Beaver hats were popular across Europe from 1550-1850 because the soft yet resilient fur could be easily felted and pressed into hat shapes, including the familiar top hat. Demand eventually drove the animal to near-extinction, helping to bring an end to the fur trade. Thankfully, silk hats came into fashion and the beaver survived.

Wow! Kids can touch animal furs, try hauling a 90-lb voyageur pack used during the fur trade, and barter for goods inside a fur post.

Minnesota has three iron ranges: Cuyuna, Mesabi, and Vermillion. The Soudan mine, 1884-1962, is the oldest mine in Minnesota (now Soudan Underground Mine State Park) while the Hull-Rust-Mahoning mine in Hibbing was the largest open pit mine in the United States.

Wow! Kids can explore what life was like for Minnesota miners and try their hand at blasting for ore.

Rondo, a thriving African American community in St. Paul, was virtually eliminated by construction of the I-94 freeway in the 1960s. From this neighborhood came Toni Stone, the first woman to play major league baseball with the Negro Leagues, and Pilgrim Baptist Church, which was founded in 1863 by former enslaved and free men, women, and children who made their way to Minnesota in search of better lives.

Wow! Kids can walk along Rondo Avenue and visit stores, houses, and churches long gone by. “Travel” on a Twin Cities streetcar to hear and see stories as different eras and places pass by.

The bison is the largest land animal in North America. For centuries, Native Americans hunted it for food. They also carved horns and hooves into spoons and cups, used the bladder as a carrying sack, turned shoulder bones into hoes, used the hide for clothes and shelter, and laced rib bones together to make a sled.

Wow! Kids can see how the bison was like a walking grocery store by scanning parts at a checkout counter. Then step inside a modern tipi and learn Dakota history and culture from poet/artist Bobby Wilson.

The people who moved into the prairies in the last half of the 19th century had to answer questions such as “How do you build a house without trees?” and “What do you do when grasshoppers eat the clothes off your back?” When a grasshopper plague hit Midwestern farms for five summers between 1873-1877, the insects ate crops, wool from live sheep, and clothing off people’s backs. As Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote, they came up quickly: “There was no wind. The grasses were still and the hot air did not stir, but the edge of the cloud came across the sky faster than wind.”

Wow! Kids can visit a sod house and learn about prairie life.

Grainland

Are you soy, or are you corn? You can choose! Experience the ups and downs of being a freshly harvested crop by climbing into a replica grain elevator where bins and chutes are replaced with steps and slides and curving nooks and crannies to explore. Then hop into the vintage 1900 farmer's wagon loaded with grain for market, or step into an authentic 24-ton Soo Line boxcar. The kid-size twists, turns, and tunnels will keep your little “crops” active while learning about how grain leaves the farm and ends up on your table.