Prairie Land Heritage Museum - South Jacksonville, Illinois

Jacksonville hosts the home of this museum dedicated to antique tractors and the way of life early farmers led, from the happy times to the hard work. They also host a show annually. The show has old time crafters, horse pulling, and entertainment along with the annual displays, demonstrations, tractor pulls, and other fun activities. 

The museum was started in 1969 by a group of people that wanted to maintain a tie to the history of farming. It now has a number of buildings from the era for you to enjoy.

There is a real steam locomotive driven train with passenger cars, depot, water tower and track. Friday of the Steam Show is set aside as an educational day for school children. Besides many demonstrations and crafts available to observed, one of the biggest attractions is the free train ride. Young and old alike enjoy this ride. During the remaining days of the show 50 cents will buy a ticket to ride train.

The big brown barn at Prairie Land Heritage Museum is made of hollow terra cotta tiles. Every year at the Prairie Land Steam Show the inside center par to of the barn is used to display antique crafts being demonstrated such as chair caning, rug weaving and broom making just to name a few. On the east end of the barn is where the kitchen/dining hall is located. This is where those special ham and beans are cooked with steam and served. The west side of the barn was renovated to house the hamburger stand. In the center courtyard of the barn you can eat a meal and watch some craft demonstrations.

The big red barn was built in the 30’s and during the days of the Steam Show, this barn is utilized to house the plow and show horses. During the rest of the year, the barn is used as a storage shed.

Liberty Church, a former log building which burned and was rebuilt, was used for services for the Methodists for 50 years but after the use was discontinued the church was moved to the museum grounds for everyone to enjoy.

The General Store is a new building on the grounds. An original store was being moved when it fell apart so a new one was constructed. There are many unique items on display such as an old store icebox and a large desk from the Lewis Museum. It is as if you walked into a store 100 years ago.

The Farm and Home Museum was constructed to show of the items that were used by a family living in that time frame. Churns, wash tubs, cream separators, a wood stove and many other items made the kitchen area look authentic. The parlor area included a stove for warming cold toes and a quilt rack with a quilt in progress for keeping busy on those long winter nights.

There is an area that is a Veternarian office where items used to treat animals are on display.

At the museum you can see various types of farm equipment ranging from horse drawn equipment ranging from horse drawn equipment to a John Deere GP tractor complete with a mounted corn planter. Shelves were built to show some of the smaller pieces of equipment such as walking plows, while some larger pieces are displayed on the floor.

There is also a Model T converted tractor being placed on permanent display along with a Shell gas pump and antique license plates.

The harvest of cane for sorghum, or molasses, is still produced at Prairie Land much as it was 100 years ago. It is sold by pints and quarts on the Museum grounds.

This windmill was purchased from Lewis elevator approximately 21 years ago. In the past, the windmill was the source for pumping water for the livestock as well as other uses.

Location: located on the corner of Lincoln and Michigan Avenues, South Jacksonville, Illinois