Historic Crab Orchard Museum is an educational institution serving schools in its region, in addition to providing learning experiences for visitors from all over the world.

The Museum offers all of Southwestern Virginia, and most of Southeastern West Virginia, a series of educational programs that are intended to complement classroom instruction.  An experienced teacher, Joan Yates, designs and directs our programs.

The Museum provides living history demonstrations with on-site tours. Demonstrations may be in the following areas (depending on availability of staff and volunteers): Seasonal farming chores, drop spindle spinning and wool carding, hearth cooking, use of black powder weapons, and blacksmithing.

Seasonal tours are offered for student groups in November and December. Students sing seasonal songs, enjoy holiday treats of cookies , and make a craft to take home.

Special topics such as Settlers’ Interactions with Native Americans can be incorporated into an on-site tour. Hunting, fishing, farming, home life, and recreation of the Native Americans will be discussed. Artifacts from the collection are displayed and some are available for the students to handle. Contact us for information and schedule openings at (276) 988-6755 or by e-mail.

Outreach

The Museum’s educational outreach work has received considerable recognition for its effectiveness in stimulating an interest among children in their heritage. Its middle-Appalachian region consists of dozens of small schools in relatively isolated locations among the mountains and hollows, some with as few as 60 pupils.

The Museum outreach, makes use of hands-on, interactive teaching methods with living history interpretation and artifacts and objects from the Museum's collections.

These techniques have been proven capable of stimulating the interest of children in mathematics, sciences, carpentry and other skills, language arts, home economics, and even business economics. We especially seek to instill an appreciation of their culture among young people when they are usually the most accessible and have open, inquiring minds.

Youth Interns

Each fall and spring, the Museum also organizes a group of Youth Interns, approximately 25 each semester depending on interest. After school on selected dates, they work with staff and volunteers to learn how to carry on “living history” programs. In some cases, public school credit is offered at the discretion of the schools.

While the Youth Intern Program classes are after school hours, many of the participants are home schooled. The parents of home schooled students, in particular, find the Museum’s programs of special value. A number of the volunteers who take part in our re-enactments and historical events are “graduates” of the Youth Intern program.