Kline Creek Farm in West Chicago celebrates 25 years

WEST CHICAGO – DuPage County’s rich farming history is kept vibrantly alive at Kline Creek Farm in West Chicago. The farm has been teaching and entertaining visitors with an 1890s flair as part of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County for the past 25 years.

The farm celebrated its anniversary earlier this summer with An Evening in the Country, which included a fiddle, banjo and mandolin ensemble, as well as an opportunity for visitors to kick up their heels in an old-fashioned dance.

“We had 56 people dancing the Virginia reel at one time, filling up the front yard of the farm,” said Keith McClow, the farm’s site manager. “It was a wonderful event celebrating the anniversary.”

Located off of County Farm Road, the farm is surrounded by Timber Ridge Forest Preserve, which insulates it from street traffic – a bonus that enhances a visitor’s escape from the 21st century. A trail leads visitors out of the parking lot past the Timber Ridge Visitor’s Center, down a wooded lane, over a creek and into a sliver of DuPage County history.

“The Kline family settled the farm in 1837,” said Dennis Buck, heritage interpreter. “By the 1890s, they purchased more land to become nearly 200 acres.”

The original farmhouse was a log cabin, which was replaced over time. The current farmhouse dates back to 1889, and it is the reason the farm strives to remain true to that era, Buck said.

“It’s not the home of a wealthy family but one that had done well, so we are farming like it’s the 1890s,” he said.

Continuing a longtime Midwest tradition, the farm rotates its crop of corn and oats. A newer crop that has been added to the rotation is soybeans, Buck said.

The barn was built in 1888, and it is the largest tool on the farm, he said. It is home to nine Percheron draft horses – the power machines of the era – bred to pull plows and box wagons.

“We use them in teams of two for plowing in the spring, pulling cultivators in the spring and summer to keep weeds down and pulling box wagons in the fall,” Buck said.

The wagons hold ears of corn that are hand picked and tossed into the wagon. Visitors are always welcome to lend a hand when it comes time to harvest corn, he said.

Other livestock include short-horned beef cattle, Southdown sheep and a flock of chickens.

The farm’s beehives are placed in an orchard of more than 40 apple, plum, pear and cherry trees. The bees provide not only pollination for the fruit trees but also honey. In fact, Kline Creek Farm honey is sold at the Timber Ridge Visitor’s Center.

“We have sold out currently but will have more in September,” McClow said.

McClow said there are more than 90 volunteers who work on the property, dressed in 1890s-era attire, working in the orchards, tending to the bees in the apiary, blacksmithing, working with the animals and offering tours of the home.

“This is everyone’s home,” McClow said. “It is owned by the people of DuPage County; we are just taking care of it. I would encourage everyone to come out and visit their farm.”