When Do We Get To Aurora?

George Wolfer & the Building of the Colony Village

A History Through the Eyes of Two Men

This exhibit, opening July 15th and continuing through September of 2008 looks closely at the history as it was described by William Keil and George Wolfer.  Largely focused on the complicated and at times antagonistic relationship that the Wolfers and Wills had with Dr. Keil, we explore some of the reasons for the challenges these families faced in retaining their belief in the colony ideals in the face of what some of them considered poor treatment from Keil.

Carving out a Community

Although William Keil had brought his first colonists to the site that he named Aurora Mills in 1856, there were less of hundred of them at the village before 1863.  In that year, 250 of the colony’s best craftsmen emigrated across the Oregon Trail and began building the village.  Wolfer and the others were generally stunned by what they considered the lack of progress made in carving a community out of a very large wilderness.

Taken Aback

“When do we get to Aurora?” twenty one year old George Wolfer asked his friend Henry Fry as he approached the Aurora Colony in 1863.

“You are right in Aurora, George,” Henry told him.

“So taken aback was I,” George later remembered, “that the breath was nearly taken out of me.”

A New Phase Begins

From 1863 to 1870, however, these workers built a hotel, a church, many houses, two stores, and a variety of other structures. Wolfer’s memories of this exciting period at Aurora were recorded first in his own notes and then later interpreted by his foster son Clark Moor Will who became one of Aurora’s most dedicated historians.