Exploration Days are back at Hanford Mills Museum throughout the 2024 season and kickoff on June 15 with the Let’s Grow Exploration Day. This day will highlight pollinators, native ecosystems, and agriculture.
Hanford Mills Museum staff will offer demonstrations of our steel attrition grist mill throughout the day, in addition to our usual machine demonstrations. The Learning Lab will be open with many activities and historic games for children and the whole family to participate in. Kids will also have the opportunity to plant a marigold seed to take home and help our pollinator friends.
The festivities will also include many guest exhibitors and vendors. A morning bird walk guided by the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society will take place at 8 a.m. before the museum opens for the day. Schoharie and Otsego County Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardeners will share information about gardening, especially invasive species. Beekeepers will be on site to talk about bees and pollination, and Blue Merle Apiaries will have honey for sale. Hartwick’s Baking Innovation Lab will be highlighting their efforts to support regional biodiversity of food-quality grain.
Representatives from the New York Power Authority’s Blenheim-Gilboa Visitor’s Center will be providing education about their hydroelectric plant with a STEM activity. The Catskill Forest Association will be on hand to share information about forestry education and services for private landowners in the Catskill Mountain region. Intelligent Green Solutions will share their solar power solutions for homes and businesses. Contemporary folk singer-songwriter Will Walker from Cooperstown will be performing poetic songs inspired by family, history, and rural communities.
Ye Olde Bubble Tea & More will be on site vending hot and iced tea and coffee, hot chocolate, spiced cider, bubble tea and sweet tr eats. Union Grove Distillery will be offering tastings of their products that will also be for sale. Visitors are also welcome to bring their lunch and snacks and enjoy them at our picnic tables.
About Hanford Mills Museum
Hanford Mills Museum offers insights into the past and lessons about the relationships between people, the things they make, and the places they live. As one of only a handful of operating water-powered mills, the museum has earned a place on both the National and New York State Registers of Historic Places.
Hanford Mills is located at 51 County Highway 12 in East Meredith, at the intersection of Delaware County Routes 10 & 12, just 10 miles from Oneonta, and 15 miles from Delhi. For more information, visit hanfordmills.org or call 607-278-5744.
