There are several historical re-creation sites in Salt Lake and along the Wasatch Front. These make a fun trip if you are bringing kids or a nice side excursion to drink in.
A whole pioneer village has been recreated at
This is the Place Heritage Park on the east bench in Salt Lake. My kids and I have enjoyed volunteering up there for a couple of summers and have learned lots of fun little historical facts and gotten to know some great people. We know how to play graces and are pretty good at hoop trundling, carding wool and stilts. The 450-acre park has a new Native American village and a mercantile with old-fashioned candy. Their spring program has started and hours are 9am-5pm Monday - Saturday, 11am-4pm Sunday with admissions being Adults $7.00, Children (3-11) $5.00, and Seniors (55+) $5.00.
Wheeler Historic Farm is the restored turn-of-the-century dairy farm of Henry J. Wheeler. Right in the middle of the Salt Lake City metropolis is a haven of farm chores, tractor-drawn hay rides, and beautiful wildlife and wetlands. Open from dawn to dusk, it is at 6351 South 900 East in Salt Lake City. You can enjoy the farm machinery exhibit, milk a cow, feed the ducks, or have a picnic in this picturesque setting.
I think one of the most fascinating historic sites on the Wasatch Front is the
Benson Grist Mill west of Salt Lake in Stansbury Park. You can tour the 150 year old structure and view close up the amazing construction methods and the complicated milling equipment used when the area was settled. Early mills were a vital part of farming communities and necessary for the making of bread--a staple of the frontier diet. Several other small cabins and displays surround the site as well. The Mill opens to the public on May 1st and will be open throughout the summer on Mondays - Saturdays 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
The
Utah Heritage Foundation sponsors guided historic tours around the many fascinating neighborhoods and mansions of downtown Salt Lake. Tours can be scheduled for small groups two weeks in advance and cost $3 per person. They also offer several
self-guided tours with downloadable audio for CD or mp3 players. I highly recommend the Historic South Temple Street tour. South Temple has always been Salt Lake's most prestigious address and many early mansions line the street with fascinating histories. The walking tour takes about 2.5 hours.
The
Beehive House is Brigham Young's residence and is open for tours from Monday through Saturday 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. Free guided tours begin every 10 minutes. Brigham Young was the LDS leader who led the Mormons to the Salt Lake Valley and was the first territorial governor until 1858. The Beehive House is located on 67 East South Temple, just east of Temple Square.
And finally, a little further away is the
Heber Valley Railroad. It is a historic steam railway which still travels through the Heber valley and down Provo canyon. The trains run Fridays and Saturdays in the spring and schedules can be found on the
website. You can enjoy a slice of the "Golden Years" of US railroading and the beautiful scenery all at the same time. The ride starts at 450 South 600 West - Heber City, Utah 84032 about a 1 hour drive East of Salt Lake.
Barry J. Ewell is the founder of MyGenShare.com. He is a writer and researcher with extensive genealogical experience in internet and field research, digital and software resources and mentoring genealogists. Research interests include Eastern U.S., United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Germany, and Russia. 
Bobbi King lectures and writes about the homestead records, the public lands survey system, and western settlement. Her homestead lectures introduce the researcher to the detailed accounts of homesteaders' lives contained within the land entry files held at the National Archives, contents of which contain testimonies, affidavits, and supporting letters documenting the settlers' claims to free grants of land. Her public lands survey lectures offer the student the logic and understanding of how sections, ranges and townships relate to the deeds discovered within the courthouses of the public land states.
Dan Lynch is a technology marketing consultant and professional genealogist based in Connecticut. With more than 25 years in technology marketing and 30 years as a genealogist, Dan is well versed in a broad variety of genealogy topics with a particular strength in the application of technology for the pursuit of family history. Dan served as vice president of Ancestry.com from 1998 – 2001 and has also served as a consultant for The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation (NYC), FindMyPast (London) and other organizations in the genealogy sector.
GEORGE R. RYSKAMP, J.D., A.G., Associate Professor of History at Brigham Young University just finished a five year term as Director of the Center for Family History and Genealogy at BYU. With over 35 years of experience working in the archives of Spain and Mexico, he is the author of numerous books and articles on Hispanic research and a regular lecturer at national and international conferences. As an Accredited Genealogist, he specializes in Spanish language research and United States probate and legal systems. He and his wife Peggy recently published Finding Your Mexican Roots (Provo, Utah: Ancestry, 2007.).He has each year for twelve years taken groupsof students to Spain, France and/or Italy to learn first hand how to research in archives.
David McDonald, CG, first got "the bug" as an eighth-grader in Mr. Brady's social studies class at James Fenimore Cooper Junior High School, Buffalo Grove, Illinois. In the fall of 1977, assigned with the task of compiling a "family tree," Dave began asking questions of his grandmother and her sisters about their experiences in Oklahoma Territory in the first decade of the 1900s, learning that the family left the farm because the well went bad. Later, the family learned the water was polluted--with oil! The family who purchased their father's homestead struck oil on the lousy farmland soon after the family left the area. Later, questions to another grandaunt, his other grandmother's sister, produced two family genealogies published in the late '60s on those relatives. "I was hooked! To be able to learn so many things about my relatives in so short a time made me want to figure out more on the others, too," he noted.
Cherel B. Henderson is director of the East Tennessee Historical Society in Knoxville, TN and a member of the Federation of Genealogical Societies board and co-chair of the 2010 FGS Conference in Knoxville. She is founding director of the ETHS “First Families of Tennessee” and editor of the FFT book as well as the ETHS genealogy magazine Tennessee Ancestors. She has published several books of tombstone and census transcriptions.
A whole pioneer village has been recreated at This is the Place Heritage Park on the east bench in Salt Lake. My kids and I have enjoyed volunteering up there for a couple of summers and have learned lots of fun little historical facts and gotten to know some great people. We know how to play graces and are pretty good at hoop trundling, carding wool and stilts. The 450-acre park has a new Native American village and a mercantile with old-fashioned candy. Their spring program has started and hours are 9am-5pm Monday - Saturday, 11am-4pm Sunday with admissions being Adults $7.00, Children (3-11) $5.00, and Seniors (55+) $5.00.
