As an avid history buff, I’ve always been a fan of historical books, museums, and lectures. However, my favorite way to trek back in time is to visit living history museums, and Midwest living history parks are really special.
Living History Farms
11121 Hickman Road, Urbandale, Iowa 50322
This wonderful museum is located on the outskirts of Des Moines, Iowa, and takes its visitors back in time over 300 years. Original relocated buildings and authentic reproductions, along with detailed interactive exhibits all tell the history of farming from the original Ioway tribes to 20th century farmers.
Living History Farms also hosts several unique events throughout the year. These include Emancipation Day, Historic Baseball, Pioneer Wedding, and Family Christmas events, among many others. Check out the Living History Farms’ website or call 515-278-5286 for information. Then plan your visit!
Old Cowtown Museum
1865 West Museum Blvd, Wichita, Kansas 67203
This museum has earned TripAdvisor’s “Travelers’ Choice Award” every year since 2013. The Old Cowtown Museum pays homage to the mid-1800s—when the famous Chisholm cattle trail was used to move untold numbers of herds from Texas up to the north where the trail finally ended in Kansas.
The Old Cowtown Museum has 54 buildings set on 23 acres for you to explore, so allow yourself plenty of time (1-3 hours is recommended). Some of the sights you’ll see are schoolhouses, period homes, a barber shop, and a saloon where you can sample some sarsaparilla.
Old Cowtown Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, and if you download the museum’s app, you can enjoy the museum via a self-guided tour. There’s only one Cowtown Museum and you simply must check it out! Here’s the website.
Scandinavian Heritage Park
1020 South Broadway, Minot, North Dakota 5870
Immigrants from Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, and Denmark settled in North Dakota because the weather and landscape reminded them of home. Today, visitors to the Scandinavian Heritage Park get to experience what these early settlers experienced in their day-to-day lives.
Park visitors can tour a replica of the Norwegian Gol Stave Church along with a Finnish sauna as well as a Norwegian storage house, and see the largest Swedish Dala horse in North America. Scattered throughout the park are statues of famous Scandinavians, including Hans Christian Andersen and Leif Erikson, among others.
Perhaps the best time to visit the Scandinavian Heritage Park is in September, when the park hosts an international celebration of the Nordic heritage. Put it on your calendar for a fun fall adventure. Visit their website to plan your visit.
Can you recommend additional living history museums in the Midwest and/or across the U.S.? Please do so in the comments below.
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If you’re from Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois, you’re from the “Midwest”. Any state west of the Mississippi River is “the West”, not the “Midwest”. When they built the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, it was called “Gateway to the West”. I used to laugh when my California father-in-law used to say Utah was in the midwest.
Love these articles. Thank you!
Don’t think anyone who lives in “The West” would consider Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota to be anything but “The Midwest”! If a state was part of the original, pre-Louisiana Purchase “Old Northwest”, it should now be part of the Midwest.
Add Red Oak II outside of Carthage, MO to your list. It is a small “town” created by moving historic buildings from around the area onto an approximately 10 acre site. A few people live in the town but most of the historic buildings are open for visiting.
Moorhead, Minnesota. Stave church and the Hjemkomst museum along the Red River of the North. It houses a Viking boat built by a local school teacher which plied the waters of the Atlantic ocean to Norway and I think back again! Also a lot of history to go with the area etc…
There is also a nice museum in Detroit Lakes, Mn which has a large amount of history etc… (45 mi. east of Fargo, ND-Moorhead, Mn).
National Route 66 and Transportation Museum Elk City, OK. Has mini city on several acres with everything from cars to farming to blacksmithing railroad grocery, life from the early to mid 20th century. Amazing! On I-40 not too far east of the Texas state line.
Thank you, Gail! 🙂 Well, we spent time in Minot, North Dakota when traveling to Alaska in 2019. I had no idea that they had such a great museum. 🙁 I will try to find and vist it when we return to Alaska in a year or two. Thanks again and safe travels! 🙂
There is a small “Swedish” museum about 10 miles north of Mount Pleasant, Iowa on Route 218. They ask (or did earlier on) for a small donation to view the items. It is a single building with a couple of exterior displays.
Thanks, Jerry. Here’s a link to the Facebook page of the Swedish American Museum and Historical Society, which is in Swedesburg, Iowa.👍 Being mostly Swedish myself (my maternal grandmother was born in Leksand), I was very interested in this. Have a good evening. 😀 -Diane at RVtravel.com