Don Jacklin has always enjoyed sharing the history of farming.

Now, the opening of the Jacklin Ranch Farm Museum gives him the perfect opportunity to do just that.

"We wanted to preserve this part of the old farm and share what farming and agriculture on the Rathdrum Prairie looked like," Jacklin said.

The museum, housed in a 1910 barn on the Jacklin property at the corner of Prairie Avenue and Fennecus Road, will open to the public Saturday. Free tours will be offered every 30 minutes from 10 a.m. to noon, with Jacklin and his daughter, Gayle Stegmann, leading some of the visits.

Inside, guests will find a collection of farming artifacts dating back more than a century. Among the exhibits are a 1940s prairie well clam, a blacksmith forge, a 1920s anvil, a 1925 Model T telephone cab and a 1927 Model T pickup.

The museum also includes interactive displays designed to engage younger visitors. Children can try operating a 1930s water pump, use an early-1900s sharpening grinder wheel, ring a bell from Dalton Gardens School dating to the 1940s, or sift seeds.

Many of the artifacts have been owned and preserved by the Jacklin family for decades, while others were donated.

The story of the Jacklin family and the Jacklin Seed Company is told through photographs, documents and awards, along with stories shared by Jacklin himself. One display traces the history of seed processing and conditioning.

The museum sits on land purchased by the Jacklin family from the Feely family in 1947. For decades, the site served as the home of the family seed company. Today, Jacklin Seed, now stewarded by Barenbrug USA, continues to offer bluegrass and other turfgrass varieties, building on more than 80 years of expertise.

Jacklin grew up in the family business, which was founded in 1936 by Arden Jacklin, his father, brothers and other relatives in Dishman, Wash., in the Spokane Valley.

Over the decades, the company played a major role in the turfgrass industry. Its milestones included pioneering Northwest grass seed production in the 1940s, helping popularize Merion Kentucky bluegrass in the 1950s, introducing Fylking, the first proprietary Kentucky bluegrass, in the 1960s, and launching Adelphi, the first proprietary turfgrass variety, in the 1970s.

For Jacklin, it was a rewarding life. He worked on combines, plowed fields and picked rocks before moving into management roles as production manager and vice president. Although he "semi-retired" about 20 years ago, he remains involved in long-range planning.

Today, he hopes the museum will help a younger generation understand a way of life that once thrived on the Rathdrum Prairie and throughout the region, while also bringing back memories for older visitors.

"There's no more history like this on the Prairie," he said.

Jacklin admits there is also a "hidden objective" behind encouraging young people to visit.

"Twenty years from now, they're going to be customers," he said, smiling. "It might be commercial, it might be residential, but they're always going to remember the Jacklin Ranch Farm Museum."

To reserve a museum tour, call Kristina at 509-720-6269.

    Don Jacklin leaves the Jacklin Ranch Farm Museum.
  

    Don Jacklin points to pictures of the Feely Ranch the Jacklin family purchased in 1947.
  

    A water pump is one of the exhibits in the Jacklin Ranch Farm Museum.
  

    An anvil is displayed in the Jacklin Ranch Farm Museum.
  

    Pictures of the Jacklin family and Jacklin products are displayed in the Jacklin Ranch Farm Museum.
  

    Blacksmithing tools are displayed in the Jacklin Ranch Farm Museum.