History comes alive: Annual Logan Days are back

By Adam Testa, The Southern

MURPHYSBORO - While the annual Logan Days festival has grown into a weekend of baseball, dancing and fun, promoting history to youth has always been at the event's core.

Mike Jones, chairman of the Murphysboro Tourism Commission and director of the Gen. John A. Logan Museum, taught sixth grade and recognizes some of the shortfalls of classroom history lessons.

"Too often when kids are in school, history just becomes a set of dates and important people," he said.

By allowing these same students to talk to a Civil War soldier, to watch a blacksmith work his craft or to see a woman weaving using tools of the 19th century, Jones hopes to show these young people there's more to history than memorization.

Visitors to Logan Days this year will experience what life was like on the wild frontier, Jones said, adding the museum is limited in what kind of exhibits and acts it can have because of people's availabilities and schedules.

"The fact we're involving children in history is one of the most important things we do," said Mayor Ron Williams, who said he enjoys all aspects of the festival.

In addition to interacting with re-enactors, children also find excitement in playing cricket and watching the Murphysboro Clarkes vintage baseball team play, Jones said. Cricket and baseball were the two most popular sports through the majority of the 1800s, he added.

Logan Days returns to Murphysboro May 16 and 17.

adam.testa@thesouthern.com / 351-5031

Logan Days schedule

Trivia night: 7 to 10 p.m. May 16 at the Logan Museum

Wreath laying: 10 a.m. May 16 at the Middle School

Black Jack Logan vintage baseball tournament: Noon May 17 at Longfellow Park

Miners redemption day: Noon May 17 at Longfellow Park

Grand ball: 6:30 to 10 p.m. May 17 at the Murphysboro Event Center