The Museum of the Grand Prairie is closed in January and February. It will reopen on March 1, 2025.
The Museum of the Grand Prairie was founded in 1968 as a facility of Champaign County Forest Preserve District. The founding collection, that of William Redhed, was comprised of objects from a pre-industrial age. For over 40 years the museum was called the Early American Museum, as Redhed preferred that name.
Thousands of artifacts representing our diverse history and population have been added since that time. Thus, In 2011, we changed our name to reflect our county’s cultural and natural history. The term Grand Prairie, a 19th century designation for the vast untamed American Midwest, recalls our cultural and natural heritage.