Stuhr Museum or Pioneer Village. (Craig: houses, living, cars)

[dsrich98]

If you were going to be taking a child to either Stuhr Museum or Pioneer Village, which would you choose? I love both but could probably only swing one this year. It's been probably 15 years since I've been to either anything new or interesting going on at either one?

[jlawrence01]

The Stuhr Museum is a formal museaum with a ton of interesting exhibits.

Pioneer Village is a huge collection of stuff that is presented over a number of buildings. It is fairly UNorganized.

I would take the child to Pioneer Village and just ;et them wonder around until they got tired.

[IsThisOneTaken?]

It depends a little on the age/interest level of the child, but I'd probably second the Pioneer Village suggestion for all but the most studious of kids.

[itsMeFred]

I don't know about Pioneer Village (never been there!) but my kids loved the living-history aspect of Stuhr Museum when they were as young as 4 and 6.

Being able to talk to the blacksmith, getting ornaments from the tinsmith, watching the lady at the millinery, etc.
It made it all so very alive...

[xordite]

I've been to both within the last few years. I really liked the Stuhr Museum, but I think kids would like Pioneer Village better. My Grandfather worked at Pioneer Village when I was very young and I loved going there.

Craig

[itsMeFred]

Does Pioneer Village do living history or something now?
I asked DH this question (since he's been to Pioneer Village a number of times) and he thought adults might get more out of PV, but wouldn't recommend it for kids because there's simply so much. And no living history aspect to it, either...
But he hasn't been there for a number of years.
Has that changed?

BTW, I've been puzzling over this; what exactly is "formal" about the Stuhr Museum? The main building?
(I'll confess, we don't usually spend a lot of time in the main building. We start out there, but we're out the door to all of the out-buildings as quickly as possible. lol)

[Flat Water 1867]

My wife and I went to Stuhr Museum in summer '06. It was the first time I had been there in over 20 years. I was very impressed with the main building and all of the authentic exhibits therein. We were there on a beastly hot day, folks, so the outside buildings/authentic houses and the living history aspects were not quite as enjoyable as they normally would have been--certainly not the fault of the Stuhr Museum. It's just kinda funny how I remember the main building being my favorite part of the experience that day. Probably had more to do with air conditioning than anything else. The people who worked there were outstanding in their professionalism as they dealt with the heat while wearing late 1800's-era clothing that was not heat friendly--all the while they stayed in character and didn't complain! I highly recommend the Stuhr museum.

Haven't been to Pioneer Village in over 25 years, so I can't comment on what they have to offer these days. I was just a little kid at the time, so a lot of the historical significance of what I saw was lost on me. I would get much more out of it if I went today. I do remember a great collection of classic cars at PV.

I applaud you for exploring Nebraska!