Education at

The Homesteader Museum

Put local history at your fingertips!  We have a variety of trunks that can help bring the past to life for you and your organization!

The Traveling Trunks Program embodies our commitment to preserving the essence of history for future generations.  Through the power of interactive lesson plans, hands-on artifacts, and captivating learning, we aim to educate and empower, cultivate a living history, and inspire collaborative communities.

Our Traveling Trunks are available to borrow free of charge.  Your only cost is the price of shipping if a kit needs to go through the mail.  If you would like to borrow one of our Traveling Trunks, please get in contact!  

Request a Trunk

The Homesteading Traveling Trunk illustrates the experiences of the settlers who came to the Bighorn Basin to live on, irrigate, and cultivate the land that the Shoshone Reclamation Project opened for homesteading!

The Homesteading kit includes:

  • Photographs showing early life in the homesteading divisions
  • Antique cookware and toys
  • Historical clothing to handle and try on
  • Newspaper clippings from the early days of settlement in the Bighorn Basin
  • Activity sheets
  • Sample lesson plans for 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 12th grade

The Farming Traveling Trunk details the development of farming practices and technology in the Bighorn Basin, the “Garden Spot of Wyoming,” from the first homesteaders up to the present day!

The Farming kit includes:

  • Photographs showing historical farming
  • Antique advertisements for farming equipment
  • Newspaper clippings about farming in the Bighorn Basin
  • Historical clothing to handle and try on
  • Seeds from common crops grown in the Bighorn Basin
  • Activity sheets
  • Sample lesson plans for 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 12th grade

The Powell Then and Now Traveling Trunk shows how the city of Powell developed from a Bureau of Reclamation camp to the thriving, All-America city that it is today!

The Powell Then and Now kit includes:

  • Maps of Powell through the years
  • Photographs comparing historical and contemporary Powell buildings and businesses
  • Photographs showing Powell students from 1909 to today
  • A centennial calendar looking back on Powell’s first century
  • A vintage school sweater and pair of roller skates
  • Newspaper clippings about life in Powell through the years
  • Activity sheets
  • Sample lesson plans for 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 12th grade

The Wyoming Women in Politics Traveling Trunk covers the ways that women have been central to state and local politics and government since the founding of our state in 1890!

The Wyoming Women in Politics kit includes:

  • Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence, a S.I.T.E.S. (Smithsonian Institution Travelling Exhibition Service) poster exhibit
  • Letters between prominent women in the history of Wyoming politics
  • A 1926 campaign pamphlet
  • A 1913 newspaper clipping about the Women’s Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C.
  • Historical clothing to handle and try on
  • An 1888 photograph of women voting in Cheyenne, WY
  • A lesson outline for grades 5 through 12.
Explore Powell’s Rich History

Let us help you bring history to life!

Request a Trunk