Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area presents Grout Museum District Excursion, a partner of CampSilos Excursions and the History Center of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This educational website made possible by a grant from the R. J. McElroy Trust focuses on the story of the farmers, factory workers and business leaders who with their families built the agriculture-based economy in Waterloo, Iowa.

CampSilos Excurions, found on the Internet at http://www.campsilos.org/excursions/grout/, provides a virtual field trip that tells the unique story of the complex connections between farming, transportation, industrialization, and population distribution as students explore how the railroad, the factory, the farm and the community grew together to build a powerful and nationally visible agriculture-based economy in Waterloo, Iowa. Designed for students in grades 4-8, Grout Museum District Excursion includes online student activities as well as pre- and post-field trip lesson plans that engage students with highly motivational primary source materials such as historic photographs, interview recordings, newspaper clippings advertisements, and the Prairie Pathways Transportation Map.

Don Short, Executive Director of Silos and Smokestacks, comments, "CampSilos Excursions are an important tool in the education of our future generations about the history of agriculture and agriculture today. CampSilos Excursions is an effective education website for Iowa students and teachers."

Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area is one of 23 federally designated heritage areas in the nation and is an affiliate of the National Parks Service. Through the development of a network of sites, programs, and events, Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area's mission is to interpret farm life, agribusiness, and rural communities - past and present. For more information call (319) 234-4567 or go to their website at http://www.silosandsmokestacks.org.