Conner Prairie Sets Attendance Record
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowConner Prairie Interactive History Park says it has hit an attendance milestone. The park says July was the busiest month in its 80-year history. August 13, 2014
News Release
FISHERS, Ind. — An all-time record number of monthly guests visited Conner Prairie Interactive History Park in July, marking the latest major milestone in the park’s 80-year history.
In July, 30,871 guests visited Conner Prairie, including 14,906 members and 11,780 non-members; 3,028 groups, including school groups, visited while 1,073 visitors participated in summer camps and attended programs offered to the general public.
Unusually mild summer weather, new indoor and outdoor experiences, an upturn in the economy that has loosened entertainment dollars for families and people discovering Conner Prairie’s newest ways to provide interactive experiences can all be attributed to the record-setting month, said Conner Prairie President and CEO Ellen Rosenthal.
“Visitors have been amazed by our new spaces and destinations and are highly complementary about the new and unique ways that our staff is touching the lives of visitors across generations,” she said. “We had such a wonderful year in 2013 and it is exceptionally great to have the ability to carry that momentum through this year.”
Two new experiences inside Conner Prairie’s Welcome Center were popular destinations for children and their families in July. The 3,000-square-foot Discovery Station and Craft Corner opened in late June and features designated play areas, a spacious crafts center and numerous free-play activity areas. Create.Connect, which debuted in March, utilizes science, technology, engineering and math to revisit Indiana’s history of innovation in aviation, patents, wind power and rural electrification.
Outside, the new Nature Walk was popular with July visitors. Guests walk a wooded trail flanked by farmland, prairie and the White River and discover plant and animal life that call Conner Prairie their home. The trail ends at the Lookout, an elevated observation deck that provides a view of restored prairie that attracts migratory birds.
In September, Conner Prairie’s famed Apple Store opens at 11 a.m. Monday, offering a 15 percent discount on all items in the store. Open for up to nine weeks each season, the store is a popular stop for guests with a sweet tooth. Typically, store workers dip nearly 14,500 caramel apples while preparing and selling a host of treats. Rare classic cars and vintage machines of all kinds will fill Conner Prairie’s grounds during the weekend-long inaugural Festival of Machines on Sept. 13-14.
The Headless Horseman returns to Conner Prairie as grounds are transformed into “Conner Scairie,” a monster world inhabited by comical, fun-loving ghouls, from 6-9 p.m. Oct. 10-12, 16-19 and 23-26.
And Follow the North Star, a nationally acclaimed, award-winning living drama during which guests become actors on Conner Prairie’s 200-acre stage as they run from slave hunters and work together to navigate the Underground Railroad to freedom, runs Nov. 6-8, 13-15 and 20-22.
For more about these popular events and other activities through the end of Conner Prairie’s outdoor season, visit connerprairie.org’s Plan Your Visit section.
Spanning 800 wooded acres in central Indiana, Conner Prairie Interactive History Park located in Fishers, Ind., welcomes more than 340,000 guests of all ages annually. Five outdoor, historically themed destinations and indoor experiential learning spaces combine history with science, technology, engineering and math and offer an authentic look into history that shapes society today.
Source: Conner Prairie Interactive History Park