Archaeological Open-Air Museum

Somerset Place (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Somerset Place is a representative state historic site offering a comprehensive and realistic view of 19th-century life on a large North Carolina plantation. The plantation was in use for 80 years (1785-1865). By the mid-19th century, the plantation counted over 50 buildings.

With the end of the plantation system, Somerset Place plantation passed into history. The owners eventually sold and left the property.

The present-day historic site includes 31 acres, seven original 19th-century buildings. With the goal of accurately representing the lives and lifestyles of the plantation's entire antebellum community, the Department of Cultural Resources has acquired the reconstructed Overseer's House and reconstructed representative one-room and four-room homes where enslaved families once lived, along with the plantation hospital.

Fort Seminoe (US)

Member of EXARC
No

In 1852, Charles "Seminoe" Lajuenesse established a trading post on the Oregon Trail near Muddy Gap and Devil's Gate in Natrona County. The fort was abandonded in fall 1855.

The Mormons used this post as a place of refuge in 1856 while they were caught in an early blizzard at Horse Creek, located to the east of Independence Rock. This was in November 1856. The fort’s roofs provided shelter for some, and wood from collapsed buildings helped warm many others. But the small trading post was not big enough to support 500 people through a single winter storm. An unknown number of people died in the storm, most of the others reached Salt Lake City by the end of November.

Salem Pioneer Village (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Built in 1930 to mark the tercentennial of Massachusetts, Pioneer Village is America's first living history museum. The village sits on three acres of land and contains various examples of colonial architecture: dugouts, wigwams, thatched roof cottages, and the Governor's Faire House. Culinary and medicinal gardens and a blacksmith shop further interpret early 17th-century colonial life.

Pioneer Village is nestled between the woods and the ocean, a ten minute drive from downtown, in Salem's Forest River Park. The complex featured various types of early colonial dwellings including dugouts, wigwams, and thatched roof cottages. The centrepiece of the village was a recreation of the "fayre house" that had been built for Governor John Endicott after his arrival in 1628. Pioneer Village remained a popular tourist destination well into the 1950's.

Ohio Village (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Ohio Village is a living history museum in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The village provides a first-hand view of life in Ohio during the American Civil War. Presently, focus is on the 1890s.

The 22 buildings that make up the village are a mixture of reproductions and historic structures moved to the site. Used for lots of Ohio Village happenings, the Town Hall is also the centre of entertainment in town! One can act out scripts from shows, step up on the stage and give a speech or check out posters for traveling shows.
At J. Holbrook, Photographer visitors can star in their own 1890s photo shoot, and see how they compare to photos from the time period. Use costumes and props to take photos and see how you look as an 1890s resident.

Fort Clatsop (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Fort Clatsop is a Unit of Lewis & Clark National and State Historical Parks. It was the winter encampment for the Corps of Discovery from December 1805 to March 1806.

The visitor center includes a replica of Fort Clatsop similar to the one built by the explorers, an interpretive center offering an exhibit hall, gift shop and two films. The center features ranger-led programs, costumed rangers in the fort and trailheads for the Fort To Sea Trail and Netul River Trail.
The park is open every day of the year except December 25th. Daily costumed programs and other ranger-led activities are scheduled during the summer months, beginning mid-June and ending Labor Day weekend. Other events are offered throughout the year.

Knife River Indian Villages (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Earthlodge people hunted bison and other game, but were in essence farmers living in villages along the Missouri and its tributaries. The site was a major Native American trade center for hundreds of years prior to becoming an important market place for fur traders after 1750.

With their mastery of agriculture, tribes living in the Upper Missouri River Valley developed a unique earth and wooden home to fit their sedentary lifestyle. The result of centuries of innovation and adaptation, the circular earthlodge of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara people was the perfect home for life on the Northern Plains.

Historic Moravian Bethlehem (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Historic Moravian Bethlehem is located in the heart of the City of Bethlehem. The Moravians located their crafts, trades, and industries along the waterways and their dwellings on the limestone bluff above.

The Moravians in Bethlehem lived in a communal society organized into groups, called choirs, and segregated by age, gender, and marital status. Because of that structure, Moravians built large choir houses, superb examples of German Colonial style architecture in America. In addition to living together, Moravians worked together under the General Economy, a system where everyone works and provides for the good of the community and, in return, receives care from birth to death.

Fort Vancouver (US)

Member of EXARC
No

The London-based Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Vancouver in 1825 to serve as the headquarters of the Company's interior fur trade. The first Fort Vancouver was located on the bluff to the northeast of the fort's current location, where it was relocated in 1829.

The fort served as the core of the HBC's western operations, controlling the fur business from Russian Alaska to Mexican California, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Vancouver was the principal colonial settlement in the Pacific Northwest, and a major centre of industry, trade, and law.
The Village to the west of the fort was Vancouver's first neighbourhood. The employees of the Hudson's Bay Company lived there with their families in simple one or two room cabins. The Village was incredibly diverse, a community of people whose homelands spanned half the globe.

Fort Union Trading Post (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Between 1828 and 1867, Fort Union was the most important fur trade post on the Upper Missouri River. Here, the Assiniboine and six other Northern Plains Indian Tribes exchanged buffalo robes and smaller furs for goods from around the world, including cloth, guns, blankets, and beads.

By the 1920s, America’s longest-lived trade post, Fort Union, was little more than barely visible bumps and depressions. Its legacy lived on in former traders’ memories and journals. The nearby town of Mondak thrived. To capitalize on and promote tourism, North Dakota residents desired to reconstruct the fort. Unfortunately, the Great Depression and the Second World War put a halt to reconstruction plans.

Fort Roberdeau Historic Site (US)

Member of EXARC
No

Fort Roberdeau is a Blair County Park. The park grounds consist of over 200 acres of land in the scenic setting of Sinking Valley. The grounds are open to the public year round 8am until sunset. Although the fort is only open to tours part of the year, there are other activities available at the site year round. Picnic tables, pathways, geocaching, a lot of space to walk and wander and cross country skiing in the winter.

The fort, also known as The Lead Mine Fort, is a reconstruction of the original fort that stood here in the 18th Century. The original fort was built in 1778, during the American Revolution to help supply the Continental forces with lead for ammunition. The original fort was built of horizontal logs with a bastion at each corner. It was a cabin fort, with 48 cabins in the initial structure, which helped reinforce the walls. General Daniel Roberdeau organized and paid for the construction.