City: Des Moines, IA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (515) 278-5286

Address: 11121 Hickman Rd.

Description: Get an up-close look at pioneer and Native American life in Iowa at this sprawling, outdoor living museum on the northwest edge of the city. Reenactors bring to life different historical periods, demonstrating farming techniques and showcasing other aspects of daily life. There are 3 farms spread over 500 acres: At the circa 1700 farm, where Ioway Indians grew beans and corn, visitors get a look at deer hides tanning in the sun and food cooking over an open fire. An 1850 farm, from a time when many Iowa farm families raised corn, wheat, potatoes, and pigs, shows farmers taming the prairie with teams of oxen and just becoming aware of the coming changes in farming. You can watch reenactors utilize draft horses for the hard labor required in farming, and observe the new machines that allowed farmers and their families to thrive across Iowa. Reenactors throughout the site demonstrate a wide variety of skills used by Indians and pioneers, including hunting, toolmaking, and domestic arts like cooking and cleaning. Next to the farms, the 1875 town of Walnut Hill has numerous places to explore, including a blacksmith, broom maker, and millinery, as well as a general store, drug store, office, and other pioneer-era businesses, giving visitors a taste of town life before the coming of the railroads, which dramatically altered the Iowa landscape. Allow at least two hours to see the farms and town, more time if you really want to soak up all there is to see here. Closed from mid-Oct until the beginning of May, with limited hours in Sept and the first half of Oct.