It's a spring morning, and scores of elementary school students stand in a California meadow watching British redcoats accuse a man of smuggling. “Leave him be!” Jim Riley shouts. In an act of defiance, he plays a song on his fife. “I refuse to believe you will fire upon an unarmed man.” A shot rings out and Riley tumbles to the ground. Rebels—a band of children hiding behind a stone wall—jump up and fire at the British, drawing cheers from the crowd.
On Riley's Farm, an apple orchard and living history farm in the foothills near Redlands, Calif., the days of the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and the Gold Rush are brought to life. The Colonial period is a favorite of Riley, who majored in history. “I like the fact that we were struggling together against a tyrant,” Riley says, strolling along the 760-acre farm dotted with footbridges, ponds and blossoming apple trees. He wears his wavy silver hair tied in a ponytail and sports a black tri-cornered hat, gray breeches, a brown frock coat, black buckled shoes and striped waistcoat. The farm employs three costumers to make outfits for up to 90 workers.
After attending Stanford and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Riley moved back to Southern California to work in his family's firm, a cosmetics and notions distribution company. When his father retired in the mid-'80s, he bought the Oak Glen, Calif., farm for the family. Not long after, Civil War re-enactors asked if they could use a meadow there. Next, a teacher asked if Riley could host a war program for fifth graders. These days, Riley, his two brothers and their families live and work together on the farm. Riley spends the majority of his time managing the business, not acting. Still, he says he is almost always dressed in his historical garb, “unless my wife doesn't want to field questions on date night.” Marylynn works as an accountant part time on the farm but largely devotes herself to the couple's six children.
Business has grown 40 percent in the past four years—in 2007 Riley's Farm saw 100,000 visitors. Less than 100 miles east of Hollywood, the farm also has served as the backdrop for filmed re-enactments on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, and in Steven Spielberg's Amistad. In the fall, tourists come to pick Rome Beauty, Granny Smith and Antique Red Delicious apples.
The farm began hosting summer camps this year, and Riley dreams of offering “history vacations,” where families could learn blacksmithing, 18th-century dance and other educational—but still fun—activities. “There was a time when history was taught by telling stories,” Riley says. “When it went to charts and graphs, it lost its blood. Here, we're about story.”
—VANESSA HUA, '97, MA '97
