Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa, is a five hundred-acre open-air museum devoted to the rural heritage of the Midwest. Founded by Dr. William G. Murray and opened in 1970, it presents farming communities through living history across settings from 1700, 1850, 1876, and 1900. Walnut Hill shows how town residents, merchants, and farmers depended on one another, while the farm areas trace changes in Iowa agriculture from Indigenous farming and hand labor to mechanization and shifting household routines. Using third-person interpretation, staff demonstrate historical work directly. In 1979, the site also hosted Pope John Paul II before about 340,000 people.