstairs. They could divert smoke up there to smoke their meat,” Temple says. “They were sleeping up there, too. That had to be pretty strong, with the smell of meat in that same room. It was just a little closet, but you could open the door and still smell that meat had cured there.”
Wierenga recruited several men, including Temple’s dad, Elmer, to put the structure back together.
“He could see there had been a porch that had been taken off, so he put a porch back on,” Temple says. “There was even a beehive on the house, and he put that back on there.”
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Personality Manifests
Temple says Wierenga’s infectious personality drew people into his projects.
“I probably would have been the last person at that point in my life to think this is important,” Temple says. “I thought, ‘Get rid of the old; here comes the new.’ Harold helped me to develop an appreciation for this stuff. Now I would say, for sure, that’s important.”
Temple’s wife, Karen, agrees. “It’s relevant for the kids to see it, and this is right here. And it’s fun to say, ‘This came from our farm,’” she says.
If You Go
Wierenga’s Heritage Canyon
Address: 515 4th St., Fulton
Phone: (815) 589-4600
Email: info@cityoffulton.us
Website: facebook.com/WierengasHeritageCanyon
Heritage Canyon’s nature trails open to the public from April 15 to Dec. 15, weather permitting. The building is only open during special events.
Events include Dutch Days in May (which includes tours of Fulton’s authentic Dutch windmill), a summer Bluegrass Festival, Fall Festival in October and a Christmas Walk in December. Special events typically charge a small fee to visitors; otherwise, plan to make a free-will donation.
The Early American Crafters volunteer group organizes many of these events, during which they dress in period clothing and demonstrate pioneer village life. Other volunteers, including master gardeners, spend countless hours helping maintain the property, which the City of Fulton now owns.
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