Washington museum gets beyond agricultural equipment

A museum in the Pacific Northwest has more than  just farm equipment on display.
A museum in the Pacific Northwest has more than just farm equipment on display.
Farm equipment is usually the first thing that comes to a person's mind when visiting a farm museum.

And that's all well and good, but a farm museum in located north of Spokane, Washington, caters to more than just people who love old farm equipment. A recent story from the state's Spokesman-Review newspaper spoke with Bob and Loretta Greiff, who curate the North Spokane Farm Museum.

Loretta Grieff told the paper that, along with farm equipment, the museum features a variety of pieces that may appeal more to the "gals in the family."

"We collect anything the farmer, the farmer's wife or the farmer's kids would have from the period between 1850 and 1950," she told the Spokesman-Review.

In addition to agricultural equipment, the museum showcases furniture, antique dresses and old pieces of dishware, which are decorated with a variety of patterns. The museum, which is dedicated to Bob Grieff's parents, also has old-time carpentry tools and leather-sewing equipment.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the time period that the North Spokane Farm Museum covers featured a number of advances in American farming. For example, the department notes that commercial corn and wheat belts were developed in the 1850s. Furthermore, the USDA itself was established in 1862.
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