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.

Central Iowa Celtic Festival and Highland Games on the Living History Farms Front Lawn
Saturday, May 10 from 10 am to 6 pm

Support Living History Farms by attending the Central Iowa Celtic Festival and Highland Games. Admission to the Celtic Festival is a freewill donation. A portion of the donations will benefit Living History Farms. For more information visit A Celtic Tradition. Regular admission rates apply to tour the museum.

Mother's Day
Sunday, May 11

Spend a special spring day with your grandmother or mother. As you tour, take a walk along the Miller Nature Trail, featured in the Spring 2008 issue of Country Gardens magazine, a Meredith publication, and see the newly planted wildflowers. All mothers and grandmothers admitted at half-price this day.

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.

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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