Hiawatha Pageant Memories

What is incredible to think about is more than half a million people have seen the Song of Hiawatha Pageant since it began performances in 1949!

Hiawatha Pageant Goes Out In Style

Pipestone County Star August 04, 2008

By Duane Winn
They came to Pipestone from all over North America Big Sky Country The Land of Enchantment The Land of Infinite Variety Mother of Rivers Land of the Fires just as they have been coming for the past 60 years to the “Song of Hiawatha” Pageant.
But no longer will they see Gitche Manito appear in a puff of smoke as he calls the tribes together to herald the coming of a prophet to guide and teach them or Nikomis instructing her grandchild in the secrets of nature or Hiawatha avenging his great grandfather’s death by slaying Pearl-Feather, the Manito of Wampum or Hiawatha’s wooing of Minneha, their marriage and her subsequent death and the arrival of white men with the message of Christ and the promise of peace.
When Hiawatha boarded his birch canoe and paddled off into the stillness of Saturday’s summer evening, before an estimated crowd of 3,600, it marked not only the end of a performance but an era.

Pageant Closes after 60 Years: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2007/12/21/hiawathawraps

Song of Hiawatha Pageant - Old Newspaper Posting

Last two weekends in July and first weekend in August

Pipestone, Minnesota, was named for the soft red stone used by the Native American Dakota tribe to make their ceremonial pipes. The Dakotas believe that their tribe originated here, and that the stone was colored by the blood of their ancestors.
On weekends in late July and early August each year, the story of Hiawatha (Haionhwat'ha, fl. c.1570) the chief of the Onondaga tribe immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "Song of Hiawatha"—is told in symbolic pantomime with traditional Indian music and dances. The audience watches the performance from the opposite side of a quiet reflecting pool that lies at the bottom of the pipestone quarry where the pageant is held.
The Great Spirit appears at the top of the cliff, where he shows his children the pink stone and makes a calumet or peace pipe. With the last whiff on his pipe, the Great Spirit disappears in a cloud of smoke. The Three Maidens, who once guarded the place where the Great Spirit lived, can be seen in the form of three huge boulders. The pageant ends with the death of Hiawatha and his departure on a "long and distant journey."

CONTACTS:
Hiawatha Club
P.O. Box 1
Pipestone, MN 56164
800-430-4126 or 507-825-3316; fax: 507-825-3317
www.pipestoneminnesota.com

Video of the Entire Hiawatha Pageant (From Dan Stout)

Click Desired Video Button Below to View (YouTube) Part One through Part Four of the Hiawatha Pageant

Hiawatha Pageant Video Part One (1)

Hiawatha Pageant Video Part Two (2)

Hiawatha Pageant Video Part Three (3)

Hiawatha Pageant Video Part Four (4)

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Hiawatha Pageant Memories

Lois L. Bruns

My sister Roberta Karls, and I, as two little Farmer gals, played little Indian children in the very first pageant year. I think it rain the first night. In coming years

Carol Mosley

I have the poster and two pipes

Lyle Olson

We have a peace pipe. I was in the crowd scenes in 1965and 1966

Shirley P. Miller

I was employed at the Monument and was given a pipe by Chuck Derby and also one of Eph Taylors. I so enjoyed visiting with all who worked there in the late 60's. And yes, my children were 'little Indians' in the pageant.

Klint Willert

I loved the pageant. I can still remember sitting on the edge of my seat as a child completely engrossed with the story. Miss this!!

Kathy Scheleck Baker

Many years I was in the crowd scenes. Didn’t need the makeup. A fun time and experience. Last time I saw it I took my mother and she had a stroke the following November.

Michael Smith

I feel sad that the younger generations of Pipestone kids will never be able to see the grandeur of this incredible outside performance like I did growing up.

Marlys Dooley

I was in the crowd scene in 1955 and 1956. I also have a Pipestone peace pipe. Also have a Pipestone book end that was taken from a Pipestone Clock that Alfred Haney made for President Eisenhower. Mr. Haney also made a Pipestone clock for my mother, as he chose her for being a wonderful teacher

Barb Rieck

That was a great time, right Marlys, also going to parades advertising the Hiawatha Pageant.

Lyle Olson

Same here . . .

Ron Bloem

I did sell pop to all the crowds that came. They didn’t tip back then

Laurel Skime

So many good memories; I started playing in the village scenes when I was 6-years old.

Michael Smith

In talking with Mick Myers it turns out that in the first few years of Pageant 1948 to early 1950s, they did have an opening war scene that involved live horses. The horses often got spooked by the crowds and the arrows the actors shot with sparklers caused some interesting “exit stage left” incidents so they decided to cut the horse scene from the Pageant.

Nikki (Johannsen) Edwards

Two things: the Dating Game sent the couple to The Song of Hiawatha Pageant, and they had breakfast and dinner at Gannon’s. I waited on them. They had chaperones and someone with a camera. The other happened at Gannon’s also . . . Anne Murray had performed at, I think, the South Dakota State Fair and was on her way home to Canada. She was very pretty and a good tipper!

Nancy Veldhuizen Hinricher
My Dad, Arnold Veldhuizen, played one of the chiefs for 40 years. The rest of my family participated in the pageant as part of the crowd. We enjoyed all three weekends for many, many years!

Jeanne Litka
I remember Arnie and Keith Johnson playing as chiefs and we would be part of the "mob scene". Great memories! My kiddos even had the opportunity to participate.

Nancy Veldhuizen Hinricher
I also remember Keith being a chief. So many childhood memories came from those three weekends at the Hiawatha Pageant.

Mark J Christ
My parents were very active in the Hiawatha Club. My mom worked in costumes, my dad in the lighting shack, my brother was a scout and I played little Hiawatha for six years. Many, many memories of the Pageant!

Ron DeSchepper
I was a member my kids played Minnehaha, Hiawatha, fantom fever. My wife worked in the concession stands. I played Minnehaha's father. Was a fun family outing!

Dan Stout
Uploaded the production a couple years back for those wanted to see it again and couldn’t find it. The upload is in 4 parts on YouTube but they are easy to find. It always drove me nuts I could never show it to my wife, so I did the next best thing I could think of doing.

John Backlund
In my early teens, I played in the 'mob scenes' when large groups were required onstage. My grandmother, Irma, was a volunteer in the wardrobe building for many years. During the pageant's early years, my dad helped operate the spotlights from the building across lake from the stage. I remember another man who worked the show's lighting, Bob Owens. I think he worked for the pageant in that building capacity for many years and did it with only one arm. Before I was allowed to play in the pageant, I had to just sit in a corner of the small costume/makeup building all evening while my grandmother worked there for the show...I was usually bored silly and hated it. It was August, and the wardrobe/makeup building was often still very warm from the day's summer heat, and I can remember trying to catch some wind from one of the several electric fans in the makeup room.

Oh, yes, almost forgot.... the mosquitoes at dusk. They fed well during the pageant evenings. I believe that classmate Mark Christ played the young Hiawatha during that time. If you participated in the pageant as a 'mob scene actor', during intermission, you would line up backstage for a bag of free popcorn and a paper cup of weak Kool-Aid. If I remember correctly, a lot of the mob scene actors were made up from volunteer church groups. At one time, my older sister, Karla, played Minnehaha (sp?), but I don't recall exactly when (early-mid 60's?), or for how many shows.

Penny Frick
Our church did the mob scene for years and my dad also was one of the pall bearers a few times. Hiawatha pageant was always something I looked forward to doing as a child. Remember we got popcorn and Kool-Aid during intermission. Great childhood memories!

Janelle Hess
We often were in the mob scenes as part of our church. One time my Dad got to be one of the pallbearers and I literally was awestruck!!! Loved that production and still love all things Hiawatha— Duluth, Minnehaha Falls, etc.

Eric DeRycke
Spend many years in the mob scenes our pay was a box of popcorn and an orange soda.

Joyce Trautman
I remember that time too and like you couldn’t believe it.

Mark Mccallum
Spent several nights in the mob scenes. An adventure as a child!

Lorraine DeJong
We were in the production for years!!

Jim Heil
I was little Hiawatha for a couple years and shot arrows at the fake deer!

Mark DeRycke
Popcorn and Pepsi. It was fun. I was in the mob many times.

Dennis Edwards
My brother got to play phantom or fever a couple of times. While I and my sister participated as actors on stage for that free bag of popcorn and that Pepsi.

Denny Graves
Telling some out of State friends, I was in the Hiawatha Pageant, (mob scene), they asked if I played a Rock? I said I had a much larger part ----- a Canoe. Treasured memories.

David Heidebrink
I was in the mob scene several times.... enjoyed popcorn and pop afterwards.

Michael Smith

I never did act in the Pageant, but always enjoyed checking out the crowds by driving by the parking lots with my dad when I was young and also attending it - loved the big sound and spotlights streaming through the air! Fond memories! What is incredible to think about is that more than a half a million people have seen the Pageant since it opened in 1948!

Don Hess

Early in the history of the Pageant I rode horses in the Pageant at the start of the war scene and later on in it. That was in the middle 1950’s. They shot arrows with sparkles on them. Spooked the horses which made for an exciting ride down to the stage areas.

Cindy Kramer

Such great memories spent with family and friends!

Jan Ditmeyer

I was a ghost at first In the Pageant. My senior year I played Minnehaha and what an experience!

Jean Janssen Julian

I was also a ghost. What memories! It was so much fun. My sister played Minnehaha once or twice, I believe. Thank you so much for all your hard work on this. The Pageant was such a huge part of my life growing up.

George Hicks
A fun and unexpected Pageant memory. Dan Sullivan was the theatre critic for the Los Angeles Times. He was married to noted author and PHS grad Faith Scheid Sullivan. He ended up doing a review of the Pageant and it appeared in the LA Times August 5, 1982. A copy of the Los Angeles Times review is below:

(Submitted by George Hicks)