Pioneer Farms is a living history museum depicting the lifestyle of early-day Texans - when Austin was just a small town, long before cars and cell phones had been invented, when bonnets and buggies were in vogue. Pioneer Farms is a volunteer-run property of the Heritage Society of Austin, one of Texas' oldest organizations dedicated to historic preservation.
Step back in time for a variety of educational programs for both children and adults.

Our museum features three historic farmsteads and an entry village, plus acres of prairie pastures, farmyards and wildlife. Each is interpreted just as life would have been in the 1800s on Central Texas' Blacklands Prairie.

In the fall of 1844, Texas Ranger Lt. James O. Rice, an original settler of Austin, laid claim to 1,280 acres of virgin land at the northward crossing of Walnut Creek - including the land that now includes Pioneer Farms. The site edged the Blackland Prairie with its tall grasses and ancient live oaks, and once hosted the Tonkawa Indians in a creek side campsite.

In 1852, Frederick and Harriet Jourdan settled on the land with eight children and nine slaves, and eventually amassed a 2,000-acre farm.

In 1956, the Jourdan grandchildren, Laura and Eugene Giles, donated the core of their grandparents' property to the Heritage Society of Austin for a park to honor early- day settlers.

Pioneer Farms is managed and staffed solely by volunteers who are working to keep Texas history alive.