Living History Farms is a 500-acre open-air museum on the western edge of the metro that recreates Iowa life across four working farmsteads: an Ioway Indian site of 1700, a pioneer farm of 1850, a horse-powered farm of 1900, and a recreated frontier town called Walnut Hill from the same period. Interpreters in period dress work the fields, run the blacksmith shop, and explain why a steam tractor was a small miracle.
It is the best half-day in suburban Des Moines and an obvious move with kids, though adults usually leave talking about the dramatic difference between 1850 and 1900 farming. Allow three hours; wear walking shoes — the farms are spread out and the tractor-pulled wagon between them runs on its own schedule. Open daily May through October.