The Homestead is open in the fall for school tours during the last week in September and the first week of October. Field trips are scheduled during this time of year so the school children can experience the sorghum cooking and have a taste of the "Principal Sweetnin" of the pioneers. Sugar was a scarce commodity in those days, and some of the children quickly learn to appreciate the refined sugars of today. Homestead workers are dressed in period clothing and give lessons in how life was for everyone's ancestors. From watching the printing press to touring the herb garden, a Homestead field trip is definitely a learning experience as well as a fun day!

Every year on the third weekend of October, the Homestead is open to the general public for a festival weekend of fun, food, and music. Smell the sorghum cooking in the air, watch the mule turn the sorghum mill around and around., squeezing juice out of the sorghum cane. Take home some stone ground cornmeal, ground on the Sprout Waldron gristmill, patented Dec.24, 1888.

Several artisans demonstrate old time crafts such as broom making on an 1878 patented broom making machine, quilting, wool-spinning, woodcarving, blacksmithing, horse shoeing, hay baling, and more. Take a wagon ride across the covered bridge on the original dirt road into Whitehall. Civil War Living History is also portrayed. Tour the grounds, visit the store, and have a sarsaparilla while you're enjoying the day!