In this program visitors will get a chance to play the game of chunky, a sport enjoyed by the people of Americas’ first cities 1,000 years ago. Chunky is a game that involves rolling discs across the ground and throwing spears as close to the disc's resting point as possible. It's a great game to play out under the summer skies and on the summer grasses!

Learn about the mammal species of our prairie by examining tanned hides, skulls, and other bones.Visitors will have the opportunity to work up close and personal with nature by making a plaster cast of an animal track.One of our interpreters will provide a brief lecture on local prairie species and assist in making track casts.

Learn how the prehistoric peoples of the Upper Midwest adapted and survived through the millennia. As environmental and social conditions would change, so did their tools of survival. We don’t always know the why exactly new technology would emerge, but the patterns of change are intriguing. You might think one of the most important tools to arise in the ice age would be big hunting weapons for hunting big game, but an even more important tool were bone needles for…

Join author Cathy Coats as she discusses her new book To Banish Forever: A Secret Society, the Ho-Chunk, and Ethnic Cleansing in Minnesota at Jeffers Petroglyphs. Coats's groundbreaking research uncovers a forgotten yet important episode of state history following the US–Dakota War, when a group of white men in Mankato, Minnesota, formed a secret society, pledging to expel the Ho-Chunk people from the nearby Blue Earth reservation with the goal of claiming for themselves some of the richest farmland in…

Learn how early hunters created arrowheads for their spears or arrows by observing a flintknapper demonstrate the craft. Xoloti Bembe Ek (Alex Ek) will offer a close up look at the process of creating stone projectile points and discuss their use. After the demonstration, try your own hand at knapping!

Join photographer Travis Novitsky as he presents Spirits Dancing: The Night Sky, Indigenous Knowledge, & Living Connections to the Cosmos, recently published by MNHS Press. This beautiful volume features years worth of Novitsky's work recording the aurora borealis, Milky Way, and dark sky phenomena in northern and northeastern Minnesota. The photographs are accompanied by insightful and informative text by astrophysicist Annette S. Lee. Scholars Nancy C. Maryboy, PhD and David H. Begay, PhD, write, "This book is an authentic representation…

Join local nature conservationist Davis Harder on a plant identification walk. Davis Harder works in the conservation field and is passionate about the ecology of southwestern Minnesota. Growing up in a part of the state where 90% of the landscape is dominated by row crop agriculture, he recognizes the importance of better understanding the remaining intact natural areas such as those found on Red Rock Ridge. In his free time, Davis likes to botanize, birdwatch, and look for invasive plants.…

Take an expert-led tour of the petroglyphs (rock carvings) that are thought to be some of the oldest in the Midwest. You will get the rare chance to go beyond the ropes and view carvings under their most favorable viewing conditions: up close and in the morning sun. 10,000 years ago glaciers had retreated from Southwest Minnesota, opening up never-before seen landscape. This tour will be accompanied by a discussion of the archaeology of the earliest people of the Midwest…