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WASHINGTON COUNTY RURAL HERITAGE MUSEUM
  • Events
    • Spring Re-opening Day Celebration
    • Rural History Day - Biggs Ford
    • Everything on Wheels Transportation Show and Car Cruise In
    • Spud Fest, Traditional Potato Harvest Celebration
    • Event Photos
  • Museum Hours & Admission
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  • 19th-Century Historic Village
  • Early Roads Transportation Museum
  • Farm and Home Life Museums
    • Early Road Building
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  • Plan Your Visit
    • Activities
      • Hands on History
      • Potato Planting for Kids
  • Contact Us
  • New Plans for the Museum
  • Annual Newsletter
  • Admission to the Museum
  • Events
    • Spring Re-opening Day Celebration
    • Rural History Day - Biggs Ford
    • Everything on Wheels Transportation Show and Car Cruise In
    • Spud Fest, Traditional Potato Harvest Celebration
    • Event Photos
  • Museum Hours & Admission
    • Board of Directors
  • 19th-Century Historic Village
  • Early Roads Transportation Museum
  • Farm and Home Life Museums
    • Early Road Building
  • Become a Member
    • Volunteer
  • Plan Your Visit
    • Activities
      • Hands on History
      • Potato Planting for Kids
  • Contact Us
  • New Plans for the Museum
  • Annual Newsletter
  • Admission to the Museum

BACK IN TIME SCAVENGER HUNTS

 Saturday and Sunday, Apri 6 - December 7, 2024
1:00pm - 4:00pm
​
 Have tons of fun searching for and discovering curated objects from the 19th century that were part of our rural heritage lifestyle. A hand-out is given to each participant containing over 40 images that are displayed in our 3 indoor museums and outdoor historic rural village. Children can try their hand a using an early corn grinder made in Frederick Maryland to experience how kernels of corn were removed from the cob for human food such as pop corn, corn flour and animal feed.  The left over cob was often used to make corn cob dolls or sliced into checkers for the game of Checkers and painted either red or black.  All children must be accompanied by an adult. 
Sad Iron
Wind Mill
Checkerboard

BACK IN TIME CORN SHELLING

By Appointment Only - Saturday and Sunday from April 1 - December 3, 2024
Email info.ruralheritagemuseum.org 

The Black Hawk Cast Iron Corn Sheller Circa 1900 was used to remove corn kernels from the cob. It was invented and patented by  Asahel Huntington Patch in 1886. Corn shellers were manufactured in iron foundrys because they were made from a iron cast. Foundrys once made civil war munitions, coffee grinders, cast iron stoves, fireplace tools and manhole covers.  This corn sheller  was named after Black Hawk, Chief of the Sauk Tribe in Illinois.
Further research on the Black Hawk name tells us that a war ensued briefly in 1832 between Chief Black Hawk and his tribe against the United States as Black Hawk sought to reclaim land that the tribal spokesman had surrended to the U.S. in 1804  (known as the Treaty of St. Louis). A quiet piece of trivia is that Abaham Lincoln served as a volunteer in the Illinois militia April 21, 1832 - July 10, 1832 during the Black Hawk war but never saw combat.
All images copyrighted to the Friends of the Rural Heritage Museum of Washington County Maryland  2025