For the last three years, I've booked the Traces Museum traveling bus tour at our public library. This particular tour focused on German POW's inprisioned in the United States between 1943-46. To learn more about the Traces museum click here.
The traveling tour is called a "Buseum." Traces bought two retired school buses and converted them into a traveling historical tour. Most of their funding comes from grants. Their tours run spring and fall throughout the Midwest. I've always booked them in March when it's still cold, so that's a little bit of a challenge for people like me who like to stay warm. There's no heat in the bus so it tends to be a very COLD exhibit.
The bus is decorated with interesting signs and maps...very catchy and it get's a lot of attention from the public.
Irving is the bus driver and tour guide for Traces. He's very knowledgeable about each tour and his an educational background in history. There is so much that is not taught in public schools about WWII POW's, so that is why Irving wanted to get involved with Traces and teach the public about the historical background to this time period.
Here's a map of all the German POW prisioner camps in the Midwest. Wisconsin happened to have the largest concentration of POW camps, mainly because of the agriculture in our state. Many prisioners were put to work in the farm fields in Southern and Eastern Wisconsin, while other German prisioners worked on water and sewer lines in Northern Wisconsin.
Many German POW's kept busy in Midwest camps by doing handicrafts and artwork. There is so much about these prisioners I never knew until this bus tour. If you want to learn more about the inprisioned life of these German POW's, just go to the Traces website and read all about it.We actually had some school kids stop by today to see the exhibit.....wow, young kids were actually interested in WWII history. That was amazing.
I hope you have a public library or school nearby you that will book this Midwest tour. It's worth your time to see it.
That was a real interesting tour. I'm glad that you booked it.
ReplyDeleteIt was neat. I don't think I got to look at the last bus we had come.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds very interesting. I'm glad to see that although your library is small, you really endeavor to educate and look outside the box for interesting ways to do it. I was also impressed with the teen rock thing and the kids crafts.
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