About
Conner Prairie Youth Camps and Programs take place within a 1,046-acre outdoor museum that includes areas such as 1836 Prairietown, Treetop Outpost, Promised Land as Proving Ground, William Conner House, 1859 Balloon Voyage, Animal Encounters, Ag Adventures, Trails at Conner Prairie, Lenape Camp, River Crossing Splash Pad, and the Museum Experience Center. The program is part of one of the region’s premier living history museums and one of the most visited outdoor museums in the nation, and it offers interactive, immersive, and hands-on experiences across these grounds. Conner Prairie Youth Camps and Programs operate in a setting that has a long history of innovation that spans the fields of history, agriculture, science, and nature, and that is described as a place of “doing.”
Conner Prairie’s stated mission is to be a unique historic place that inspires curiosity and fosters learning by providing engaging and individualized experiences for everyone. Conner Prairie’s values for its work, including its youth camps and programs, are described as Heart for the Past, Head for the Present, Eye to the Future. Conner Prairie is Indiana’s first Smithsonian affiliate and has held this affiliation since 2008. The organization has received recognition such as a Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid’s GuideStar, a 2026 Best New Experience award for Promised Land as Proving Ground from the Indiana Tourism Association, and a 2025 PRSA Hoosier Chapter Award of Honor for its Headless Horseman Campaign. Additional honors include 2023 reaccreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, the 2022 Run it Back award from Dream Alive, and being named Best Historical Site in Midwest Living’s Best of the Midwest 2022. Conner Prairie has also been recognized as having one of Reader’s Digest Top 25 Corn Mazes in 2021, and in 2020 it was recognized by the Indianapolis Star Official Community Choice Awards as the Best Historical Site and Best Summer Camp. Other recognitions include the 2019 Life Without Limits Award from the Fishers City Council for its support of DEAI, the 2019 Partner Award from CICOA Aging and In-Home Solutions, being named a Site of Conscience by the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience in 2018, and a 2017 American Alliance of Museums Excellence in Exhibition award for the reimagined William Conner House. Conner Prairie has been named one of six Magnetic Museums in the country in the book “Magnetic: The Art and Science of Engagement,” is listed as one of the top five most visited outdoor museums in the United States, and has received major grants including a $7.5 million Lilly Endowment grant for organizational sustainability in 2015 and a $2.3 million National Science Foundation grant in 2012. In 2010, Conner Prairie received the National Medal from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Conner Prairie’s community involvement includes being Indiana’s first Smithsonian affiliate and a two-year partnership with Dream Alive connected to the 2022 Run it Back award.
Last updated May 12, 2026.
Conner Prairie’s stated mission is to be a unique historic place that inspires curiosity and fosters learning by providing engaging and individualized experiences for everyone. Conner Prairie’s values for its work, including its youth camps and programs, are described as Heart for the Past, Head for the Present, Eye to the Future. Conner Prairie is Indiana’s first Smithsonian affiliate and has held this affiliation since 2008. The organization has received recognition such as a Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid’s GuideStar, a 2026 Best New Experience award for Promised Land as Proving Ground from the Indiana Tourism Association, and a 2025 PRSA Hoosier Chapter Award of Honor for its Headless Horseman Campaign. Additional honors include 2023 reaccreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, the 2022 Run it Back award from Dream Alive, and being named Best Historical Site in Midwest Living’s Best of the Midwest 2022. Conner Prairie has also been recognized as having one of Reader’s Digest Top 25 Corn Mazes in 2021, and in 2020 it was recognized by the Indianapolis Star Official Community Choice Awards as the Best Historical Site and Best Summer Camp. Other recognitions include the 2019 Life Without Limits Award from the Fishers City Council for its support of DEAI, the 2019 Partner Award from CICOA Aging and In-Home Solutions, being named a Site of Conscience by the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience in 2018, and a 2017 American Alliance of Museums Excellence in Exhibition award for the reimagined William Conner House. Conner Prairie has been named one of six Magnetic Museums in the country in the book “Magnetic: The Art and Science of Engagement,” is listed as one of the top five most visited outdoor museums in the United States, and has received major grants including a $7.5 million Lilly Endowment grant for organizational sustainability in 2015 and a $2.3 million National Science Foundation grant in 2012. In 2010, Conner Prairie received the National Medal from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Conner Prairie’s community involvement includes being Indiana’s first Smithsonian affiliate and a two-year partnership with Dream Alive connected to the 2022 Run it Back award.
Last updated May 12, 2026.
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