Experience Pioneer Life at This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City, Utah

I’m pleased to partner with US Family Guide and This Is The Place Heritage Park to bring you this post.

Last week we took the boys up to Salt Lake City to visit This Is The Place Heritage Park. Of all the places in the Salt Lake City and Utah Valley areas to visit, This Is The Place Heritage Park is one of my boys’ favorites! We had only intended to stay a few hours, but the boys had so much fun we ended up staying all day!

Combine the all the history lessons with the fun at This Is The Place Heritage Park, and you’ve got yourself a pretty awesome day! We started out by visiting some of the old homes. Most of the buildings are the original buildings that have been carefully relocated to This Is The Place Heritage Park.

Many of the houses and shops have crafts and activities for the kids (and parents) to participate in. I brushed up on my stilts skills while we put the boys to work with some spring plowing!

The Husband wasn’t quick enough to snap a picture of my awesome stilts skills, but I managed to catch The Husband giving our oldest a quick lesson.

Baby Animal Season has officially started at This Is The Place Heritage Park!

Next we headed over to check out all the cute animals! Baby Animal Season at This Is The Place Heritage Park runs from March 23- May 27th. The baby animal caretakers are there to talk about these adorable little animals as well as answer any questions visitors might have. Our favorites of the baby animals were probably the adorable, fluffy chicks.

While The Husband waited in line for the pony ride (with only 4 or so riders at a time, the line can take a while to get through) the boys and I headed over to the blacksmith shop to watch the blacksmiths work their metal magic.

Later in the afternoon stopped off at the Huntsman Hotel for lunch. The food isn’t anything amazing, but it will get you fed.

One food stop you do not want to miss is Brigham’s Donuts. Made fresh and hot right when you order, these donuts are melt-in-your-mouth good!

After checking out the village, we hopped on the train for a ride up to a replica of the Ship Brooklyn. The Ship Brooklyn took pioneers by ship from Brooklyn to San Francisco in 1846. After playing around on the ship a bit, the kids panned for gold (pyrite). They actually made out pretty well and earned enough to get them a few night’s lodging and meals. 🙂

The kids can take the pyrite they find and “cash” it in at the bank. The bank will write them a certificate for what their amount of gold would have been worth back in gold rush times.

There are so many more places we went, activities we did, and things we learned about. But I’ll just conclude with the one stop the kids made sure we didn’t leave without visiting.

The schoolhouse! My kids are so fascinated by how pioneer children went to school. My 4 year old was particularly curious about the method of punishment–the paddle or “the board of education”–used for naughty school children.