City: Des Moines, IA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (515) 278-5286

Address: 11121 Hickman Rd.

Description: The harvest theme continues at one of Des Moines’s most popular tourist attractions, which, in addition to being a fun destination for children to learn about several generations of farming and pioneer life, also hosts a Halloween celebration that includes horse-drawn wagon rides, marshmallow roasting, storytellers, and scarecrow and jack-o’-lantern displays. It usually runs the weekend of and before Halloween and costs about $5. Otherwise, Living History Farms is open from late Apr through mid-Aug and is a great opportunity to see firsthand demonstrations of farming techniques and pioneer life. Take a look at the Iowa Indian Farm, where some of Iowa’s original people grew beans and blue corn, cooked their meals over an open fire, and tanned deer hides. The 1850 Pioneer Farm has log cabins with displays of pioneer domestic life and arts while the 1900 farm features a strong team of draft horses plowing the fields. It's well worth spending an afternoon here, getting a look at so many different ways people lived, including meeting and talking with the historical interpreters.