(Courtesy/Powerland Heritage Park)
Salem kids will get to drive a heritage tractor, take a wagon ride or make rope at Powerland Heritage Park this Saturday.
The annual S.T.E.A.M.’d Up for Kids event brings hands-on activities “designed to stimulate the minds of youth mechanically,” a press release said.
The activities include a scavenger hunt, a sandbox with vintage toys and trucks, and demonstrations on steam engines and working a sawmill.
Entry is $6 per person and free for kids 12 and under. The event is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 3995 Brooklake Road N.E., Brooks (exit 263 off Interstate 5).
Families can take trolley rides on an authentic vintage double-decker trolley from Blackpool, England for an additional fee of $5 for adults and $3 for kids. Willow Creek Railroad miniature train rides may be available depending on the weather.
Rare items will also be on display at up to 14 museums at the park. The Northwest Vintage Car & Motorcycle Museum includes the oldest known unrestored school bus in the U.S., a 1919 Model T Ford school bus. The oldest-known Caterpillar diesel tractor left, an Old Tusco Sixty, is showcased at the Antique Caterpillar Machinery Museum. And the Pacific Northwest Truck Museum has the first truck Fred Meyer drove to deliver groceries, the press release said.
The front part of the new Willamette Valley Model Railroad & Operating Museum will be open for the first time at this year’s S.T.E.A.M.’d Up for Kids, which stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, the press release said.
-Ardeshir Tabrizian
