When arriving at the History Center I really did not know what to expect, as I have never been there or heard about it until this class. We entered from the lower level because we parked in the paid parking lot and found a delightful little cafe, we decided to get a snack before our tour. After eating we went and paid to enter museum. Walking up the stairs to go see the exhibits I saw a mural of "Minnesota" which I loved because it showed all the great things Minnesota has to offer, and if I am not mistaken I have seen it on a post card before.
The first exhibit we seen was the George Washington exhibit. I learned a lot of things about the President. The President was a very tall man, as shown below. There was a life size model of him, my husband thought it would be fun to get his picture taken to see how he measured up..
Some more facts I learned was that Martha was a widower, and had two children that were not President Washington's, but he raised as his own. They had no children of their own. Fact two, false teeth in this time period were gruesome, with all that lead in a person's mouth you surely would think that you would die of lead poison. Lastly Mt Vernon, what a beautiful plantation, 800 acres I could not believe the size. My daughter went to Mt Vernon last year for a class trip so I have seen many pictures, but she never told me how large it was.
MN150, our next exhibit. 150 places and tings that helped make Minnesota great. The Greyhound bus, life sized so you could pretend to drive. US mail delivery wagon.
My favorite was the wind turbine (windmill) I never knew that Minnesota was the 1st state to try these. I have been to the west coast several times and they are all over there so I always assumed that is where they originated from.
Next exhibit, Weather Permitting. This exhibit was particularly interesting to me because my family has gone through a tornado "The Siren Tornado". My father in-law held on to a pole outside watching his cows fly in the air above him. Went went in to a replica of a basement in this exhibit to see what the Fridley Tornado was like.
We also went to Grainland exhibit, though this was not as interesting as the others, I believe if I would have brought my little kids they would have surely enjoyed climbing and bouncing down the grain elevator.
There were two more exhibits that we did walk through, Minnesota's Generation: The depression, The War, The Boom. There was alot to see in this exhibit unfortunately there were about 100 school kids there and it was very hard to see and read about everything. I did take some pictures to share.
The last exhibit I saw was my favorite, Open House: If These Walls Could Talk. Walking through a St Paul home and meeting the last 50 families who lived there throughout the years. Seeing children grow up and how the house had changed through the years because of the time and fire. This made me think of my home and how someday I will have grandchildren running around and how my house will change and what would my walls say.
The History Centeer will be a place I watch for special events it was great fun to go to and step back into time, everything was very well done and easy to understand. I loved it!
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