Back at the Rancho! September 11, 2010

Do you know how to lasso a longhorn cow? If you hold your riata for too long, you might get caught by the cow, instead! Learn the basics on our gentle, straw-bale cow!

This is just one of the 14 activities featured at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park's Back at the Rancho festival. The festival takes place outdoors in Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, the birthplace of Oakland.

This festival gives everybody a chance to learn history by joining in-dancing, making adobe bricks, dipping candles, and preparing tortillas from scratch-while finding out what it was like to live on the Peralta rancho.

Visitors to the festival will also get to immerse themselves in Ohlone Daily Life through hands-on activities such as making fire with flint, playing Ohlone games, and cooking over an open fire.

Back at the Rancho gives you the chance to try the activities that happen here every weekday, when school kids from all over the East Bay, including every district in Oakland, throng to the site for the site's two field trips: Peralta Rancho Life and Ohlone Daily Life. Third and fourth graders, as well as middle and high school students, take these tours. Wells Twombly, the program's director, knows that youth learn best when their hands and hearts are engaged, along with their intellects. Teachers can book a field trip for 2010-2011 at the festival.

Coffee, tea, and freshly cooked treats will be served. You can also take a tour of the Peralta House Museum of History and Community with its provocative multimedia exhibits with audio, video, and touchable objects to explore.

Please RSVP for the event, and book your house tour, as only 10 people can tour the rooms at once.

Official Website: http://www.peraltahacienda.org