In addition to our regular tour program, the Kelley Farm offers programs designed for groups of all kinds wishing to tour the site or to use it for meetings, conferences, classes, lectures, concerts, receptions, luncheons and dinners. We also have a variety of educational programs for school children.

Educational Tours

The Oliver H. Kelley Farm is a living history farm depicting mid-19th- century agricultural life in Minnesota. This National Historic Landmark is the farm of Oliver H. Kelley who founded the Grange in 1867. Today the Kelley Farm comes alive with programs taught by trained and experienced site staff. Dressed in period clothing, historic site guides perform daily farm activities that demonstrate rural life between 1850 and 1876 and teach students about historic agriculture.

Join us for a Field Trip

As part of the Minnesota Historical Society's network of historic sites, the Kelley Farm has developed a successful and popular educational program for school children and groups. Our school programs use an interactive approach that stresses hands-on learning activities. These activities vary with the seasonal nature of farm work and rural life. They are designed to be age-appropriate.

Students discover Minnesota's agricultural past through hands-on experiences depicting changes in the home and farm during the mid-19th century. A field trip to the Kelley Farm involves students in many activities. Daily activities may include churning butter, doing laundry, pumping water, planting fields and gardens, plowing with oxen, harvesting crops and vegetables, caring for animals or making bread. Students learn by doing tasks and chores while gaining a historical perspective of Minnesota's past.

While each of the graduated school programs has a different theme, they all use an extensive collection of historical buildings, artifacts, livestock, crops and natural resources in an outdoor farm experience. This program is interactive, involving each student in the history, work and play typical of a 19th-century Minnesota farm family.