Youth Programs
The museum offers a variety of youth programming throughout the year!
School Programs:
Tours are available for all age groups, at a cost of $1.00 per student for a basic tour and $2.00 per student for a basic tour plus village experience. Extended experiences in the school and log cabin are available at a cost of $5.00 per student. Teachers and chaperones are free. Please contact the museum at least 2 weeks in advance by phone at 507-332-2121 or by email at rchs@rchistory.org.
Please have the following information ready:
Contact person - name and phone number
Desired date and time - Museum hours are: Monday - Friday 9:00AM - 4:00 PM
Age of students
Size of group
Length of time desired
Type of tour
Basic Tour:
A basic tour of one hour will consist of time spent in the
Museum -- Included are displays on fir trading, Native Americans, Bishop Whipple, local industries, and a Main Street diorama including a general store, barbershop and jail.
Villiage Experience:
Log Cabin -- What would it have been like living in a cabin like this one?
Pleasant Valley School -- Who would have attended a one room school and what would it have been like to have been a student there?
Holy Innocents Church -- Why were there so many churches in the county and what did they look like inside?
Harvest and Heritage Halls -- Discover how the appliances and machinery have changed over the years.
To view images of the Village (Log Cabin, Pleasant Valley School and Harvest and Heritage Halls), click here.
Extended Pleasant Valley School Experience:
In this program students will experience what it was like to be a student in a one room school house. Activities will include:
School lessons as they were taught in schools of this period
Outdoor games from long ago
Discussion about how schools have changed
If desired students can eat lunch near the school and compare their lunches to what a former student might have eaten. This is a two hour experience and can accommodate one class at a time. The fee is $5.00 per student with no charge for adults.
Extended Log Cabin Experience:
Students will step back in time to imagine what life must have been like living in a cabin such as this. By asking questions such as; where would they sleep? What would they eat? What would they wear? Students will come to a broader understanding of what life was like in Early Rice County.
Activities will include:
Grinding Wheat
Using a table loom
Washing clothes by hand
Using a "Yankee drill"
Working on a rag rug
Using a bit and brace
Shelling corn
Making butter
Playing old time games
This is a 75 minute experience and can accommodate one class. The fee is $5.00 per students with no charge for adults.
History Camp: 2009 RCHS History Camp Application
History Camp is RCHS' summer program for students who have finished grades 3-5. This year there are two sessions of History Camp: Session #1: June 15 —June 19, 2009: 8:30 – 12:00* and Session #2: June 29 — July 3, 2009: 8:30 - 12:00*.
Each day of camp participants will do hands on activities, play games, and have a light snack around themes in Rice County's history: Monday – Fur Traders and Native Americans, Tuesday– Pioneer Life, Wednesday – One Room School , Thursday – Milling in Rice County (*Field Trip Day runs from 8:30 a.m.- 3:00 p.m.), and Friday – Family History.
$50 members / $60 non-members
