April 3, 2021

Pioneer Living History museum

Some of my happiest early childhood memories stem around being homeschooled and visiting museums around Arizona. One of my absolute favorites was the Pioneer Living History museum. 

I’ve driven by it many times since then and felt a pull to plan a visit there for my own children. I finally made it happen for my girls! And we even brought some cousins and aunts along.

We started our visit with a little dance on an outdoor stage.




Pre-Covid this indoor theater was a place for melodramas to entertain. During-Covid it was a stage for us to perform our own improvisation of a melodrama.


Jenny was the villain of the story, lurking behind the tree.




In the end, all the characters were on the stage and the villain was stopped.


These villains, however, we never were able to turn in for a reward.


Jenny was definitely the fun aunt on this day. After the dancing and the acting, they ran through the maze hiding to scare Jenny. They got some good scares out of her!







We loved looking inside all of the buildings and replicas of the 1800s.


















I thought this church was simple yet beautiful.










My favorite building will always be a school house though. We spent a long time in here and asked lots of questions about education back in the day.


Brinna was a very eager student. 


I loved the portraits on the wall.






Fascinating to see this map from the Arizona territory. 


We loved visiting this museum! It brought me back to my childhood and was a fun place to learn history.