We like to have a lot of fun the farm.  During Wessels' events you can be sure there are activities for the whole family surrounding the featured activities of the event. Occasionally we hold an adults-only event during evening hours.  Event listings are updated here, on our FB page and often found in Nebraska Life & Nebraska Traveler magazines, York Chamber Chats, YCDC Community Calendar and local news sources.

You might be surprised just how much there is to do at Wessels during our family-friendly events.  Bring the family and tell your friends!  Proceeds from all events go towards maintaining our living history displays, educational program, animal care and facilities.

Create your own event!  Wessels Farm is a great place for family reunions, birthday parties, bridal showers, team get-aways and more. We do allow weddings on the farm but we do not close the farm for an event held during our regular open hours as we are a living history farm first, venue as a bonus!  Contact us to begin planning your event today! 

Appreciation from Users

We like to have a lot of fun the farm.  During Wessels' events you can be sure there are activities for the whole family surrounding the featured activities of the event. Occasionally we hold an adults-only event during evening hours.  Event listings are updated here, on our FB page and often found in Nebraska Life & Nebraska Traveler magazines, York Chamber Chats, YCDC Community Calendar and local news sources.

You might be surprised just how much there is to do at Wessels during our family-friendly events.  Bring the family and tell your friends!  Proceeds from all events go towards maintaining our living history displays, educational program, animal care and facilities.

Create your own event!  Wessels Farm is a great place for family reunions, birthday parties, bridal showers, team get-aways and more. We do allow weddings on the farm but we do not close the farm for an event held during our regular open hours as we are a living history farm first, venue as a bonus!  Contact us to begin planning your event today! 

From time to time, we receive e-mails from folks who use this web site and the physical museum. Some have pointed out a typo or two, but most have written to compliment our site and let us know how they are using the information. Here are a few of the messages we’ve received.


From: Alison Kaar
Date: Jan 9, 2013, at 8:16 PM
Subject: Just a compliment

I’m a history teacher on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. My students know a lot about fishing and the sea, but what they don’t know about farms (or factories) could fill volumes. Your website is charming — I’m using it for our class on the Dust Bowl,and I’ve encouraged the kids to poke around and enjoy the interviews. The lady discussing indoor plumbing has been a big hit. It’s well-designed, and easy to navigate. The content is real, and appealing. The videos are perfect — small snippets from real people. The authenticity is hard to match. Thank you for this unique website. My students and I are enjoying it.

Alison Kaar
Nauset Regional High School
North Eastham, MA


From: Michael Huebner
Date: Friday, December 10, 2010 1:39 PM
Subject: Wessels Living History Farm

As one of Dave Wessels’ closest living relatives (my mother, Maxine, is Dave’s sole surviving sibling), I just want to commend all of you for the continuing excellence of both the website and the actual farm site. I know Uncle Dave would have been proud of what has been accomplished. Although he could have never imagined something like the website, I am sure he would have embraced it as an essential component of what he wanted the living history farm site to be. I truly believe that you have fulfilled Dave’s vision, and continue to do so.

I was able to visit the site a number of years ago, and hope to return sometime again in the near future. I will continue to visit the website to see how things are progressing. I have an uncle (on my father’s side of the family) living in St. Paul, Nebraska. He gets over to the site several times a year for various programs and activities, and he shares his impressions with me.

Once again, thank you all for what you are doing to fulfill my Uncle Dave’s dream. Please pass on our family’s appreciation to all those involved in the website, the actual farm site, and the board of directors. Thank you.

Michael Huebner
Moscow, Idaho


From: Wendy H…
Date: Sunday, August 01, 2010 6:10 PM
Subject: Agriculture Tour – summer 2010

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for allowing us to tour the living history farm on July 17th. I had no idea the living history farm existed, and this was the first time I have ever gotten to handle, see, and touch so many original pieces of historical farm equipment. I think, especially as museums focus on conservation and grow ever more professionalized, that it is important to have some environment in which people can still interact with the past. It means more, you remember more, and I think you appreciate more when the past isn’t behind glass. You have done so much to the farm in the past few years – from the buildings to the objects to the yards. And the house is absolutely lovely – so glad you were able to save it! It’s evident how much care you’ve lavished over the place, and I am recommending that friends stop in the area to have their own look.

Thank you for your hospitality and for taking time to allow us to visit and tour the farm! I find that, even two weeks later, I am still thinking about it and bringing it up to people I meet.


From: Josh G…
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 21:56:20 +0000
Subject: Wessels Living History Web Page

A week ago I was given an assignment in my high school class to create a diary of a farmer during World War II, and include information like the conditions they lived in, income, and how the war effected them. Until I found your site on Farming in the 1940’s, I thought this was going to be a very difficult assignment, but your site was so detailed it gave me great examples of all the types of information I needed. I just wanted to say thank you for creating such a helpful site and keep up the great work. Thank you for your time and help.


From: Abel H…
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2006 12:47:54 -0800
Subject: Thanks

We are a brother and sister team from Elsinore Middle School in Lake Elsinore, CA, and we are in 6th and 8th grades. We are making a group Jr. Documentary about the Weedpatch School for our National History Day entry at our school. We are in need of primary sources for our documentary that explain how it was in the dust bowl. Could we have permission to use some minutes of interviews from your site in our documentary? We will give proper credit in our bibliography. The information will be used only for our educational project for this year…
Signed, Abel and Jennifer H…

We, of course, wrote back granting permission to use our movies. That’s what we’re here for.


From: Kathy P… Ida, Arkansas
Date: Fri Nov 18, 2005 9:12:33 PM US/Central
Subject: livinghistoryfarm.org

Just wanted to compliment you on a simply wonderful website. I am 38 years old. My husband and I run a small farm in much the manner things were done in the 1920s – full garden, animals, milking twice a day, etc. We farm organically, and produce and preserve for winter much of the food we eat. Reading the information and stories on your website was inspirational and very informative. Incredible living histories as well. I’ll be referring your site to many others. Thanks for taking the time to build such an impressive website.


From: Dennis and Laura J…
Date: Wed Nov 16, 2005 6:00:30 PM US/Central
Subject: your site

I just wanted to tell you how much I have enjoyed your Living History site. As a National Board Certified Teacher, I am thrilled by the quality of the lesson plans. But I am also using it as a resource as I make a movie out of my grandmother’s oral history tape of her life in Indiana in the early 1900s. The information and the pictures have helped me to focus on the aspects of her life that I want to cover. Thanks for such a great resource!


From: Judy K…
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 14:35:09 -0600
Subject: Webcam

It was fun to tell friends from far away to check out our weather today as sprinkles fell on the webcam. If some of my homeschooling missionary friends from Africa check us out, it would be good for the children to see our [weather and] time…


From: Sarah Jane D… [from England]
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 23:57:53 -0000
Subject: Feed Sack Clothing

I am writing an article about feed sack clothing for the English textile art magazine Selvedge. As you may imagine there are very few images of feed sack fabrics or clothing available in the UK and I was hoping that you may be able to loan us a couple of lovely images? The school picture on your website is lovely! Any images would be properly credited of course. It would be wonderful if you could help!
Many thanks, Best wishes, Sarah Jane


From: JEANIE W…
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 14:44:27 -0800
Subject: Thank you for your site

I am writing a narrative of my grandparents’ life in Kansas from about 1917 to 1927 when they migrated to Colorado to break horses for broom corn harvesting and then to Arizona where they tried homesteading and their eventual move to California in 1935.

In about 1917 my grandpa was in Nebraska, where he saw an exhibition of tractors and harvesters that changed his way of farming forever. He fell in love with machinery. Within 4 years he and his brother had several harvesters that they had bought, built and cobbled together and were renting them along with their crews to other wheat farmers at harvest time. Most of their machines were still horse drawn, but they did get 2 motorized tractors.

One of the things that impressed me most about my grandparents experience was that within a very short time they had to adjust to extreme changes in lifestyle, from an agrarian system that had more in common with medieval times than with modern times, to a completely mechanized and fast moving urban life. That they managed to do that while keeping a large family intact and retaining their faith and hope seems incredible to me. Not only did they adjust, but they thrived and raised five healthy children and had a long happy life together.

I wonder if the world will ever see a generation to equal theirs in integrity, tenacity and inventiveness again, but I sincerely hope that their lives will be an inspiration to the next generations that anything is possible.

I have enjoyed your website and will use the information there as reference material for my book. I know that you probably have copyrights and I will be careful not to infringe upon them.

  • Is it alright if I include your website in my bibliography as a reference?
  • Is it possible to buy a written version of the material on your website?

Thank you, Jeanie

Apr 1, 2022 | Community Shout Out

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