Cayuga Museum
There’s a hidden gem in the Finger Lakes region: it’s an unassuming agricultural museum at the end of Owasco Lake that you could potentially drive past without even realizing it. But that would definitely be a mistake, as it’s chock full of artifacts, and offers information about rural life that is still relevant today.
The History
Timothy Quill, Director of the Ward W. O’Hara Agricultural and Country Living Museum in Auburn, explains that Ward O’ Hara was a man who wore many hats in Cayuga County over the years. He was a local crop and dairy farmer, a farm implement dealer, a writer with a weekly newspaper column and author of several books. Not only that, but Ward loved to collect farming equipment and household items from days gone by. In fact, he would frequently offer to trade farmers the new equipment he was selling for some of their old-fashioned models that had caught his eye. Eventually Ward’s collection outgrew his home in Aurelius and, in the 1970s, he turned to bartering once again, asking the Cayuga County Legislature if he could repurpose the old 4-H pavilion in Emerson Park into an agricultural museum so he could share his history-laden items with the general public. Today, part of the Museum is still located in the original structure but, as its collections have continued to grow, it has needed to expand and in forty years there have been six new additions. The most recent addition is the Dr. Joseph F. Karpinski Sr. Educational Center which has greatly increased the amount of room available to student and community groups.
Agricultural History is Important!
“The number one source of income in Cayuga County is still agriculture,” Tim notes. He grew up on a dairy farm himself with a herd of thirty to forty cows. “There’s not as many small farms now; they are larger these days,” he observes. “It’s very interesting to compare how farming was back then with how it is now.”
Some people prefer to get their information about life in the country in writing and the Museum has fantastic resources just for them. All the articles from Ward O’ Hara’s newspaper column, “The Storyteller,” published in the Auburn Citizen for years, are stored in binders in the museum. Visitors can quickly lose themselves in Ward’s stories and books about farming, country households in the early 1900s, and rural issues. The museum is also home to a research library where people of all ages are welcome to peruse the historic materials. If the present-day farming life is more your family’s style, Tim notes that Ward’s son, Ted O’Hara, and grandson, Kelly O’Hara, still own his original farm, Oakwood Dairy, which now boasts a herd of 2,000 heifers and offers farm tours.
Volunteers are crucial to the success of any organization. According to Tim, the Museum has a group of dedicated and knowledgeable ones. “Many of our volunteers are retired schoolteachers or farmers so they have stories about, actually using, a lot of the items we have in the museum,” he says. He adds that taking time to talk to the volunteers offers a wonderful way for kids, teens, and adults to interact with the older generation while hearing firsthand stories about life on the farm.
What You’ll See There
Ward may have passed away in 1997 but his love of collecting and sharing lives on. One donation housed in the Museum that’s worth noting is a special collection of John Deere model tractors donated by Roger Monrow, a local barber who had amassed a significant number of them over the years. Many handmade wooden replicas of farm equipment, crafted by Sennett resident and farmer Norm Riley, are on display as well. Other items come from all over the area. “We still get a lot of donations from the general public,” Tim explains. “If we can incorporate them into our collection, we do. If not, we refer them to other museums.”
Visitors are allowed to touch almost everything in the museum. For the youngest children, there is an exhibit with two 4×4 foot elevated areas filled with wood pellets and farm equipment that Tim claims can keep youngsters occupied for hours. This area also includes three sets of toy trains to assemble and take apart and a number of farm animal puzzles. For older kids, there’s a “Kids Theatre” consisting of four movies that depict modern farming equipment and contemporary farms. Additionally, there are eight monitors, each of which highlights one of the different parts of the museum, including the blacksmithing and woodworking shops, the one-room schoolhouse, and the general store. Just push a button and someone like the blacksmith will give a short presentation about what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. While exploring this “path to the past” families will have the opportunity to see all sorts of farm and home implements that revolutionized the American way of life in exhibits such as the “Creamery,” “Veterinarian’s Office,” “One Room Schoolhouse,” and “Old Home Kitchen,” “Colonial Parlor,” and “Bedroom.” On the grounds of the museum you’ll find an outbuilding that houses some of the larger pieces of farming equipment.
According to Tim, there are a few things in the museum that families might not see elsewhere, like the Outhouse Exhibit, which is always intriguing to kids! And, as with the seasonal farming calendar, there are two rooms: a spring/summer display that includes cultivators, plows, and drills, and a fall/winter room with hay making machines, logging equipment, and devices for ice harvesting. The 1800s dollhouse display is popular, as is the working steam engine and maple sugar house. Plus, there are a few “modern” items from the 1900s, which children today may not be familiar with like typewriters and rotary phones. “There’s something for everyone in our museum!” Tim says enthusiastically.
Families should allow at least two hours to browse through the museum. Tim recommends that they conclude their visit with a trip to the gift shop. “We have lots of unique items in there,” he says. “There are homemade jams and jellies, some of Norm Riley’s toys, puzzles, and regional cookbooks.”
If You Go
Ward W. O’Hara Agricultural and Country Living Museum
WHERE: 6880 Rt. 38A (East Lake Road), Auburn, NY 13021
FOR MORE INFO: (315) 252-7644
www.cayugacounty.us/LivingWorking/ParksandTrails/AgMuseum.aspx
COST: Free Parking and Admission (donations accepted)
Sue Henninger is a contributing writer to Rochester & Genesee Valley Parent Magazine. For more information about Sue, check her author’s page
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