By Grant Terwilliger
When we think of tourism, we usually think of big cities, landmarks and cultural centers, but tourism can also be right outside your door, in the surrounding farmland.
Agrotourism is described as tourism that connects agriculture and travel, allowing visitors from all over the world to dig into the farming culture. Agrotourism has been an evolving business in the Adirondacks.
Babbie Rural and Farm Learning Museum
The Babbie Farm Learning Museum, a non-profit located in Peru, was opened in 2010 by Leeward Babbie, who had a vision of teaching local communities about farming in the Adirondacks before the 1950s.
The museum looks like a small farm on the side of a country road, but stop and take a deeper look and you will find that the property is bursting at the seams with history.
“The museum my father, Leeward Babbie, founded 15 years ago holds deep personal and community significance for me,” Lee Babbie said.
“It’s a priority to continue expanding and enriching the content we offer to both children and adults in the communities we serve. It’s about honoring the past, educating the present and inspiring future generations through storytelling, experience, and community.”
The museum is an important part of the local agricultural community and collaborates with the Davis Family Farm in Chazy for special events.
Half of the items in the museum collection come from Leeward Babbie. He moved to the farm in 1962 with a chicken coop from his family’s farm. From here he began to collect antiquities that reflected the agricultural history of the area from the mid 1800s to mid 1900s.
The farm museum has grown over the years to include many historic buildings from across the Adirondack region. Walking through the property feels like walking through a small colonial town with a local blacksmith, general store and school. The farm has two donkeys, Jigger and Sally, and two 27-year-old Haflinger horses, Willie and Chillie.
Kids who visit the farm, sometimes on school tours, can use a corn sheller to get corn kernels that they then feed to the animals on the farm. Kids can also take stagecoach rides and integrate themselves into all of the parts of farm life in the 1800s in an interactive and fun environment.
“I have volunteered here since 2011. I taught for 32 years,” Volunteer Carol Rock said. “My mother lived this; she was born in 1932; this was her life. So it was really Leeward’s dream to keep that alive. You know what living was like.”
The museum, which holds tours from May through mid-October, is always looking for volunteers to help run interactive activities and farm experiences. Special events are also held year-round, from classes and workshops to craft fairs and theme days, such as Plow Days at the beginning of the season.
Almanzo Wilder Homestead
The Almanzo Wilder Homestead is a historical hotspot located in Burke, a small farming community near Malone. The site is the location of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book, “Farmer Boy,” about Almanzo Wilder and his family’s experiences on the homestead during the 1860s.
Laura Ingalls Wilder is the creator of the famous book series “Little House on the Prairie.”
The Wilder Homestead has events throughout the year such as, their popular Harvest Festival and Civil War Reenactment in the fall and their Fun On the Farm event in the summer. One of the ways that the Wilder Homestead gives back to the community is through hosting local elementary school tours.
The farmhouse on the property has its original foundation and original structure. The foundations of the old barns were found by archeologists from SUNY Potsdam in 1989. The homestead decided to rebuild the barns in 1995 and they finished them in 2001. They were able to reconstruct the barns from drawings that Almanzo had created for Laura.
Donna Johnson, treasurer and tour guide of the Wilder Association, has a deeper personal connection with the farm.
“I just feel like I’m a part of all of this too,” Johnson said.
“Being a part of this farm and being a tour guide to people has made me realize how important my childhood was. I lived on a farm and I did so many of the things that Almanzo did. As an adult, I now realize what a good life it was living on the farm. Working in the barn or in the gardens or even up in the woods with my father gave me the work ethic that I have today.”
Over the years the Wilder Homestead has received donations of old farm tools and historical pieces from 1860 to 1890 that allow visitors to be able to better visualize life in Almanzo’s time.
Walking through the Homestead with barns built traditionally without nails and a one room schoolhouse with a working bell provides a very unique and time travel worthy experience.
“Seeing Almanzo’s life up close, makes me realize that all of this that I did as a child has made me into the person that I am today and I can share it with others with a voice of experience. I am very thankful that I have the opportunity to be here on this farm, doing what I do,” Johnson said.
From the middle of May to the middle of June on a regular basis elementary schools come to the homestead for tours. The Homestead is open from early May to the end of September with tours by appointment and at select times indicated on their website.
