Isn't this a Mennonite colony?

I haven't had one of these rants in a while, but I figured it was finally worth it to speak out again.  I'm not sure if it's just an honest mistake or sheer ignorance, but it's disturbing either way.

I work in Columbia State Historic Park in California.  Generally I wear a collarless button-up shirt, skirt, and about two or three petticoats when I go to work (I'm not claiming by any stretch of the imagination that I have been dressing historically accurate).  I keep my hair pulled back so it's out of the way.  On any given day I deal with at least a handful of really off the wall history questions.

Yesterday, a woman came into the store I work in with a couple of school age children that had probably been on the "Gold Rush field trip" either last year or were going to be this year.  She asked me what it's like being a Mennonite.  I stood there in complete shock holding a coffee cup in my hand.  I told her I was not a Mennonite by any stretch of the imagination.  She the proceeded to say as she walked out the door with her family "oh I thought this town was a Mennonite colony."

WTF??? LOL

I can see where she might have come up with this conclusion, but it's still rather shocking.  I've maintained for a long time now that the CA park system have created a fantasy world rooted pretty heavily in the TV series Little House on the Prairie; they have cleaned up history to make it politically correct and wholesome for the family.  They have censored the truth about the kinds of people and shops that existed.  However, one of the worst injustices that's been committed is against the clothing.  Below, I have posted several different slants on what the women who work in CSHP are forced to wear each day.  I do not see how the following images accurately portray what Columbia, CA looked like between 1850-1870.

Mennonite girls.  Photo from this site

Little House on the Prairie cast photo, from here

Prairie dresses from commercial pattern, found here

Funny thing is, even if you do a simple google image search or wikipedia search for 1850s women's fashions, the results are staggering and completely different from the above images.  For example:

image from here

image source

image source

All very different styles; all very different from the first set of images; all randomly selected; and ALL representing different social classes of women.

So the long and short of it is this:

Dear California State Park System, 

You fail epically at your mission statement of recreating a "Gold Rush era" town c.1850-1870.  When people that come to visit start asking employees of the stores if they are Mennonites or Amish or Quakers when they are supposed to be representing a time frame of around 1850, there is something severely wrong.  Perhaps it would be advisable to consult someone with a history degree and an interest in clothing to correct some of these problems.

Sincerely,
Someone who believes we can do much better

Oh and all this also means that as soon as I get my house back in order from the new flooring, there will be a new, corrected outfit made.

Edit: 6/1/2013
Until I find motivation to sew a new work outfit, allow me to share my mockery with you all on here:

Oh so attractive...I'm standing over the heater vent to make the mumu poof out

Some thoughts from a disgruntled young person

Today's economy is horrible.  I know we all already knew that, but I felt the need to say it again.  It's like there is no hope for young recent college graduates to find jobs that will provide for them in the future.  I know for me personally, if I knew now what I didn't as a high school senior I would have done things very different.  It does not matter if you went to college and got a degree of any kind unless it's something you can use.  I got a BA in History with the intention of someday teaching.  Not going to happen since they're firing teachers, not hiring them.

What got me even more is this.  I thought long and hard about what I could do to remedy the situation that I had no career.  I was working at the same job I was in high school and for the same wages.  Then I got a new job (which I still love) but am earning even less per week there than I did at the one I did in high school.  So I thought, hey, I'll go back and get an AA in business admin or an accounting certificate or something useful.  Nope.

Thwarted at every turn.  Come to find out there is no financial aid available to students seeking such a degree as I wanted to if you have already earned the illusive BA in (insert useless subject here) that provides you with no career/job prospects.  Isn't that cheerful?  I could possibly take out loans, but that doesn't help my current situation.  I'd have to pay out of pocket to take classes to get another piece of paper to possibly have a snowball's chance in hell for a career that might pay the bills.  The whole reason I wanted to go back to school was so I could get a job that did pay money since I am lacking that.  Come to find out you have to have money to do that, which is a self perpetuating cycle of fail for me.

I'm stuck.  I try to do something to better my chances in life and I'm blocked.  I'm not allowed to because I'm a broke college graduate with no career and no real chance of using the BA in History that I worked so hard for and paid so much for.  Maybe the FAFSA website should have a disclaimer to new college students: BE VERY SELECTIVE ABOUT WHAT SUBJECT YOU STUDY.  You will only get one chance and if you screw up then nobody cares.

Wish somebody had told me that.  It seems to me that we're setting some of the brightest young minds in the country up for failure because they chose to educate themselves about a subject they were interested in rather than one that would make them money.  So if everyone stops doing that will we forget our history?

Nice to know that education has become so restricted.