[July 05, 2011] Thousands mark Independence Day at Carson Park Tweet Jul 05, 2011 (The Leader-Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Six-year-old Tai Meier of Orange County, Calif., strained to pull a cross-cut saw Monday afternoon at Carson Park. Sawyer Fred, also known as Fred Base, pulled from the other side. Base looked the role of a lumberjack with a red plaid shirt and red suspenders. He helped young lumberjacks saw more than 100 "cookies," or round slices of wood, before the day was done. "This is our cultural experience," said Tai's mother, Maria Meier. Their family, which includes four young children, were visiting grandparents John and Marilyn Hempel of Eau Claire, but they all wanted to come down to the Independence Day activities at Chippewa Valley Museum and Paul Bunyan Logging Camp. Eight-year-old Kuna Meier, Tai's sister, won her age group in a spelling bee, correctly spelling words such as school, fireworks and calendar. Pony rides, cake walks, crafts, geography and spelling bees were among the activities offered at the museum. Doug "Woz" Wozniak of Chippewa Falls performed a song accompanied, at the appropriate times, by a rhythm section of "limberjacks" -- wooden dolls, hinged at the shoulders, hips and knees -- that youngsters could make tap dance on a wooden paddle. Real lumberjacks passed the long winter nights whittling in the camps, and they would make "limberjacks" and play music, sometimes one accompanying the other. Char Lynum of Altoona, a member of the Clear Water Fiber Guild, demonstrated how to make yarn from raw wool with a spinning wheel. It involved washing the wool and "carding" it with wire brushes, which oriented the fibers in the same direction and got out some of the debris, but not all of it -- she still had to pick out numerous twigs as she spun. Other members of the fiber guild demonstrated spinning with processed wool. Greg Devine, a 24-year volunteer at Paul Bunyan Logging Camp, said he expected about 2,500 people Monday would tour the camp and Chippewa Valley Museum and take part in the activities at the park. Thousands more turned out for an Eau Claire Express baseball game, a Chippewa Valley Predators football game and fireworks at dusk, which concluded the day's activities at Carson Park. Knight can be reached at 715-830-5835, 800-236-7077 or [email protected]. To see more of The Leader-Telegram or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.leadertelegram.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, Wis. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]