Ulster County Agriculture Museum-Ulster County Fairgrounds

249 Liberty Road

New Paltz, NY 12561

(845) 255-1380

Ulster County Fairgrounds

Open: When the fairgrounds are open

Admission: Free but donations are accepted

My review on TripAdvisor:

The Ulster County Fair Agricultural Museum at the Ulster County Fairgrounds

The sign at the entrance of the museum

Display outside the entrance of the museum

The Ulster County Fair Agricultural Museum is one of the more interesting and detailed agricultural based museums I have seen. The museum houses an extensive collection of farm equipment that includes machinery for the fields, milking equipment including how to milk a cow properly and the progress on egg hatchery and production. The museum highlights these changes especially in the last hundred years.

The main gallery of the museum

The main part of the museum was dedicated to farm equipment from the early plows and hoes to the changes in the modern day tractor.

The early hoes both hand and horse drawn

The changes in tractors for farm use over the last century

All sorts of businesses were on the farms from egg hatcheries to dairy farming were shown in their early stages at the museum.

Milk jugs for fresh milk

An early egg hatchery and sorters

The museum also displayed other business that farmers could make money from including ice cutting for ice boxes. All sorts of equipment was on display for this early money making industry.

The ice carving industry

Life on the farm was not so easy for women either as cooking, washing and cleaning were all chores left to women while the men worked in the fields. All foods were made from scratch from farm produce and water for cooking, washing and bathing came from wells and springs and sometimes needed to be boiled. Work in the household was never finished and took many hands to do.

The farmhouse kitchen

Life on the farm included travel to and from church, going to town and travel to the cities for visits to the markets. Carts and carriages were the mode of transportation back then before automobiles. Even today in some communities this is still a mode of transportation.

Carriages and wagons for transportation

Working in the fields and the yields produced kept changing as modern equipment became part of farm life. Gas powered and electric equipment changed the way the modern farmer produced crops.

Modern sorters and weights

The gas powered saw

The members who run the museum were working the gas run engines and were demonstrating equipment used over the years. Members were showing visitors how these machine work and there purpose on the farm.

The outdoor gas powered equipment

The gas powered equipment

The inside of the museum had all sorts of displays on working on the farm. There was the equipment to cut the law, sort the crops and maintenance on the farm.

Sickle mower

The gas powered machines for maintaining of the farm and fields

Animals from the 4 H display

Calves from the 4 H display

Chicken exhibit at the 4 H display

Duck pen at the 4H exhibit

The looks you get from the farm animals