Unique Event Happening in Meeker County This Weekend

In 1976 the Meeker County Historical Society embarked on a project for the bicentennial. The project was to build a 1860s stockade in Forest City showing the life pioneers lived at that time. The Forest City Stockade continues to bring 3,500 to 5,000 people from all over the area for their summer event. The summer event is this weekend (August 16-17). Forest City is located along Highway 24 in Meeker County 6 miles northeast of Litchfield. Their winter event is held on the first Saturday in December each year called "Pioneer Christmas". Approximately 2,000-2,500 people attend the winter event.

Meeker County Museum

Early Volunteers

Bob and Betty Herman and Richard Dollarschell have volunteered since the beginning of the Forest City Stockade since 1976. Bob Herman says they are exciting for the 50-year anniversary of the stockade in 2026. The stockade is described as:

The Stockade, and the two-story museum within, stands as a memorial to the brave pioneers who settled here and sought safety behind its walls during the Sioux Indian Uprising of 1862.

Meeker County Museum

Reason for Stockade

Bob Herman says the stockade explains to those in attendance what life was like to be a pioneer in Central Minnesota. He says it's a little like Williamsburg. He says 1860 is the time they portray. The stockade is an 1860 village that includes violin making, birchbark canoes, demonstrations, and food from the time.

Crafts and Food

Pioneer crafts include the Nelson barn, housing wagon collection, sod house, birch bark canoe building (Sunday only), native American artifacts, and a new stockade print "Blacksmith at Work". Food is served all day and that includes buffalo sandwiches, beans, sweet corn, homemade ice cream, lemonade, old fashioned root beer, coffee, buffalo beef jerky, pickled eggs, hard rock candy and fry bread.