Heritage Farms hosted a Way Back Weekend event Saturday, allowing the public a glimpse into history.

Audi Perry, executive director of Heritage Farms, said the event is an opportunity for people to learn more about their heritage than they would in a classroom.

“We like to help people experience the past in a hands-on, visual way,” Perry said. “We want to help them understand that they come from such a hard-working, ingenious people and you can definitely see that on display when people are showing artistry from 100 years ago.”

This is the farm’s overarching goal, to allow people to experience history, but this weekend in particular allowed the public to explore in a different way.

“Way Back Weekend is an opportunity to let the public come in and see all of our exhibits without having to pay to have a tour guide,” said Tim Hayes, animal hand at Heritage Farms. “They can see not only the past and the present, but get an idea of how we can better help for the future.”

The farm also features a petting zoo, where people can interact with animals that were commonplace to their ancestors.

“It is a rewarding experience to have the public come in and see all my animals. They love them,” Hayes said. “To have people come in and spend time getting to interact with and touch animals that they normally would not get to touch is rewarding.”

Jeff Madachy, of Columbus, Ohio, also thought the experience rewarding.

“It is good to see a lot of the history in the area and how things used to be run,” Madachy said. “Just to see how far we have come with technology. With the way things are going nowadays, we are going to lose a lot of this fine craftsmanship, but it is very interesting to see the progress.

Karen Velazquez of Dresdon, Ohio, said the artisan crafters were particularly interesting to her.

“It is wonderful to see the evolution of the tools and the different artisan crafts that they have going on,” Velazquez said.

Jeinne Dalton, of Lake Winona, Ohio said she made made a day trip of the festivities.

“My husband and I tend to like this kind of stuff, and we thought it would be a good day trip with the granddaughter,” Dalton said. “To bring her out and experience some of the stuff that we grew up with and our grandparents grew up with.”

Tanya Harvey, tour guide at Heritage Farms, said it is difficult to understand where we are now without understanding our past.

“We are here to preserve the past and educate about the past; to preserve the past for our future generations,” Harvey said. “If you do not know where you have been, you do not know where you are going, and you cannot appreciate where we are as mankind.”

Emily Rice can be contacted at [email protected].