Courtesy National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame
Agricultural history
The National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame in Bonner Springs, Kan., offers a broad look at farming and its impact on our country. Executive director Cathi Hahner said the museum goes into detail for visitors about what is behind the agricultural industry.
"I think sometimes just learning about agriculture in general, people are surprised by what it takes,” she said. “I do think urban people don’t always realize the dynamic force agriculture does play in this country.”
Hahner said that visitors can see what goes into caring for a cow and what’s involved in getting a gallon of milk to the dinner table.
The center includes the 38-member Agricultural Hall of Fame; an art gallery; a gift shop; a theater; the National Poultry Museum; the Museum of Farming, dating to the early 1800s; and Farm Town USA, a replica of an early-1900s farming community with a homestead, a one-room schoolhouse, a train station and a barbershop.
The Agricultural Hall of Fame honors a diverse group that includes scientist George Washington Carver and President Abraham Lincoln.
“People don’t realize that under his [Lincoln’s] administration the USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] was created,” Hahner said.
