Last Saturday we drove to Sauder Village in Archbold, Ohio, a little less than 2 hours from our home. The Historic Village opened in 1976. Eric Sauder who owned the manufacturing business Sauder Furniture (sort of pre-fab particle board cabinets, TV stands, desks, etc. that are covered with wood-grained laminate; the buyer assembles the marked parts) wanted to preserve the area’s pioneer history in a living history setting. The activities vary depending on the season. October 25th-26th was the closing weekend of the village’s season, though there are some candle-lit tours around Christmas. The village is out in the countryside of northwest Ohio. That part of Ohio was settled by Europeans a bit later than other areas in the state. It was known as Black Swamp; once the swamps were drained, it made good agricultural land.
Part of this final weekend was a Woodcarvers Show and Sale in the exhibit hall. Since my husband does woodworking, I thought this might interest him some. In honor of the founder’s woodworking and cabinetry skills, there are old-fashioned woodworking tools displayed in several of the village buildings as well.
Most of the houses and buildings (log schoolhouse, barn, homes, church, depot) were relocated from the area a few miles around the tourist village. They represent primarily 1834-1890 era. There is a small section that represents native Indian culture. Artisans demonstrate the making of brooms, pottery, wooden toys, blown glass, metal forging, tin items, baskets, weaving, spinning, cooking (open-hearth and cast iron stove), drying herbs.
Kids “attend” school. There is a grist mill.
Many of the artisan products are sold in the gift store or the old-fashioned general store or in the artisan’s shop. A museum features the story of Sauder, some local history, but lots of it is filled with historical items like stoves, buggies, quilts. A fun reminiscing trip for oldsters. There is a fairly large quilting supply store in one section with all kinds of fabric and patterns and supplies.
The village has a bakery, a café, a restaurant, a sweet shoppe, a small open-air train (extra charge), buggy rides (extra charge).
The bakery and restaurants and gift shop are accessible to the public free of charge. We were expecting to pay $14 each as seniors to tour the village, but we were the recipients of a generous gift. The lady behind me in the ticket line asked if the two of us would like to be part of her group. She had free coupons from Groupon for free admission for up to 8 people; there were only 5 in her family. She saved us a lot of money.
Saturday was Butchering Day. I was wondering how they were going to kill the pig with little children standing around for the demo. They did that away from the demo and even slit the throat to let the blood drain a little before they hauled the 250 pound porker in front of the group. They had a big tub of scalding water. With chains wrapped around the body so they could control it and bring it back up, they submerged the pig so some of the bristles would fall off. It took 4 or 5 men to haul it onto a table where they used scrapers to continue taking off the hair and removed the toe nails as well. Finally, they cut the head off and put it in a pan. We had already stood around 30-40 minutes and decided not to wait for them to slit the pig open. It was all to be carted off to a shed for processing. We stopped by the shed several hours later. They were going to make head cheese, but I saw none. Lots of ribs. LOL
The Barn Restaurant had a lunch buffet. Rather mediocre food; nothing special. My husband headed for the woodcarving show and I headed for the bakery where I bought some iced pumpkin cookies. It was quite windy that day. I ate one of the cookies in the bakery dining area before heading back to the village to look around a bit more.
Sauder Heritage Inn is attractive lodging adjacent. There is also a campground with RV pads and hookups or tent camping. You don’t have to visit the village to use these accommodations. An outlet store of the company’s furniture also was nearby.
When I headed to the village after lunch, an old car was parked in front of the welcome center.
We were home by 5 p.m. We drove through a part of Ohio new to us and enjoyed our outing.
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