• Prairie Day at George Washington Carver National Monument

Prairie Day Schedule of Activities
 
Diamond, MO – Prairie Day is coming up Saturday, September 8th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the park staff is pleased to announce the schedule of music and activities. Held in conjunction with the City of Diamond’s Gem City Days, Prairie Day is FREE of charge. Be sure to stop by and help celebrate the 75^th anniversary of George Washington Carver National Monument! It was 1943 when the U.S. Congress set aside the land and established the first unit of the National Park Service honoring the African American experience. 
 
Talented musicians will provide entertainment throughout the day. Ripplin Creek is first up at 10 a.m., followed by Lem Sheppard at 11 a.m. with music from Carver’s lifetime, including the Harlem Renaissance. Fiddle and Banjo perform at noon. Blackberry Winter Band takes the stage at 1 p.m. with their unique blend of Ozark folk tunes. Lem Sheppard performs again at 2:40 p.m. There is more music throughout the day at the Carver House including Fiddle and Banjo at 10 a.m., Corbin and McAlister Old Time Music at 11 a.m., and Ripplin Creek at noon. Holmes Brigade Shirkers will entertain from 1-3 p.m.
 
Renowned storyteller and KSMU performer, Marideth Sisco, takes the stage inside the visitor center at 11 a.m., with memories of the unique traditions of life in the Ozark hills. Accessible wagon rides will take visitors across the tallgrass prairie as storytellers share history of Carver’s time on the land.
 
Across the front lawn, interactive exhibits from natural and cultural conservation groups will fascinate visitors of all ages. Children and teens may earn a special Junior Ranger badge. There will be a natural history show and tell, an exhibit of edible and medicinal plants, plus information about GROW NATIVE, the Sherwood/Rader Farm, slave motherhood in Missouri, and much more. New this year is the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation, and the Jolly Mill Park Foundation. Food concessions will be provided by the Diamond Lions Club.
 
  Living history demonstrations centered around the 1881 Carver House include candle dipping, lye soap and laundry, blacksmithing, and gardening. New this year
  is a chuck wagon, a 19th century broom making machine, and beekeepers sharing native seeds to support pollinators.
 
This “Find Your Park” event invites the public to see that a national park can be more than a place -- it can be a feeling, a state of mind, or a sense of American pride. Beyond vast landscapes, the campaign highlights historical, urban, and cultural parks, as well as the National Park Service programs that protect, preserve and share nature, culture, and history in communities nationwide.
 
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. Please call the park at 417-325- 4151 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. for further information. Visit our website at www.nps.gov/gwca and Facebook page. The park is located two miles west of Diamond, Missouri, on Highway V, then south ¼ mile on Carver Road. #GWCarver75th         #FindYourPark   #EncuentraTuParque          #VolunteersInParks                #GemCityDays