This year, the Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead is celebrating a “moo-mentus” occasion – it’s 30th birthday.
“All of the improvements over the years were made with the idea that the Farmstead would not only be fun for families, but also would be an educational experience for our young visitors, “said Sandy Queen, manager of golf course operations.
“Very few children will ever have the opportunity to visit a real working farm, feed farm animals or ride a pony. The Farmstead gives them all of that while learning about what life was like on a farm at the turn of the 20th century.”
The Farmstead is an extremely popular attraction for the metropolitan area, ranking in the top 15 sites.
It has almost 200 farm animals and birds
of prey, vegetable and flower gardens, a one-room country schoolhouse, a dairy barn, an old time fishing pond, horse drawn wagon rides, pony rides and more.
When it opened in 1978 as the “Children’s Farmstead,” it had two miniature horses, two Shetland ponies, nine goats, six sheep, three calves and a dozen chickens as well as a vegetable garden, child-size replicas of a barn with a loft, a silo with a slide attached and a shaded mall seating area.
Some other Farmstead history tidbits:
- The upstairs of the main office building originally was designed as a one bedroom apartment, and there was an on-site supervisor for the first seven years.
- During its opening season, there was one supervisor and four seasonal employees. Today, there are seven supervisors, 46 seasonal staff members and 25 regular weekly volunteers.
- 11,000 visitors came to the Farmstead that first year; that’s the attendance of a typical weekend. More than 350,000 visitors are expected each season.
- The Farmstead was renamed in 1985 to honor Deanna Rose, the first and only Overland Park Police Officer killed in the line of duty.
For more history, check out a two-disc anniversary set available at the Farmstead for $19.78.
For more information, email farmsteadfriends@opkansas.org or call 913/897-2360.