Forest Park Museum and Arboretum

Forest Park Museum and Arboretum near Perry, Iowa, preserves both central Iowa’s natural landscape and its everyday history. Established in the 1940s by farmer and Dallas County historian Eugene Hastie on five acres, it paired an arboretum of mostly native trees and shrubs with a local history museum opened to the public in 1953. After the Dallas County Conservation Department acquired the property in 1966, the site expanded with restored prairie and wildflowers. Today it spans 17 acres, with more than 100 species of trees and shrubs and exhibits on rural life, early settlement, transportation, farming, a one-room schoolhouse, an 1860s cabin, and other regional artifacts.

Iowa · United States