Experience the Pioneer Lifestyle at Knapp Heritage Park’s 20th Anniversary Celebration

By Susan Schrock, Office of Communications

Posted on September 11, 2024, September 11, 2024

Come take a stroll through history and learn about life as a pioneer at Knapp Heritage Park’s 20th anniversary celebration in Downtown Arlington.

The Arlington Historical Society’s event, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. Free parking is available around Knapp Heritage Park, located at 201 W. Front St. near the George W. Hawkes Downtown Library.

 Arlington Historical Society President Nancy Tice said the event will be a great family friendly opportunity to celebrate an important part of Arlington's rich history.

 Guides dressed in pioneer fashions will provide tours of the park’s two historic cabins and schoolhouse, Tice said. The event will feature concessions for sale, entertainment, vendors, artisans and demonstrations that include butter churning, wood turning and corn husk doll making.

 Proceeds and donations will help fund the upkeep of the park, which is managed by the Arlington Historical Society and Fielder Museum.

 The park site was donated by the grandchildren of James and Mildred Knapp. James Knapp, a prominent attorney and land developer. was instrumental in the development of many of the highways serving Arlington today such as State Highway 360. Knapp Heritage Park, dedicated in 2004, is home to Knapp’s office, the Jopling-Melear and Watson cabins that date to the mid-1800s, and a 1910 one room schoolhouse. The park also features the Bardin blacksmith barn, a water tower that once belonged to George Finger, who was Arlington’s first mayor, and the original trough bowl for Arlington’s once-famous mineral well. Click here to learn more about Knapp Heritage Park.

 For more information about the event or park tours, call the Arlington Historical Society at 817-460-4001 or by email at [email protected].