Special to the Press-Citizen
Two women attended a camping workshop at Big Grove Brewery earlier this year, hosted by the new Turkeyfoot Folk School of Iowa City.
“They really had no concept of campground etiquette,” said Carolyn Buckingham, the school’s founder. “Basic things. They didn’t realize you are assigned a space in most campgrounds. They didn’t know how to get firewood.”
Buckingham, her volunteer staff and other attendees were happy to help. The workshop covered family camping, canoe camping, backpack camping, bike camping and even winter camping. The women left well-introduced to the camping world, plus they were given a list of great local campgrounds within a three-hour drive of Iowa City.
To the founder, this is the backbone of the growing folk school movement. It simply brings adults and families together to learn, share experiences and have fun through various workshops and activities focused on appreciation for the outdoors.
“Our hope is that people will walk away with a new skill or ability, or be inspired to craft and create, plus have growing respect for the natural world that sustains us,” she said.
Although only officially launched in February with non-profit status, this fledgling Turkeyfoot Folk School is already making its mark.
It held a star-gazing party with co-sponsor Harvest Preserve, featuring a University of Iowa astrophysicist. It also holds monthly “moon hikes” at Harvest Preserve when the moon is full, an event that has drawn up to nearly 50 people on a clear night.
The school has sponsored a camp cooking class at Hickory Hill Park shelter, covering everything from Dutch ovens to the ethics of plant foraging. It also partnered with Edible Outdoors on a foraging and fishing clinic, where Buckingham showed people how to make homemade fishing poles.
Kids learned how to make and identify animal tracks in the sand during Earth Fest at Terry Trueblood Recreation Area, courtesy of the Turkeyfoot group. It also sponsored an exhibit at a family day at Turkey Creek Preserve with another important collaborator, Bur Oak Land Trust.
“We’re taking a breather for the summer, except for the moon hikes,” says Buckingham. She’ll use the time to work on future planning with a core group of board members who have been instrumental in the development of the organization. They include Mike Fallon, Caitlin MacDougall, Willow Fuchs, Michele Thompson, Raia Lichen and Ross Salinas.
Workshops on salve and soap making, wood-working, metal-working, basket-weaving and a basic tincture class to learn about herbal remedies could take place in the future. Existing venues are used now, but Buckingham dreams of a day when the group might have its own acreage with a shop, garden and space to camp.
She plans to take a grant-writing course soon and hopes to hold a major fundraiser down the road, because the folk school’s only income at present is from freewill donations and occasional business in-kind support.
Buckingham brings two valuable skills to the group. First, she’s a practicing lawyer who handled securing its non-profit status as part of her Iowa Master Naturalist capstone project.
Second, she grew up on the south side Chicago, but spent weekends exploring the creeks and hollows of her family’s farm in Wisconsin, hunting, fishing and learning the ways of the wilderness.
“I’d show up for school on Mondays smelling of campfire smoke with burs in my hair and deer antlers and mandibles for show-and-tell,” she said. She developed a passion for conservation, got a master’s degree in environmental law and policy, then her law degree at Vermont Law School.
Then it was off to Alaska to clerk for a judge in Fairbanks, where she later found and married Mike Biderman, a native of Shueyville. “Our first date was grouse hunting in Alaska,” she said.
It was something of a shock to trade Alaska for Iowa City in a 2011 move here, but Buckingham said she “learned to love the pockets of nature around me.”
“I started this folk school project for my kids and me, and the community,” she said. “It just feels good to be out there getting people to enjoy the outdoors.”
The full moon hikes are a nod to the happy times she spent with her late father taking night hikes and listening to the owls and coyotes. But now, Turkey Creek Preserve is one of her favorite spots in this area.
“I love playing in the creek with my kids and hiking in the quiet,” she said. “It’s one of the few places you can’t hear the Interstate and the prairie land is beautiful.”
The folk school’s name comes from turkeyfoot prairie grass — or big bluestem — which has three long, finger-like seed heads that are said to look like a turkey’s foot. It was once common in Iowa’s native tall-grass prairie, sporting a root system up to 12 feet into the ground to withstand prairie fires.
Buckingham hopes her new non-profit will grow strong community roots as well.
For More Information, search “Turkeyfoot Folk School” on Facebook or go to www.turkeyfootfolkschool.org .
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