Jackson County Museum Day is the perfect all-day activity for the whole family! Enjoy touring many of Jackson County, Michigan’s most exciting museums. You’ll take a trip through the evolution of transportation, see what 19th-century pioneer life was like, experience life behind bars at a museum located inside of a fully functioning prison, and so much more!
This exciting annual event will be held on September 15, 2018 and is the best way to experience the deep American history that runs through Jackson County. On this day only, participating museums will be open to the public free of charge. Many will have guided tours, special presentations, kids activities, historical demonstrations and much more!
Participating Museums:
- Cell Block 7 Prison Museum
- Coe House Museum
- Ella Sharp Museum
- Hanover-Horton Area Historical Society
- Lost Railway Museum
- Mann House
- Michigan Military Heritage Museum
- Tompkins Historical Stewart Museum
- Waterloo Farm Museum & Dewey School Museum
- Ye Ole Carriage Shop Auto Museum
Historical Demonstrations & Fascinating Presentations
Step back in time to the late 1800s and early 1900s at the Tompkins Historical Stewart Museum. They will be kicking off their annual Freedom Festival and Steam Engine show extravaganza on Museum Day. Throughout the day you’ll get to watch blacksmith demonstrations, see a working sawmill, and experience a steam engine show.
While here, you can also learn about a trade that can be traced back to 5,000 BC. Loom weaving presentations will be given to show how cloth was weaved long before the invention of electricity and modern machines. This is something that can’t be seen just anywhere and should be at the top of your Museum Day list!
Enjoy the tales of crime, corruption, and escape during the presentations from Cell Block 7 Prison Museum and the Jackson Historic Prison Tours. As experts on Michigan’s prison history, they will be partnering together to tell you about the notorious criminals who have walked the museum’s corridor, riots that have broken out, and the evolution from the old prison built in 1839 to the prison you’ll be visiting.
For even more historical presentations, head on out to the Lost Railway Museum. In addition to guided tours, the Lost Railway Museum will be showing an introductory movie about the interurban railway. If you have a love of trains and transportation, or are intrigued to learn more about this mode of transportation from the early 1900s, then this is the perfect movie and museum for you!
Guided Tours
The best way to experience America’s rich past through Jackson’s museums is with a tour guide who is an expert on the artifacts, buildings, and historical facts. Many of the museums participating in Museum Day will have guides available to answer questions and give you the grand tour of their fascinating grounds.
The Hanover-Horton Area Historical Society will have wagon rides to take you to each of the five main areas on their campus. Once to each area, enjoy guided tours of the maple sugar shack, antique sawmill, organ workshop, antique farm equipment barn, and more. This is truly a treat, the Hanover-Horton Area Historical Society is packed with well-documented area history and American History!