Day Trippin’ :: The Parker Homestead Festival, Harrisburg AR

Want to take a fun day trip? Got some history nerds in your family? Looking for another field trip option besides the usual pumpkin patch and petting zoo? Or just want to just go somewhere so the kids won’t tear the house up all weekend long?

Step back in time and check out the Parker Homestead Festival!

After having to cancel last year, they are bringing it back the 2nd and 3rd weekend of October this year :: October 9/10 and October 16/17.

Parker Homestead has been owned and operated by four generations of Parkers and was created to resemble a town in the 1800s. Every October, they have a Festival to mark the end of the sorghum harvest season. People travel from many miles away to this tiny town about an hour outside of Memphis so they can experience and appreciate history. As soon as you step out of your car, it’s like you are transported back to homesteading times, where the work was hard but life was simpler.

Visit the little museum of antiques, take an up close look at all the vintage tractors, and learn exactly how a sorghum mill operates. Local vendors offer a variety of food so you can fill your belly with fried bologna sandwiches and homemade pork rinds while you watch a live broom making presentation. There are also handmade brooms available for purchase.

After you have toured the historic buildings on the grounds, grab some freshly popped kettle corn and check out the black smithing demonstration or a war re-enactment. The kids will also enjoy playing with the enormous chess set, shooting kernels of corn with a slingshot, and learning to play marble games.

You can end your adventure with an exciting and complimentary tractor ride and make sure to take a trip to the old-timey gift shop. They sell toys and games from that time period so that your kids can continue the fun at home.

We all had a blast two years ago, even the reluctant preteen, and everyone is excited to go back this year. There aren’t many activities that all generations of your family will enjoy, but this is definitely one of them.