Pioneer Pastimes

- Activities & Events -

Location: 350 Main Street

Revisit days when imagination and a few basic items energized children for hours! Here you will find a child-sized log home and some unstructured hands-on fun with games like Fox and Geese, hoop roll, or gee-haw whammy diddle. Children love this shady site open in the summer months.

Please don’t leave your children unattended.

Image Gallery

See many of the Pioneer Pastimes activities available as you scroll through our Image Gallery.

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Pioneer Pastimes

The pavilion provides a little shade on hot summer days, while the grassy area behind provides space for families to play or just relax.

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Hands On Play

What was life like for children in the 1840s? Maybe it wasn’t fun for them to carry water on their shoulders, but play helps today’s kids appreciate the way children participated in family life in Nauvoo.

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Ride On

Manufactured toys were not common in Nauvoo, but families often built toys like this wooden horse to entertain their children.

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Costumes

Young children can try on some “pioneer era” clothing as they play in the log cabin or explore the pavilion.

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Stilts

Young or old, try walking on stilts or playing other 19th century games during the summer months.

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Hoop Roll

Children from the 1800s and 1900s often played some variation of this game. Kids of all ages today can try their hand at keeping the metal wheel rolling by guiding it with a stick while running along.

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Gee-Haw Whammy Diddle

Everyone loves to rub the gee-haw whammy diddle’s sticks together to spin the propeller on the end.

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Bear Climb

Help the wooden bear climb the rope and come back down again.

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Log Cabin

The miniature log cabin invites young children to explore typical kitchen tools of the 1840s.

- Activities & Events -