Get a Feel for Pioneer Life on the Mississippi River
A glimpse of what pioneer life was like during the early days on the Mississippi River can be experienced over two weekends in September at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa. “River Heritage Days” will be held Sept. 15-16 and 22-23 at the Museum’s Boat Yard Plaza and will provide living history demonstrations, artisans, hands-on activities, games and crafts. Activities will include arrow making, flint knapping and sun printing. Craftsmen will go back in time with metalsmithing, demonstrating the art of tinsmithing and bullet casting. Visitors also will see artists spinning wool and hooking rugs while others will demonstrate historic cooking. Crafts and games for children will also be featured.
Visitors will get a chance to see examples of early craftsmanship during the River Heritage Days festival. Mississippi River Museum photo
“The Mississippi River Valley provided an important transportation connection for trade, many natural resources for the manufacture of tools and harvesting food,” said John Sutter, director of marketing and sales for the Mississippi River Museum. “Our event aims to celebrate the folk arts and cultural richness of traditional crafts.” The five-acre museum, which opened in summer 2003, has had more than 1 million visitors stop by to experience what life was like on the Mississippi. Plans are underway for a major expansion that will double the size of the campus in the coming decade. “We are the only interpretive center that explores the entire Mississippi, from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Itasca in Minnesota, about 2,552 miles; everything that happened along the river including the Civil War period,” Sutter added. Admission to River Heritage Days is included with admission to the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. The museum will be open 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For more information visit the museum’s web site at www.rivermuseum.com or call (800) 226-3369.
