 Like
many veteran farmers, Dan Hess welcomes visitors to his family farm and
often takes them on a personal tour of his spread.
He'll show off his aging implements and tractors and antique wagons,
and he'll take them into the early century house in which he was born
67 years ago, decorated with the furnishings of his grandparents and
kept up much the way it was in 1927.
"That was our bathroom," he says with a chuckle, pointing to a brass
chamber pot. "One good thing about it, the pipes never froze up in the
winter."
Hess' family homestead has gracefully accepted the changes of time
without losing the character of its past. The farm's old barn stands as
proudly as its new metal outbuildings, and its successive generations
of tractors and tools are all being preserved.
With his wife, Mary, Dan Hess opened a museum on his farm in 1982. The
"Hess Heritage Museum," as they call it, has become recognized as one
of the most complete historical farms in the U.S.. Over the 4th of July
weekend last year, the Hess' hosted over 900 visitors. In the spring
and fall each year they give tours to more than 2,000 schoolchildren.
Spread across six acres and occupying five outbuildings and the
original family home, the Hess museum includes a 19th century Carriage
House, an Implement Barn and Blacksmith Shop, a replica one-room
schoolhouse, a wildlife diorama, a pioneer aviation exhibit, and a
summer kitchen.
Drawn from three generations of work and family life on a southeast
Idaho farm, the museum preserves the farming legacy of a swiftly
vanishing era in American history.
"I did most of my farming with those two tractors," Hess says, pointing
to a pair of 1950s era Massey-Fegusons. "Boy, how things change. Now
we've got satellites, television..... It's amazing."
Hess' grandparents built a two-room log cabin on the property in 1890.
Like his father before him, Dan was born, raised and did most of his
farming on this same piece of ground. In every piece of machinery, from
a 1920 potato planter to a 1930 two-way tumble-bug plow, there's a
story to be told.
A school sleigh in the Carriage House brings back memories. "I remember
bringing a rope and skis and skiing along behind on the way to school,"
Hess says.
Even an old manure spreader prompts a comment. "The only thing John
Deere wouldn't stand behind," he says, patting its side.
The Hess Heritage Museum is a mom-and-pop operation. A member of the
Idaho Association of Museums and the National Association of Living
Historical Farms and Museums, it remains privately owned and
curated by the family that made its history.
The Hess Heritage Museum is located one mile south of Ashton, Idaho,
and a quarter mile east of State Highway 20. Call ahead to arrange a
visit. |
by MichaelHofferber@outriderbooks.com
Copyright © 1994. All rights reserved.
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Hess
Heritage Museum
P.O.
Box 734
Ashton, ID 83420
(208)
652-7353
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