Dickinson County Heritage Center

It was a hot July afternoon when I visited, but was thrilled for the Carousel ride! (I wished I had time to visit the actual museum - but my next destination deadline was ticking closer on the clock! I visited the Heritage Museum after I deboarded the Smoky Valley Railroad and made it in good time to ride the carousel! YAY! (The volunteer running it, does great parking with timing the ride = stopped at the exit ramp) hehehe! I also visited some of the historical buildings -- the general store, the Switchboard building, Schoolhouse, etc! I would come back again, just on a much cooler day and when I have more time!

We had a quiet unhurried visit through this richly educational museum about local history! The volunteer staff were kind and helpful and encouraged our grandchildren to watch for interactive exhibits they could touch and enjoy! We'll visit again!

Really helpful and thorough! I needed residential electrical repair immediately, and this company took care of it without a hitch. They were on time, super professional, and got everything done exactly the way I wanted. So happy I called them when I did. Great job and thanks again!

Best carousel I have ever seen. The guy who worked the machine was incredibly knowledgeable about the history… The museum itself was super cool because there were so many items that you had to guess what it was and it had flip cards so it was really educational

I really enjoyed this museum. It's bigger than it appears on the outside. There is a really nice display of phones--one of the finest I have seen. There are a few interactive displays for younger people. The carousel is also a highlight and is worth a look. They are still working on it as of this writing. For the $10, I thought this was a reasonable price for all you get to see. Plan on 1-1.5 hours.

This hidden gem is amazing. They have thousands of items and historical pieces of the telephone and telegraph world in the building and then out in the grass behind they have a little town built with old buildings including a carousel from the early 1900s that predates the kind that go up and down, instead the horses rock back and forth. The staff are awesome and friendly and there is so much to see for the small price of admission

Really cool telephone museum and lots of antique farm equiptment along with a pleathora of old time buildings out back to explore. . Lots of neat things. Could've stayed there much longer than the time we had. Loved the whole thing! Will go back for sure.

Visited here on our drive home last October. We always try and find old carousel's when we travel and they have a nice on here. Was great to see some of the history in the heritage center then top it off with the carousel ride.

If you know me you know I'm a sucker for a small town museum, and the Dickinson County Heritage Center does not disappoint. We came here because of the vintage carousel that they still operate, and ended up exploring the whole building and outside structures which really made it worth the small entrance fee to see. Let's start with the main building. When you walk in, it's an old small town museum, and it feels like it. I do think this place could benefit from some TLC in terms of updating it and breathing in some new life, but I will also say from working in the museum industry, that funding can be hard, and I felt like they did a really great job of keeping it running, clean, and accessible with what I can imagine are some limited resources. Once you pay, you can meander through the galleries which cover the history of Dickinson County, and feature some really interesting artifacts. Our favorite part of the main exhibits was the section on the introduction of the telephone and how it evolved over the years. For our four year old this was especially cool because they have some switch boards that are interactive, and you can even place a call to another phone in the museum. For a kid that has never seen a rotary phone before it was pretty magical, and honestly even for us adults who remember those days, it was cool to see how it worked and we spent a good amount of time in that area. Once you've had your fill of the inside museum you can venture outdoors and experience the old school carousel, and some historical buildings. The carousel was really cool. First of all it's the oldest known carousel to still be operational in existence. I mean, this may be a fact hard to track down and verify, but that's pretty impressive. Being built in 1901, it's crazy to be able to ride something so old and get a full experience that someone else would have had over 100 years ago. The old buildings were also pretty neat to explore and we enjoyed walking around and seeing what each one had to offer. Overall, this is a pretty cool stop for anyone who enjoys history.