Campton Hills pigs out

The young village of Campton Hills, incorporated in April of 2007, celebrated its second annual Campton Hills Heritage Farm Festival Saturday with live music, martial arts and ancient sword fighting demonstrations, a farmers market, face painting and a petting zoo.

The festival was held at Campton Square at Route 64 and LaFox Road and also featured vendors, massage, a mellow dog named Rosie and cats available for adoption from Kane County Animal Control, as well as antique emergency vehicles from the Elburn and St. Charles fire protection districts.

Elburn Fire Marshall Plan Isberg was showing off the department's 1930 Ford fire engine with all the original parts.

"The farmers would get together and buy one," Isberg explained. "The pumps and hose were added to the Ford chassis. The hard hose was dropped into the cistern."

According to Isberg, the village of Campton Hills is protected by four fire departments - Pingree Grove and South Elgin as well as St. Charles and Elburn.

Not every resident of the rural area that was once all farmland was in favor of incorporation, and the new municipality is still experiencing growing pains. But disputes were not in evidence among the scores of families enjoying the day under sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s.

"This is a nonpolitical event," said Linda Bauman, chair of the community relations committee of the village of Campton Hills. "It's nice, it's small enough to get through everything," said Cory Fraehsdorf of Campton Hills, who was waiting to take her three-year-old son Kai into the fenced petting zoo. Campton Hills has a farmers market from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday at Campton Square that runs through Sept. 27.