This is the overview of last year's program. Hope you will join us this year!

Did you notice our new logo for this year?  We are very excited to unveil it!  You might also have noted that we added Lincoln to the program title to make it clearer why this important.  Thanks to Rodney Ash for designing it for us.

South Mountain Expeditions Samples Trial & Tribulations

A national tour group of 20 people on the Lincoln Country tour hosted by South Mountain Expeditions visited Oakland on Tuesday, June 7, 2011 for a sampling of Trial & Tribulations.  Their guide was Chief Historian Emeritus of the National Park Service, Ed Bearss. Frank Crawford, a Rutherford descendant and a member of the tour, arranged to have the group stop in Oakland after getting a positive impression of Trial & Tribulations last September.

Oakland was included in the tour between their visits to Charleston and Springfield.  The group met Mary Corbin Matson played by Marylee McGee at Independence Pioneer Village and toured some of the cabins with Traci Montgomery, Rob and April Lee.  Then they moved downtown and met Dr. Hiram Rutherford (played by Kim McGee) and Gideon "Matt" Ashmore (Roger Ashmore in real life) in the Meeting House where the air conditioning kept everyone fairly comfortable. Following that conversation they toured the Rutherford Home and Doctor's Office with Caroline Coon, Hap, and one of their young tour guides.  Each participant was given a copy of the Souvenir Booklet produced and donated by Greg Baker.

As you can tell from the photos the event was a big success.  The group felt it was well worth the extra miles to stop in Oakland to learn about this lesser known Lincoln event.  They were all invited back to the September 17 event.

Trial & Tribulations Ends with Praises for Second Year

Thanks to dozens of members of the community, Trial & Tribulations completed its second year with praise from all quarters. From all reports and the evaluations, the consensus is that the program improved from last year.

The Lincolns, the trolley on Saturday, the meal from Lincoln Springs Resort, and the play were all different this year and were appreciated by those attending.  The highlight of the meal was the bread pudding dessert.  Words like “interesting,” “informative,” “enjoyable,” “excellent,” show up often in the evaluations to describe the interpreters, the play and historic site format.

Six schools and 168 people visited during the school tours on Friday morning.  Two hundred and thirty people enjoyed the public evening programs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Two-fifths of the audience came from Oakland-Hindsboro; another fifth from the Champaign/Urbana and Charleston/Mattoon areas; one-fifth from about a thirty mile radius; and the last fifth from all over the state including western Illinois and the Chicago suburbs.  From comments on the evaluations, it seems that there was a large number of people who returned from last year.

The program required the help of more than sixty volunteers to staff all the sites and various activities.  The support of the Oakland community was critical to its success and is much appreciated.

The event is sponsored by Independence Pioneer Village, Oakland Historical Foundation, Oakland Landmarks, Oakland Chamber of Commerce, and the City of Oakland. It is made possible in part by grants from the Ruth and Vaughn Jaenike Access to the Arts Outreach Program of the College of Arts & Humanities, Eastern Illinois University, and the Oakland-Hindsboro Foundation.  Visit the website to leave a comment on this year’s program in our guest book: www.matsontrial1847.org .