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Other stories in "Frontier history"

• Posse on the prairie
  In Madelia, the Jesse James Gang met its match — again.
• Blasts from the past
  Every September, the Civil War comes to an old stagecoach inn in Wisconsin.
• On the Iron Trail
  In northern Minnesota, a rich deposit of ore brought the world running.
• Mourning the summer of 1862
  150 years after a tragic conflict, a pilgrimage to the Minnesota River Valley yields facts but few answers.
• Lumberjacks and legends
  Grand Rapids may not be the Emerald City, but its trees are green, and its lakes glitter.
• Hayward's lumberjacks
  A northwest Wisconsin resort town keeps a frontier art alive.
• Still fighting the Civil War
  At historic sites, battle reenactments turn history into flesh and blood.
• Scrappy Northfield
  As outlaws discovered, this Minnesota college town is small but rarely sleepy.
• Following the tall ships
  On Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, tourists flock to historic schooners.
• Life on the Grand Portage
  Once, a corner of northeast Minnesota was the center of the fur-trade universe.
• Fight club
  In the southwest Wisconsin countryside, expert reenactors bring the misery of war home.
• War of 1812
  Yanks invaded Canada? Brits swarmed Wisconsin? It's the bicentennial of the war no one remembers.
• Pike on the prowl
  For better or worse, America's first emissary on the Upper Mississippi set history into motion.
• River with a past
  On the lush Minnesota, beautiful scenery comes with harsh history.
• Road trip: southwest Wisconsin
  A 170-mile loop winds past lead mines, a famous grotto and a brewery town.
• Little sod house on the prairie
  A re-created pioneer home shows that life on the frontier wasn't quite as romantic as we think it was.
• Missouri's memories
  After 150 years, the Civil War still haunts the western part of the state, long terrorized by jayhawkers and bushwackers.
• Scenes from the fur trade
  At re-created forts, meet the adventurers who shaped the Upper Midwest.

Living like a pioneer

At day camps in forts, fur posts and frontier homesteads, kids go back in time.

It's the 21st century, but children still want to spend a day in Laura's world on the frontier — or Huck's world on the Mississippi, or Davy's in the woods.

Laura and Huck didn't have iPods or Xboxes, but they had adventure. In their worlds, people had to live by their wits, unaided by technology, and make what they needed with their own hands.

It's so romantic — and we're not talking Bella and Edward. If only these kids could go back in time to see what it was like . . . and as it turns out, they can.

Sometimes, the whole family can go along, staying in a tipi or covered wagon during a frontier festival, camping at a fur post during Rendezvous or dressing up like Ma and Pa.

Now is the time to reserve for 2013.

Living like Laura

Not far from Milwaukee, Old World Wisconsin in Eagle offers "Hooked on Laura'' day camps for kids who wonder what life was like for Laura.

The open-air museum, made up of reconstructed frontier buildings brought from all over Wisconsin, offers three one-day camps for children in third or fourth grade and one for children in fifth through seven grades.

Old World Wisconsin also offers Laura Ingalls Wilder Days July 5-31 in 2013. Visitors will churn butter, jump in the hay, sew a quilt square, make rope and dress like Laura or her family and friends in a look-alike contest.

In Green Bay, Heritage Hill State Historical Park holds Laura Ingalls Wilder Days July 26-27 in 2013. Activities include making bullets, woodworking, stuffing mattresses, baking Jonny-cakes and rug braiding.

In the Twin Cities, Historic Fort Snelling has Little House in the Big Fort Day Camps where children can experience life as described by Laura Ingalls Wilder in her books. They're for ages 7-11.

At The Landing heritage park on the Minnesota River, in the southwest Minneapolis suburb of Shakopee, kids can attend school, help with chores around a log cabin and visit the general store during the three-day Little House on the River Camp for ages 6 to 12.

At Lowry Nature Center in the southwest Minneapolis suburb of Victoria, kids ages 6-9 can work and play like Laura at the three-day Laura Ingalls Adventures Camp.

For more about Laura sites, see Laura Ingalls Wilder stories.

Life on the frontier

Fort Snelling, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, also is the site of three four-day Huck Finn Summer Camps for ages 9-12. Kids will fish, hike, cook outdoors and build a lodge.

At The Landing heritage park on the Minnesota River, kids can whitewash a fence, fish and go to school and dress as Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn or Becky Thatcher at the two-day Adventures of Mark Twain Camp for ages 6 to 12.

At Fort Snelling's Davy Crockett Summer Camp, ages 9-12 learn how to track, trap and skin animals during two two-day camps.

Old World Wisconsin has one-day sessions of the One-Room Schoolhouse Rocks day camp for grades one through eight.

Fort Snelling offers one-day One-Room Schoolhouse day camps for ages 7-11.

At Old World Wisconsin, older children are costumed and paired with an interpreter for a behind-the-scenes look at the sprawling historical site during two four-day sessions of the Old World Apprentice Camp for youths in grades eight through 12.

Near Preston in southeast Minnesota, Historic Forestville offers one-day 19th Century Homestead Day Camps for children 8-12. They'll tend an 1899 general store, gather eggs, tend chickens and play parlor games.

In Greenbush, near Sheboygan in eastern Wisconsin, the Wade House offers four-day Pioneer Camps for children ages 8-13. They'll learn blacksmithing, woodworking, candle-making and other arts practiced by Wisconsin's early pioneers.

Frontier life for the whole family

In the northern-Illinois town of Oregon, families can camp in a painted tipi during Oregon Trail Days, July 20-21 in 2013. The tipis sleep three to four and rent for $79 per night, half-price Thursday and Sunday nights.

The festival is held in Lowden State Park and features a Native American encampment with drumming and dancing, covered wagon rides, a horse parade, a river float, vintage baseball and such cowboy arts as gun slinging and rope tricks.

Old World Wisconsin offers a Family Farmhand Fun Camp, where you can do chores and play games like early settlers.

Joining the fur trade

In Thunder Bay, Fort William Historical Park, the largest re-created fur post in North America, has several programs for youths.

At the weeklong Voyageur Discovery Camps, youths ages 7-10 paddle a voyageur canoe, explore the forest and learn about Ojibwe culture.

At the 10-day Youth Interpreter Program, youths ages 13-15 develop historical characters, practice their speaking and performance skills and then get into costume and interact with visitors from all around the globe.

Fort William also offers camping from late May to late September, so families can immerse themselves in the fur trade any time.

For more, see Scenes from the fur trade and Exploring Thunder Bay.

Life during the Civil War

Old World Wisconsin has two one-day Civil War Camps for children in fifth through seventh grade.

At the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, children ages 9-12 can attend the one-day Civil War History Camp, July 11 in 2013.

At The Landing heritage park in the southwest Minneapolis suburb of Shakopee, kids can fight in a simulated skirmish, march, go to school and play 19th-century baseball during the three-day Civil War Camp for ages 9 to 12.

In Greenbush, near Sheboygan in eastern Wisconsin, the Wade House offers four-day Civil War Day Camps for children ages 8-13. They'll explore life as a soldier and also on the homestead, learning to march, set up camp and cook over an open fire.

For more about the Civil War at the Wade House, see Blasts from the past.

Many historic sites are hosting special events to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, and many include activities for children and families.

For more, see Still fighting the Civil War.

Last updated on January 13, 2013