Named after the large bonanza farms* that dominated the old west, Bonanzaville is a 12-acre museum and village outside West Fargo, North Dakota. The buildings in the village are arranged to provide that glimpse into life during settler times. In addition, Bonanzaville has thousands of other artifacts on display, providing further insight into life on the prairies in the 1900s.
There are 40 historic buildings relocated here from across the area, including Fargo’s first house, a school, saloon, hotel, church, town hall, train depot, newspaper shop, bank, general store, and fully stocked drug store.
The latter of these buildings tweaked my interest, seeing those medicines that would have been available to Karl on his journey. Shelves were stocked with Syrup to cure constipation, Swamp Root to aid the kidneys, Liniment to be applied externally to reduce local congestion and muscular soreness, and packs of tablets for ‘simple headaches’. These general provisions at the Bonanza village drug store would represent any drug store in North America in 1899.
You may recall, dear reader, that Karl wrote a letter home to his younger sister Mattie itemizing what he had packed: “I counted up my belongings last night and here is the list: a box of puke pills, a box of headache powders, a box of carbolic salve, a 2.0 lead pencil, ¼ thousand envelopes, and a suit of clothes.” So, in addition to the clothes he was wearing, an extra suit, provisions to write letters, Karl had been dutiful in preparing a travel first-aid kit. His kit contained pills for nausea, powders to treat a headache, and the salve to treat any cuts or bites.
Although the medicine may contain different ingredients, the years between our respective trips and my first-aid travel kit are comparable. I will pack:
Ibuprofen for headaches or muscle pain,
Pills to treat an upset stomach,
Adhesive bandages of varying size and shape,
Germolene — the cure-all antiseptic cream for cuts, burns, blisters and insect bites.
I never assume or rely on the fact that I will have an opportunity to access a drug store while on my travels. Instead, I pack a sufficient stock of every type of medicine to alleviate symptoms from various general ailments. Although, if I am unwell while travelling and can access a drug store in a foreign town, I will peruse the aisles to look for something suitable and marketed to cure whatever ails me.
Today there’s undoubtedly more government regulation for over-the-counter medicines. Suppose I chose a Syrup to cure constipation, some Swamp Root for my kidneys, or Liniment — I’m confident these medicines would no longer contain the ingredients sometimes used in the 19th Century that were experimental or laced with narcotics. Fortunately for Karl, there’s no mention that he was unwell in Fargo, so he was also safe from the Swamp Root concoction, or it could be that his headaches were more substantial than a ‘simple headache’?
*Bonanza farms were large-scale corporate farms that arose in the late 19th century. They came about thanks to improved machinery and cheap land located near the newly established railroad system to transport the grain to market. The first of these farms arrived in the Red River Valley area of Minnesota and North Dakota and could be up to thousands of acres of wheat. The railroads, modern machinery, and revolutionary new flour-milling methods contributed to the bonanza farm boom.