National Mississippi River Museum Hosts “John Deere Weekend”

"John Deere Weekend" is coming to the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium with the intent of providing a lot of fun, hands-on activities for kids and their parents.

All John Deere employees and their immediate families get $5 off each admission ticket with proof of employment.

The event, which takes place August 27th and August 28th, is an excellent opportunity for people to get up-close-and-personal with real Dubuque-made forestry equipment, which will be positioned in the outside plaza.

Much of the weekend will revolve around the "Forever Forest: Live, Work, Play" children's exhibit, which debuted back in May 2022. The 2,000-square-foot exhibition was designed to teach children and adults how their everyday lives are connected to forests. "John Deere Weekend" ties that all together by offering the opportunity at hands-on learning with mini-grapple skidders, a tree-top climber, and a mini-home kids can build too!

Luke Maiers, the Communications Coordinator at the River Museum, was kind enough to stop by the studio to talk about all the fun events that await families who venture out to the museum this weekend:

Everybody knows that John Deere plants are in the area and [they're] a familiar company, but you don't necessarily get to see the forestry equipment [....] When you think of John Deere, you think of fields, corn, beans, stuff like that. You don't think of the forestry side of the industry, which is a big part of what they do.

This event has great potential to humanize John Deere, which is the largest employer in the city of Dubuque with around 2,600 workers.

In addition to the fun in the plaza and in the Forever Forest exhibit, the River Museum's MakerSpace will also be the site for a lot of forestry-themed activities.

John Deere Weekend will also mark the second-to-last weekend for the Forever Forest exhibit, which ends its run on September 5th. This is a terrific opportunity to make it out to the River Museum to see it, if you haven't already!

The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium is located at 350 East 3rd Street in Dubuque.