The Rice County Historical Society offers a number of school tours and youth programs throughout the year.
School Tours and Experiences:
School Tours
One-Room School Experience
Log Cabin Experience
Youth Programs:
Summer History Camp
Year-round Museum Apprentice Program
School Tours:
Tours are available for all age groups, at a cost of $1.00 per student for a Basic Tour and Village Experience. Extended experiences in the school and log cabin are available at a cost of $3.00 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 10:00AM – 5:00 PM
Age of students
Size of group
Length of time desired
Type of tour
Basic Tour:
A basic tour of will consist of time spent in the Museum. Included are displays on fur-trading; Native Americans from the Palio (10,000 BCE) to the Historic periods; Bishop Whipple; Civil War, Spanish American War, WWI, WWII, and Vietnam Wars; local industries including Fleckenstein Family and the Tilt-A-Whirl; and a Main Street diorama which includes a general store, barbershop and jail.
Village Experience:
(Includes the above as well as a tour of the log cabin, one-room school, country church, and Harvest and Heritage Hall)
♦ 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.
Extended One-Room School Experience at the Pleasant Valley School:
In this program, students will experience what it was like to be a student in a one-room schoolhouse. Activities will include:
School lessons as they were taught in schools of this period
Outdoor games from long ago
If desired students can eat lunch near the school and compare their lunches to what a former student might have eaten. This experience can accommodate one class at a time. The fee is $3.00 per student / $10 cap per family (for homeschool groups), 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:
♦ Corn Grinding ♦ Washing clothes by hand ♦ Shelling corn ♦ Making butter ♦ Playing old-time games
Possible additional activities include:
♦ Corncob Doll Making
♦ Wool Carding
♦ Finger Spinning
♦ Butter Making
♦ Candle Making
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Youth Programs:
Summer History Camp:
History Camp is RCHS’ summer program for students who have finished grades 3-5. History camp runs run Monday – Friday from 8:30 to noon.
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 & Tuesday – Fur Traders and Native Americans. Wednesday & Thursday – Pioneer Days. Friday – Family Day.
For more information and for this year’s camp dates, please contact the museum at 507-332-2121.
