Will County Heritage Village Open Air Museum

05/18/2026

Thank you to everyone who participated and attended this year's A Walk Thru Time living history timeline event. Friday was a beautiful day to set up, and though Saturday morning started with a little bit of rain, it cleared up and turned into beautiful weather for the rest of the weekend. We welcomed back some old friends and met some great new ones. We are looking forward to seeing everyone next year on May 15-16.

05/17/2026

We had a great day yesterday. Come out and see us again today. We will be open to the public from 10-4!

05/02/2026

Can you believe it? The Heritage Village is open this weekend! Our schedule will be the first weekend of the month until October. Come out and see us!

05/01/2026

Come join us for our 7th annual A Walk Time to help celebrate America's 250th birthday! Reenactors portraying time periods from the Roman Empire to World War II will be encamped the whole weekend to help bring history to life for everyone.

Also, our 19th century buildings will be open to the public for touring .

11/27/2025

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We are so thankful for your support and visiting us.

11/10/2025

10/17/2025

Our Annual Banquet is coming up on November 9th, and we would love to have you join us. Our wonderful museum treasurer, Kelly McLeod, will be our featured presenter, speaking on Will County's Underground Railroad history. Please join us and help support our society.

10/02/2025

Don't forget to come out and visit the Heritage Village this weekend for the last first weekend being open this year. Saturday and Sunday from 12:00-4:00.

09/04/2025

For our belated this week, we are celebrating a great milestone. In 2008, the original buildings that made up the Pioneer Village were moved into storage so the Lincoln Landing could be created. Then, in 2010, the existing buildings were moved to their current location to form the Heritage Village, which has been in operation for the past 15 years. Come out and visit the Heritage Village this weekend while they are open Saturday and Sunday from 12:00-4:00 at 249 W. 2nd Street in Lockport.

08/29/2025

Today, we remember the victims and their families on the 35th anniversary of the Plainfield tornado.. 35 years ago on August 28, 1990, at 3:15 PM CDT, it touched down in Oswego in Kendall County Illinois. This tornado became a violent F-5 tornado at its strongest point just west of Plainfield. By the time it dissipated over Joliet IL at 3:45 PM CDT, the tornado had torn a 16.4 mile long path of devastation through portions of Kendall and Will Counties. Tragically, 29 lives were lost, and another 350 were injured.

The Plainfield tornado was and still is the only tornado with F5/EF-5 rating documented in the US during August and the only tornado with greater than a F3/EF-3 rating during August in Illinois. It is the strongest known tornado to ever strike the Chicago metropolitan area.

But we also look at the progress that has been made since then in meteorology in terms of observing, monitoring, spotting, modeling, warning and communicating that make it extremely unlikely for a similarly violent tornado to strike without warning.