Watkins Woolen Mill State Historic Site [MO]

Description

The Watkins Woolen Mill State Historic Site is the last fully equipped 1860s woolen mill within the United States. The site displays the original equipment in the layout in which it was used to process wool into yarn or cloth. The site employed approximately 25 operatives, 10 weavers, and five apprentices from Swedish, English, Irish, French, German, and Canadian immigrant populations, as well as U.S. citizens.

The site offers mill tours, house tours, mill and house tours for students, 1870s living history demonstrations and activities, living history programs for students, a two-hour one-room schoolhouse program for students, outreach programs for students, interpretive trails, outdoor activities, and picnic facilities.

Kansas State Historical Society, Archives, and Museum, Potawatomi Mission, and Stach School

Description

The Society manages and operates the state's Museum of History, which preserves and presents the history of the state. Exhibits include a Cheyenne tipi; a fully-stocked covered wagon ready for a trip on the Oregon Trail; a 1950s diner made by the Valentine Industries; and a locomotive made in 1880 for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. In the same complex, the society maintains the 1847 Potawatomi Mission, once operated as a boarding school for children of the Potawatomi Indians, and the one-room Stach School, interpreted as it was in the 1910s and 1920s.

The society offers research library access and school tours to orient middle- and high-school students to the library; the museum offers exhibits, tours (including standards-based school tours), and occasional recreational and educational events. The mission offers tours, a small exhibit on Kansas missions, and a period classroom for school groups; the Stach School offers school tours and "Rural School Days"—four-hour programs for fourth- and fifth-grade students that introduce them to student life in 1920.

Placer County Historical Society [CA]

Description

The Placer County Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Placer County, CA. To this end, the society operates a restored classroom, which depicts education circa 1900. A variety of local history displays, such as Native American artifacts and early encyclopedias, can be found within the room.

The society offers classroom tours. Reservations are required.

Coopersville Area Historical Society and Museum [MI]

Description

The Coopersville Area Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Coopersville, MI. To this end, the society operates a museum of local history. The museum is housed within two structures, one of which is an early 20th-century railway depot. Exhibit topics include sawmills, settler lifestyles, rock music, logging, and business. Period settings include an early 20th-century school room and an 1880s drugstore. The museum contains a memorial to rock and roll singer Del Shannon (1934-1990).

The museum offers exhibits, period rooms, and group tours. Reservations are required for group tours.

Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park [AR]

Description

Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park is recognized as one of America's most intact Civil War battlefields. The park has a museum and a collection of early Ozark buildings to tour, and interprets the effects of the Civil War on the civilian population in this area. The park protects the battle site and interprets the Battle of Prairie Grove, where on December 7, 1862, the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi clashed with the Union Army of the Frontier in a day of fierce fighting.

The site offers exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Ogeechee Canal Museum & Nature Center

Description

The Ogeechee Canal Museum and Nature Center showcases a 19th century Southern canal built in 1930. The canal was an important mean of transporting lumber, cotton, rice, bricks, guano, naval stores, and peaches until the advent of the railroad in America.

The site offers guided trail walks that focus on canal history, ecology, or wildlife. Living history programs on canal workers or 19th century schooling are also offered. Two hands-on Outdoor Classroom programs are available that teach about canal archeology and construction.

Oakland County Pioneer & Historical Society [MI]

Description

The Oakland County Pioneer & Historical Society's Pine Grove Historical Museum consists of the 1845 Greek revival mansion of the 12th Michigan governor, Moses Wisner. The site also contains a summer kitchen, outhouse, smokehouse, root cellar, and the Drayton Plains One-Room Schoolhouse. A Carriage House is also home to the Research Library, office and the Pioneer Museum.

School tours led by costumed docents are offered on site. Teachers may also rent the one-room school house for half the day to teach their own lessons in an authentic Victorian school. Teacher guides are available on site to assist teachers in designing a field trip that meets their needs.

Dothan Landmarks Foundation [AL]

Description

The Landmark Park in Dothan, Alabama is an outdoor classroom that is designed to educate children about local history and nature. The site has a turn-of-the-century school house and farmstead, a general store, and an Interpretative Center. "Learning Labs" that focus on nature are also available in addition to the history labs.

The site offers history education programs for school groups that include a turn-of-the-century school lesson in the schoolhouse, visit the blacksmith shop and general store, and the Wiregrass farmstead where they will participate in 1900's farm chores and recreation.

Simsbury Historical Society and Phelps Tavern Museum [CT]

Description

The Phelps Tavern Museum presents a 1786-1849 tavern and inn within the Captain Elisha Phelps House. Key society collections include textiles, costumes, and horse-drawn vehicles. The site also includes a schoolhouse, gardens, and an exhibit hall.

The museum offers period rooms, interactive exhibits, group tours, school tours, gardens, and archive access. School tours must be reserved 30 days in advance. Groups of 12 or more and archive access are by appointment only.

Salmon Brook Historical Society and Museums [CT]

Description

The Salmon Brook Historical Society seeks to preserve and share the history of Granby, Connecticut. To this end, the society operates four museum buildings. The circa 1732 Abijah Rowe House has been restored to an early 1800s interior appearance. It also houses a collection of Victorian toys. The circa 1790 Weed-Enders House houses the society research library and a Victorian parlor. The circa 1870 Cooley School House has been furnished and styled to a 19th-century appearance. The circa 1914 Colton-Hayes Tobacco Barn offers a recreated Shaker meeting house; town microcosm; and exhibits on vernacular items, Native American artifacts, and the Civil War.

The society offers exhibits, period rooms, and library access. The museum buildings are open between June and September. Reservations are required for groups.