George Washington Carver National Monument Prairie Day Sept. 9

George Washington Carver National Monument staff and volunteers invite the public to Prairie Day, set for Saturday, September 9^th from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. This family-friendly event is free of charge! Music under the big tent is always enjoyable and talented musicians will entertain.

Music Schedule 

10:00 a.m.  Pickers Post plays old time music, plus one of George Washington Carver’s favorite gospel songs.

11:00 a.m.  The Creek Rocks: Cindy Woolf & Mark Bilyeu bring amazing vocals and folklore of the Ozark mountains.

12:00 p.m.  Snorty Horse: Renowned Ozark musicians Mike & Tenley Fraser, perform with Dave Para and Erika Gerety to share haunting ballads of the Ozarks and rip-roaring fiddle tunes.

2:00 p.m.  The Creek Rocks: Cindy and Mark return for a second set of their heart-piercing lyrics and folk songs.

Carver House Music Schedule 

10:30 a.m.  Buffalo Creek Incident consists of four friends and musicians who will share traditional tunes.

12:00 p.m.  Pickers Post plays old time music, plus one of George Washington Carver’s favorite gospel songs.

1:00 p.m.  Holmes Brigade Shirkers will entertain with Civil War encampment songs and history or the era.

Storytelling 

1:00 p.m.  Renowned songwriter and Ozark storyteller, Marideth Sisco and gospel singer Mary Alexander will share “An American Front Porch: Stories and Songs from the Missouri Ozarks”. Learn more about how enslaved West Africans introduced the front porch to pioneer America.

Across the front lawn, demonstrations include basket making, treadle sewing machine, apple cider press, a quilting bee, and woodcarving.

Historians share research and exhibits on motherhood as an enslaved woman, plus the role of African American troops in the Civil War. Natural resource exhibits are interactive and include prairie ecology, pollinators, entomology, beekeeping, birds, and mammals. Kids can earn a Junior Ranger badge, play old-fashioned toys and games, and visit the therapy horses.

At the 1881 Carver House, talented exhibitors demonstrate historic skills such as spinning, weaving, Dutch oven cooking, lye soap making, food preservation, and butter making. Visitors can make butter, dip a candle, and do laundry on a washboard, learning how George Washington Carver earned his way through school.

Inside the visitor center, the park film, Struggle and Triumph – The Legacy of George Washington Carver shows every 45 minutes. Guided tours begin at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Prairie Day is co-sponsored by the Carver Birthplace Association. Diamond Lions Club will provide food concessions.

Special thanks to nearly 100 Volunteers In Parks who make this event possible.

Administered by the National Park Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior, George Washington Carver National Monument preserves the birthplace and childhood home of George Washington Carver – scientist, educator, and humanitarian. The park is located two miles west of Diamond, Missouri

on Highway V, then ¼ mile south on Carver Road. For more information, please call the park at 417-325-4151 between 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., visit the park website at www.nps.gov/gwca, or visit the park Facebook page.