This August, the Oliver H. Kelley Farm is offering guests opportunities to craft unforgettable family experiences. Visitors can explore 19th century farm life while engaging in hands on activities for all ages.

 

Date: Thursday, Aug. 7

Time: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Cost: $9 adults, $7 seniors and college students, $6 children ages 6-17; free for children age 5 and under and MNHS members.

Treat your children to a day full of activities that harkens back to the work kids did on farms more than 100 years ago. Kids can help load hay onto a wagon pulled by Coulter and Toby - the farm's oxen - and help unload it into the barn. They can also try their hand at cleaning laundry with a scrub board and hauling baskets of weeds out of the garden. Also available will be Cat's Cradle, Grandmother's Footsteps, and other 19th century games.

 

Date: Wednesday, Aug. 13

Time: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Cost: $9 adults, $7 seniors and college students, $6 ages 6-17, $5 grandparents; free for ages 5 and under and MNHS members.

Grandparents and grandchildren are invited to spend the day together and connect with each other while engaging in 19th century farming techniques. In addition to sharing stories with each other and the farm hands, guests can experience the garden, meet the animals and help out with - and later, sample - the cooking.

 

Date: Saturday, Aug. 16 and Sunday, Aug. 17

Time: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday 

Cost: $9 adults, $7 seniors and college students, $6 children ages 6-17; free for children age 5 and under and MNHS members.

Learn the art of preserving food by pickling. One hundred fifty years ago farm families like the Kelleys used pickling to keep foods through long winters. Visitors will help make and then taste pickles while learning the difference between sweet and sour, as well as other varieties of pickles that were popular in the mid- to late-1800s.

 

Date: Saturday, Aug. 30; Sunday, Aug. 31 and Monday, Sept. 1 

Time: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Monday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday 

Cost: $9 adults, $7 seniors and college students, $6 children ages 6-17; free for children age 5 and under and MNHS members.

As the final step of a long harvesting process, threshing the grain harvest would separate the grain from the plant. In the 19th century, this was the climax of an entire growing season's efforts. Now, you can join the Kelley Farm hands in this time honored tradition by helping to bring grain bundles from the fields and thresh the grain in an authentic 1856 horse-powered Cox and Roberts Threshing machine. Close out the activity by helping bag up the grain and rake away the straw.

 

Oliver H. Kelley and his wife Lucy began farming the land on the banks of the Mississippi River in 1850. Kelley was the founder of the first successful national farming organization, the Patrons of Husbandry, better known as the Grange. The Kelley Farm is recognized as "The birthplace of organized agriculture in America."

 

The working 1860s farm is located at 15788 Kelley Farm Rd., 2.5 miles southeast of downtown Elk River on U.S. Hwy. 10. It is a National Historic Landmark operated by the Minnesota Historical Society. For more information call 763-441-6896.

 

The Society’s calendar of events is posted online at events.mnhs.org/calendar. The website also has information about all of the Society’s programs, museums and historic sites.

 

The Minnesota Historical Society is a non-profit educational and cultural institution established in 1849. The Society collects, preserves and tells the story of Minnesota’s past through museum exhibits, libraries and collections, historic sites, educational programs and book publishing. Using the power of history to transform lives, the Society preserves our past, shares our state’s stories and connects people with history.

 

The Minnesota Historical Society is supported in part by its Premier Partners: Xcel Energy and Explore Minnesota Tourism.