Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
OSWEGO - Visitors to Oswego Trader Days, May 20 and 21, will see reenactors dressed in period costume, living in tents and trading on blankets.
Oswego Trader Days is sponsored by the Mid-Lakes Lions Club of Oswego. The event, which began in 1993, is intended to give people an idea of what Kosciusko County was like 150 years ago. At that time, a Potawatomi village was situated on the southwest shore of Tippecanoe Lake and white pioneers were beginning to settle in the area.
Events include a ladies' skillet throw May 20 at 10 a.m.; a hawk and knife throw May 20 and May 21 at 11:30 a.m.; a pie eating contest May 20 at 10:30 p.m.; a black powder shoot May 20 and May 21 at 1 p.m.; and a primitive archery shoot May 20 and May 21 at 3 p.m.
Children may participate in the tomahawk and knife throws.
The "one and only" mountain man contest continues through May 20 and May 21 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Participants must shoot accurately shoot a primitive bow, fire black power rifle, throw tomahawks and knives and start a fire.
Admission is $3 for adults; $2 for children ages 12 to 17; and free for children 11 years old and younger. There is a $5 family rate. The gates open at 9 a.m. both days.
Events for the public include blacksmithing, sheep sheering and bow making skills. Food vendors provide a variety of things to eat.
Traders offer clothing, furs, leather, weapons, jewelry, beads and other items, representing the 1765 to 1985 era.
There are usually about 30 camps with three to four people per camp.
A hand-crafted long bow will be raffled to benefit the Diabetes Association.
Breakfast is available May 20 and May 21 in the community building for $5.
The "booshway" represents law and order. He and his dog soldiers determine what is and what is not acceptable on the grounds and in the camp. For example, visitors will see no plastic, or other modern substances, during Oswego Trader Days.
This year the booshway has planned a couple of contests. Two-person, male and female, teams will run an obstacle course with the woman seated in a wheelbarrow. The man is blindfolded and she has to direct him through the course.
Sharpshooters can participate in the booshway's candle out contest. Contestants have five opportunities to snuff the candle by hitting the wick. The event is set for the evening of May 20.
The public may attend the coyote council on May 20, but may not enter the inner circle unless they are in period dress.
Oswego Trader Days is on Russ Mathew's property at the end of Third Street, off of Armstrong Road.
Oswego is the Indiana word meaning "flowing out." Oswego is at the headwaters of the Tippecanoe River where it flows from Tippecanoe Lake. The Miami and Pottawatomie Indian tribes found good hunting and fishing along these waters.
Potawatomi Chief Musquawbuck's territory included Oswego and all of Bone Prairie to the west.
The Miami and Potawatomi tribes were locked in a day-long battle on Bone Prairie around 1800. It is the only known all-Indiana battleground in Kosciusko County.
In 1833 the U.S. Government ratified a treaty that mandated removal of the tribes to a reservation west of the Mississippi River. Ezekiel French was the agent responsible for moving the Indians west.
The town was platted in 1937 on a tract of land purchased by William Barbee, Rowland Willard and French.
In 1838, they built the first commercial building, which still stands. Now known as the Pound Store, north of Armstrong Road in Oswego, it was a trading post for 10 years.
French was appointed the first postmaster in 1940 and ran the post office in the Pound General Store. At the time, Oswego was considered the county seat.
