Vermilionville [LA]

Description

The Bayou Vermilion District preserves the Bayou Vermilion watershed, once considered one of the nation's most polluted waterways. Today, the District runs Vermilionville, a living history village recreating life in the Acadiana area between 1765 and 1890. The village encompasses 18 buildings, where interpreters demonstrate traditional music and crafts.

The District offers exhibits, demonstrations, tours for school groups (which may include bag or hot lunches), workshops, cooking classes, boat tours, and other recreational and educational events. The website offers visitor information, information about the Bayou Vermilion District, an events calendar, and information on current projects.

Gaylordsville Historical Society [CT]

Description

The Gaylordsville Historical Society was first formed in 1967 as a reaction to the city's statement that it would be closing the Gaylordsville School. The school was the last one room schoolhouse operating in the state, and so a group of local citizens banded together in order to keep the school building from being demolished. Presently, the society continues to work to preserve and protect historical structures, resources, and artifacts relating to the history of Gaylordsville. The society operates the 1871 Brown's Forge, a blacksmith shop with working forge.

The society offers guided tours of Brown's Forge August Sunday afternoons. The site offers a history of Gaylordsville, a history of the historical society, visitor information, and an events calendar.

Dudley Farm Historic State Park [FL]

Description

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this park demonstrates the evolution of Florida farming from the 1850s to the mid-1940s—through three generations of the Dudley family. An authentic working farm, the homestead consists of 18 buildings, including the family farmhouse with original furnishings, an 1880s kitchen outbuilding, a general store and post office, and a functional cane syrup complex. Park staff in period clothing perform daily chores—raising crops and tending to livestock. The farm features seasonal cane grindings, corn shuckings, and heritage varieties of livestock and plants.

The park offers demonstrations, exhibits, tours, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Blackwells Mills Canal House [NJ]

Description

The Blackwells Mills Canal House was built circa 1835 as a home for the men and women who operated the swinging bridges over the canal. In the 1970s, the last owner of the home died and the canal was declared a National Historic Site. Now, the house is a historic house museum, and visitors to the home can view how bridge operators lived in the 1800s as well as view artifacts and historical information about the Blackwells Mills Canal.

The site offers historical and visitor information regarding the house.

Fort Dobbs [NC]

Description

Named for royal governor Arthur Dobbs, the fort was built during the French and Indian War to protect settlers. In 1760, a raiding party of Cherokee Indians were repelled during the only direct attack attempted against the fort. Historians believe it was dismantled after pioneers pushed further west. Fort Dobbs is the only North Carolina state historic site associated with the French and Indian War and the only one located along the official colonial frontier.

The site offers tours, demonstrations, educational programs, and recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Skinner Farm Museum and Village [IN]

Description

The Skinner Farm Museum is located in Perrysville, IN, which was located strategically on the Wabash and Erie Canal and became a hub for river commerce and business. The museum is composed of a working farm and a restored historic village. The museum village is representative of more than 150 years of local life. Museum highlights include a steam and gas show hosted once a year.

The site offers an online antique store, visitor information, historical information, hearth cooking/baking recipes, and a photographic tour of the museum.

Carlyle House Historic Park [VA]

Description

"The historic Carlyle House," according to its website, "was completed in 1753 by Scottish merchant John Carlyle for his bride, Sarah Fairfax of Belvoir, member of one of the most prestigious families in colonial Virginia. Their home quickly became a center of social and political life in Alexandria and gained a foothold in history when British General Braddock made the mansion his headquarters in 1755." Today, the house has been restored to its pre-Revolutionary War state, and offers visitors a glimpse into the life of the colonial upper classes.

Events include guided tours and programs for school groups (grades K-8) and occasional recreational and educational events. The website offers historical information, visitor information, an events calendar, and a detailed history of the house.

Portage County Historical Society [WI]

Description

The Portage County Historical Society was founded with the intention to preserve, advance, and disseminate the history of Portage County, Wisconsin. To this end, "the Society currently operates four museums, maintains a large archives housed at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point's Archive Center, is developing its own research center, and maintains the Malcolm Rosholt Online Archives on this website to disseminate knowledge of the history of Portage County, Wisconsin." The museums are the Heritage Park, a historic park that gives visitors a glimpse of early frontier life, the Beth Israel Synagogue, which chronicles the history of Portage County's Jewish community, the Rising Star Mill, which gives visitors a tour of turn of the century industry, and Fire Station #2, which was scheduled to open in 2008 and contains a collection of vintage firefighting equipment.

The site offers historical and visitor information regarding all four museums, full archival access, a photo gallery section which has 10 photo galleries currently, three videos, and order information for society publications.

Old Fort Harrod State Park [KY]

Description

Fort Harrod State Park is located in central Kentucky. The Park seeks to preserve Kentucky's pioneer history, and has reconstructed the fort close to the site of the original fort. Today, the reconstructed fort serves as a living history site, complete with interpreters in correct period clothing show visitors how pioneer tasks such as woodworking, weaving, broom making, and blacksmithing were performed. In addition, the site served as the location of the marriage of Abraham Lincoln's parents in 1806. Finally, the park features a museum which houses Civil War artifacts, a gun display, Native American artifacts and a collection of Lincoln memorabilia.

The site offers general information about the park intended for visitors, including an events guide, park maps, and a small photo gallery featuring 16 photographs of the park and the fort.

Champoeg State Heritage Area [OR]

Description

Champoeg features a combination of history, nature, and recreation. This is the site where Oregon's first provisional government was formed by a historical vote in 1843. Situated on the south bank of the scenic Willamette River, Champoeg's acres of forest, fields, and wetlands recreate the landscape of a bygone era. Visitors can tour the park's visitor center, Newell House, and Pioneer Mothers Log Cabin museums to discover pioneer life at Champoeg; or take a guided walk to learn what happened to the bustling pioneer town of Champoeg, and how the Donald Manson Barn was built. An 1860s-style garden lies next to the visitor center. The park also includes the Historic Butteville Store founded in 1863. It is considered the oldest operating store in Oregon. The store is the last commercial vestige of the once thriving Willamette River community of Butteville.

A second website for the area, the Friends of Historic Champoeg site, can be found here.

The area offers short films; exhibits, tours; educational programs; demonstrations; lectures; and educational and recreational events, including living history events.