Old Cowtown Museum
Wichita, Kansas
Visitors to the Old Cowtown Museum in Wichita, Kansas, don’t take a step back in time; they take a giant leap into a world of rowdy cowboys, friendly farmers and handy homesteaders going about their everyday lives in the mid-1800s Midwestern cattle town. As if frozen in time, this living-history museum welcomes guests with costumed interpreters going about their tasks in this working village, acting out what life was like between 1865 and 1880 off the Chisholm Trail in Kansas.
Old Cowtown, which opened to visitors in 1955, is today one of the oldest open-air history museums in the Midwest. The site consists of 23 acres, and its dirt roads guide the way past the town’s 54 historic and re-created buildings, so walking shoes are advised for guests looking to get the most out of the experience
“It’s a very family-friendly place with hands-on activities and animals, and many places for children and adults to explore together,” said Jacky Goerzen, museum director. “We are a place of conversation starters, a place where people across generations can have conversations about how life was and how life in their own past was lived.”
The museum is full of exhibits and experiences that appeal to a wide variety of tastes and interests. Popular crafts demonstrations include blacksmithing, carpentry, typesetting and dressmaking. Groups of all ages can try their hand at horseshoes and some 1870s schoolyard games, or they can sit at the saloon to enjoy an old-fashioned sarsaparilla.
Conner Prairie
Fishers, Indiana
Time has a way of slowing down at Conner Prairie, where each day offers the simple pleasures of prairie living, from tending to animals and gardening to creating pottery and cooking. Conner Prairie has been open to the public since pharmaceutical mogul and philanthropist Eli Lilly purchased the old Conner house, near Indianapolis, in 1934.
The house had stood on the site since 1823, the year William Conner built the grand structure on a hill overlooking a flood plain. The house served as home for Conner, his wife Elizabeth and their 10 children. Conner went on to become a major landowner, statesman and wealthy businessman. His home would become one of early America’s great historic sites.
In 1970, the second phase of the Conner home began when renowned folklorist Henry Glassie offered to help create a living-history museum. Costumed staff would act and talk as though they were living in the mid-1800s. The town comes to life each day with interactive experiences: Guests can help build a working windmill or explore the history of manned flight at the 1859 Balloon Voyage, which gives them a 370-foot shift in perspective as they hover over the prairie in a tethered balloon.
“When you walk through our grounds and enter Prairietown, you fully immerse yourself in a 19th-century village and interact with routines of life in Indiana in 1836,” said Christine DeJoy, director of public affairs for Conner Prairie in Fishers, Indiana. “It’s an unforgettable experience that you will remember for years to come.”
