Harold Warp’s Pioneer Village

I’ve known about Pioneer Village for a long time. I think I used to own a postcard with the sod house on it, so I may have even been here as a child. It’s one of those places that become an icon in and of itself — like House on the Rock, Meramec Caverns, or Rock City.

Except people have stopped visiting Pioneer Village and the place is falling apart. We stopped in on a Thursday morning on our way to a wedding in Iowa. We were there about four hours, and I believe I saw six other visitors, all of them in the 15 minutes before we left. There are actually signs by the doors of the various buildings asking you to turn the lights off when you exit. The condition of the famous sign shows what kind of shape the place is in.

The premise is to display everyday items — phones, washing machines, fans, cars — beginning with the first ones manufactured in America and showing the progress up to modern day. It’s a cool idea, but modern day in the village ended around 1974. Very little recent progress has been documented, and it doesn’t look like anything has been dusted or painted since 1974, making the museum itself an artifact.

There are several historic buildings arranged around a town square and seven or eight others, all filled with stuff.

We toured everything, although it quickly became sensory overload, and the five or six buildings of old cars got old quickly. I felt like I was the first person in some of the buildings since 1974. None of this is meant to say we didn’t enjoy it. There were some very cool items on display and having the place to ourselves made me feel like an explorer.