INDIANAPOLIS — Along the Indiana State Fair’s northeast stretch, Pioneer Village shepherds fairgoers back to a different time. It’s a place where kettle corn pops and thick maple syrup is ladled out in bottles, where sound of fiddlers playing hums against the beat of a blacksmith’s iron.
If you’ve been, you know. But the items featured here are not necessarily those of yesteryear.
Far from antique, much of the merchandise at Pioneer Village is crafted in real time by folks helping to preserve these types of skills. Things like weaving, sewing, blacksmithing, which used to be part and parcel of the Hoosier way of life.
Woodworker Charles Carson of Union Mills, Indiana is one of those artisans.
Throughout the duration of the fair, he’ll have wooden items out for purchase - chairs, ladles, bowls, spoons crafted of all variety he makes by hand.
“Wood is just beautiful. It’s a beautiful thing Mother Nature has blessed us with,” Carson said.
He was a carpenter all this life, and also crafts bowls made to look like animals; butterflies or bears.
Carson even makes specialized Indiana bowls, which show the outline of the state. Those types of goods, he said, often transcend purely mechanical intentions of the pioneers.
“The pioneers wouldn’t have been making Indiana bowls, they would have made something they could use,” Carson said. "That's the artwork of it."
Still, it’s in the same handmade spirit of the pioneer that Carson sits chiseling creations out of cherry, white oak or sugar maple, among other artists he's come to know as kin over several decades at the fair.
"We learn from each other. It's kind of like a family," Carson said of the Pioneer Village artisan community.
That connection, and Carson's initial interest in woodworking, are all byproducts of the fair's tendency to bring people together.
He remembers a craftsman from back in the day named Bill Day, who was the bowl maker when Pioneer Village started around 55 years ago.
“He brought bowl making back from way back when to the Midwest," Carson said. "Just visiting the state fair, I became fascinated by what he was doing. He was very, very nice and he would teach you anything."
Decades later, it is Carson showcasing his skill to crowds who come through the fair. Even as he works, he doesn’t mind taking to fairgoers, or a gaggle of friends that pops by his stand from time to time.
The interactions are something he cherishes, especially after two years apart.
"People come back every year. They may not buy anything, I don't care if they do or don't," he said. "I have people who bring their kids back every year, getting bigger all the time. That's what keeps me coming - the people."
You can find Charlie's traditional woodworkings at the red Pioneer Farm Building in Pioneer Village.