Exploring Historic Forestville: A Wonderful Afternoon Activity In South East Minnesota

Two years ago we had the great fortune of camping at Forestville Mystery Cave State Park and were blown away by the built in activities at the park. We visited both the Mystery Cave and Historic Forestville (blogs for the state park and Mystery Cave incoming.) We had a wonderful time on the guided tour and spent quite a long time exploring the area both before and after it. The site is run by the Minnesota Historical Society and offers both a paid guided tour on certain days as well as a wonderful visitor center with a gift shop and some small snacks. On days when the tour and center are not open, you are welcome to explore the site, but none of the buildings will be open.

Reenactment Guided Tour

The real highlight of the guided tour is that you are walked through several of the buildings by costumed tour guides who are incredibly knowledgeable about the time period and empowered to show you actual activities that were preformed in the time period of the town. My favorite part of the tour was when we learned about the making of bread in the kitchen and what a day was like for the women. We even were able to have a small sample of the bread later in the day. They have many of the rooms laid out as if someone were living in them and I was really interested to see each aspect of the people’s daily lives. They also have a fully stocked general store from the time period (pictured further down) and several work sheds with working equipment and animals to match. We learned about life in this particular town, but also in the surrounding area, and how it was affected by progress elsewhere in Minnesota.

Interactive Activities for Kiddos

One of the kiddo’s favorite parts was when W and B got a chance to try out jobs that would have been done on the farm in those days. W got to plane wood on a traditional work seat and did a very good job. He was one of the youngest kids to try and the guide said he did a really good job and could’ve been hired as a hand to help in the lumber mill. B got to strip dried corn from the cob to feed to the chickens they keep on the property. He was really surprised to see how the grinder worked and a lot of us adults had never seen anything like it before. He got to use his muscles to make it go really fast to keep up with the pace the cobs were supposed to be fed in. Throughout the tour the guides quizzed us on different aspects of the rooms we were in, so even the adults got to get in on the action by testing our knowledge of the day to day lives of the people who lived there!

Exploring the Grounds

If you happen to only be able to visit on a day the buildings are not open and the tours are not running, there is still a lot for you to explore. While the chickens will not be running around, their coop is outside and you can get a great view inside their house if you stand in the right place. The outbuildings are really interesting to walk around and they have windows that allow you to look inside most of the buildings. The garden and area around the house is also quite an interesting meander worth some of your time. The day we were there, there were lots of rocking chairs and even some lawn games available for us to use throughout the day. I also think this would be an interesting place to have a picnic if the mood strikes you.

A Shorter Activity, But Worth Your Time

While this particular experience would only fill a few hours of your time, I think it is entirely worth it. It is a smaller historical site so you do not have to fight for space to see what is happening like you would with more popular historical sites. There are lots of educational and historical facts to discover, lots of fun activities to explore, and a beautiful landscape to enjoy. We had a blast and really enjoyed the entire experience. If you are in the south east corner of Minnesota, I highly recommend taking the time to visit this historic site. If you do, let me know what your favorite part was in the comments below! (I personally still think about that kitchen!)