Living History Farms is proud to celebrate "Spring and Sprout" through May in partnership with Bank of America.

Support Living History Farms at the Des Moines Principal Charity Classic
Please support the important work we do for children in Central Iowa. To pledge today, visit the Principal Charity Classic.

Spring Planting
Saturday and Sunday, May 17-18

Celebrate the beginning of gardening season by planting a seed at Living History Farms. Discover the many gardens around the museum grounds, and help sow test plots with seeds for the blooming flowers, historic vegetables, and modern crop varieties the museum staff will cultivate over the summer. Plant a bean seed of your own to take home and get some advice for your own planting projects.

Living History Farms Charity Golf Classic VI at Glen Oaks Country Club
Monday, May 19

Now that the warm weather has returned, it's time to hit the links! Join NASCAR legend, Rusty Wallace and Iowa Barnstormers Coach, John Gregory for our Charity Golf Classic VI on Monday, May 19th at Glen Oaks Country Club. If you would like to register for this fun-filled, day-long event that raises funds for Living History Farms' student education programs, please contact the Development Department at 515-278-5286. If you have already registered, here's the information you need to know:

10:30 am - Registration at the Clubhouse
11:00 am - Lunch and Golf Clinics by Nationwide Tour Professionals
12:15 pm - Best Ball Shotgun Start
5:15 pm - Social, Dinner, & Auctions

Directions to Glen Oaks Country Club:
On I-35, take exit 69 (Grand Avenue West). Turn right onto Booneville Road. Continue straight onto Glen Oaks Lane (through gatehouse check-in point). Turn right onto Glen Oaks Drive and continue for 7/10th of a mile to Clubhouse parking lot entrance. Glen Oaks Country Club may also be accessed from I-35 exit 70 - follow signs after exiting.

Family Heritage Days
Saturday and Sunday, May 24-25

Connect with your family’s roots as Living History Farms celebrates the family tree. Visit the Century Farms Heritage Circle and discover the legacy of family farms in Iowa. Explore the Irish and Norwegian roots of the Flynn Country Home and Tangen House, as you consider your own family traditions. Hands-on family activities will focus on gathering and preserving family history and traditions.

Decoration Day
Monday, May 26

Discover the stirring origins of America's Memorial Day. Assist the Ladies Aid Society in making floral decorations for the graves of the community veterans. Hear a rousing patriotic concert by the Walnut Hill Choral Society at 12:30 pm. At 1:00 pm, join the solemn procession down Main Street to New Hope Cemetery for a moving pageant of Victorian speech and song honoring the Union’s fallen heroes. After the ceremony, watch the home team compete in a 1870s-rules baseball game at the Walnut Hill Field.

Travel Through 300 Years of Iowa’s Agricultural Heritage

At Living History Farms, visitors experience first-hand what it was like to live on an Ioway Indian farm, on a pioneer farmstead, in an early Iowa town, on a farm from 100 years ago and what farming is like today!

Discover America’s agricultural heritage as you walk through three working farms, each with authentic crops and livestock. Learn how Native Americans grew crops in Iowa at the 1700 Farm. See how early farmers opened the prairie with oxen at the 1850 Farm. Find out how horse-power and cast-iron machines revolutionized agriculture at the 1900 Farm. Then, reconnect with today’s agriculture in the Wallace Exhibit Center where you can see the many ways two-percent of the people in the United States (farmers) feed, clothe - and even fuel - the other 98 percent.

In the 1875 town of Walnut Hill, join in the excitement of a bustling Iowa town with 14 homes, shops and businesses including a general store, blacksmith shop, print shop, drug store, implement warehouse and two Victorian homes.

Historical interpreters work at each of the farms, homes and shops and are ready to show you the whats, whens, hows and whys of everyday life in the past. The sights, sounds, smells and sensations at the sites will immerse you in history.

During June, July and August, you can really “Give Us a Hand! at Living History Farms.” Just grab your FREE pair of work gloves and try something new every day with hands-on activities for the entire family.

Celebrate Iowa with Lee Kline

Veteran farm broadcaster Lee Kline has compiled his favorite interviews into a five volume collection now available on CD and cassette. The "Lee Kline’s Iowa Notebooks" show both the serious and humorous sides of Iowa. All proceeds from the CD and tape sales go to Living History Farms. Lee Kline entertained and informed generations of Iowa radio listeners with the sounds and stories of rural life for more than 40 years on WHO Radio, Des Moines. Raised in Conrad, Iowa, Lee began his daily "Iowa Notebook" features when he joined WHO in 1954. He continues to file occasional broadcasts recounting interesting stories gathered from recent travel in Iowa and around the globe.

To get your copy of Lee's tapes or CDs visit our Online Store!

Living History Farms is open daily, May 1 to September 3; and Wednesday through Sunday, September 5 to October 21. Hours are: 9 am to 5 pm daily. Admission is: Adults, $11.00; Child (4-12) $6.00; Senior Citizen (60+), $10.00. For a special events update, call (515) 278-2400. Living History Farms is located at 2600 111th Street (exit #125 from the combined interstates 35/80), Urbandale, Iowa.

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