Overview | Location and Hours | Offerings
Walnut Grove Plantation - Offerings
Hourly guided tours take visitors through the Moore family home, a typical plantation kitchen, and Rocky Spring Academy, one of the first schools in the county. During this tour, visitors see a wide variety of18th-century artifacts used by colonists in their daily lives. Visitors hear stories of the Moore family, their slaves, and life on the frontier in the late 1700s.
Following the guided tour, visitors may walk the grounds on their own to see the farm's outbuildings including the blacksmith forge, smoke house, wheat house, well house, dry cellar, barn, and reconstructed doctor's office.
One-tenth of a mile from the house is a cemetery where visitors can see the burial sites of Moore family members and 146 other people including the graves of enslaved African Americans marked only by field stones.
Visitors can also hike the site's nature trail and enjoy a picnic lunch under the shade of the pavilion. Restrooms, drinks, and snacks are available in the Visitors Center & Gift Shop. Available for purchase in the Gift Shop are replica 18th century toys and games, Walnut Grove tee-shirts and souvenirs, handcrafted items made by plantation artisans, and a wide selection of books for kids and adults about colonial life, the American Revolution, slavery, and South Carolina history.
GROUP VISITS
Groups of 10 or more people from schools, churches, scout troops, senior citizen groups, and other community organizations can schedule, at least 14 days in advance, special tours and activities. We welcome group visits all year, even during the site's winter closure.
To schedule a group visit, contact Zac Cunningham, Walnut Grove's director, at 864-576-6546 or walnutgrove@spartanburghistory.org.
COST: For children's groups only, other rates available for adult groups
Guided Tour Only: $2.00 per
child
Guided Tour with
Living History Activity: $4.00 per child
1 teacher/chaperone FREE for every
10 children in group
Additional teachers/chaperones: $6.00 each
Minimum: 10 children; Maximum:
120 children AND adults
Picnic area &
child-friendly gift shop on site!
State Academic Standards
Addressed:
Social Studies:
K-1, 2-1, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4, 4-2, 4-3, 8-1, 8-2, 8-3.1, USHC-1
Living History
Activities
You can choose one of the six
listed below or let us know if you need an activity created to meet your
curriculum needs or interests. All
activities last approximately 45 minutes. For groups over 120 total people and thus visiting over multiple days, activity participant limits can
be based on number of children visiting in single day.
Pioneer Pastimes
• All ages, but ideal for K to 2nd grades
Pioneer Pastimes revisits the days when imagination and a few things found
on Walnut Grove Plantation fueled children's playtime. Children try out 18th century toys and games, like
graces, hoops, Jacob's ladders, and marbles, and then make their own toy to
take home.
Butter Churning
• 50 children or fewer, all ages
• Foods usually include wheat and milk products. Please inform us of any food allergies.
Today, we open the fridge and reach for
our butter, but 200 years ago making just a little bit of butter took a lot of
hard work. At Walnut Grove, churning
cream into butter was a common chore for the children. Students make butter and taste their work
when they're done.
Revolution!
• 50 children or fewer, all ages
• Militia drill includes student use of fake wooden muskets and a weapons
firing by the reenactor.
Recruits needed
to defend Walnut Grove from notorious Loyalist "Bloody Bill" Cunningham! Join the Patriot militia and learn about life
for Revolutionary War soldiers. Children
take part in a militia drill and equip a soldier with the supplies necessary
for survival.
Colonial Cooking
• 50 children or fewer, 2nd grade or above
• Foods usually include wheat and milk products. Please inform us of any food allergies.
Imagine having to cook every meal over a fire! Walnut Grove's women didn't have to imagine
because they cooked over a fire every day. Children create a period dish and
then sample that dish when finished.
Light Up the Backcountry
• 20 to 100 children, 3rd grade or above
Early settlers, like Walnut Grove's Moore
family, made nearly everything they needed to survive themselves. This included candles, their only light
sources (besides their fires) that they had on long winter nights. Children hand-dip a candle to take home.
How to Survive Colonial Times
• 60 children or fewer, 6th grade or above
Shelter was a first priority when the Moores arrived on the Backcountry
land they would make Walnut Grove Plantation.
A lean-to of tree branches initially sheltered the family. In this activity, the basics of frontier
shelters are discussed and then teams compete to build the best lean-to.
Have History, Will Travel - Walnut Grove: (December - February Only)
Cost: $50
per classroom
A great way to
complement a fall or spring field trip to Walnut Grove! Discounts are available for multiple blocks
in the same day and for booking a series of lessons at once.
The 'Have History, Will Travel' program gives you the
opportunity to have a Walnut Grove Interpreter come to your classroom and do
the teaching! Lessons on a variety of topics, including the early settlement of
the Upstate, daily life in the late 1700s, the region's Scots-Irish heritage,
the Regulator Movement, colonial-era slavery, and the American Revolution, all
meet state standards. Lessons include
historic pictures, maps, touchable artifacts, geography reinforcement and a
brief writing exercise. They can be
tailored to your current curriculum.
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