From the park's website:
The Landing – Minnesota River Heritage Park, formerly Historic Murphy's Landing, was established in 1969. This 88-acre living history museum depicts life in the Lower Minnesota River Valley from the 1840s–1890s with authentic 19th-century buildings, demonstrations and a scenic river trail and overlook. Original site features include Major Murphy's inn and ferry crossing, the Pond Grist Mill, and a river overlook wall constructed by the Works Progress Administration. The mission of the park is to interpret how people, for thousands of years, have connected with the Minnesota River and its surrounding natural and cultural resources.
From the visitor center you can either take a (Percheron) horse-drawn trolley into the town area, or you can walk the gravel road.
We chose to walk.
As you walk down the road, you come to some farm houses and buildings for keeping animals.
I was able to get pretty up close and personal with the animals, which I always enjoy.
Just before you reach the "downtown" area, there's a big red barn and a one room school house.
The downtown area is filled with colorful houses, businesses such as the blacksmith shop and a supply store, and a church.
As part of the art fair today, a New Orleans funeral band played in front of the church.
I enjoyed dancing to the music and entertaining others around me.
The town sits overlooking the Minnesota River. There used to be a paved pathway that took visitors down to the river's edge, but it was recently washed out. Unless you're willing to get really muddy, the river is no longer accessible from that point.
We didn't get to see as much as we would have liked. It gets a little tiring following me around, though, especially when I fight taking a nap in my stroller. We'll just have to make another trip back sometime, maybe around Christmas.
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