A day on the Grand Prairie

When I went to Stuttgart Arkansas, I thought I had seen the one and only Grand Prairie Museum. But I learned there is a museum of the same name not far from where I live. The museum is close to the town of Mahomet, Illinois. When it was time for our once a month or every two-month adventure with my friend Annie Jansen, we decided to check it out.  My mom, Lori Disque was game to go. We headed out first to the town of Mahomet to check out the food and shops.

Mahomet!

We stopped in a cute little diner and perused what Mahomet had to offer.  It was a much larger town that I had realized.  Located between a couple of buildings was a cool wall art created by school children.  This added a lot to the hometown feeling of Mahomet, which was getting ready for their homecoming parade that evening.

Since the museum didn’t open until one, after lunch we found YoYo’s Frozen Yogurt. It was a beautiful place with an old truck out back and a stone patio.

Museum

We then headed to the museum which is located in Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve.  This preserve has a lot of things to see and do besides the museum. They have a nature garden, acres of wildflowers and reforested land.  We also spied a Covered Bridge and went to check it out. You can drive over the covered bridge. It is a new construction, not an old one like the ones we find in Parke County Indiana, but it was still cool!

l.

Once inside the museum, we were surprised by how big it is. From the outside it looked small, and I wasn’t sure if Mom was going to love it. The new exhibit was Horses are Quiet, Tractors are Loud. It was about the story of the change from horse powered farming to tractor powered farming.  Growing up though in an era when some of these changes came about the late 40’s and early 50’s, she did find it interesting.

For me and others that love old iron and ag history, the visuals were great and really emphasized how farming was inevitably changed by mechanization.  Anyone interested in agriculture will love this timeline. The exhibit will last until the end of December.  The museum also had a lot of interesting history about the early native Americans that lived on the prairie, how nature has changed and the pioneers that lived on the Grand Prairie.  What is especially nice though is the interactive elements for kids. This would be a great place to take the grandkids. They could see the museum, walk on some of the paths, and have well, a grand time!