Forest Park Museum

Forest Park Museum and Arboretum was originally developed in the 1940s by Eugene Hastie, a farmer, local historian and author. The arboretum was planted in straight rows to allow farming between the rows of growing trees.  The museum is now surrounded by a 5 acre arboretum park and 12 acres of re-established prairie and wildflowers. There is a mowed walking trail that perimeters the prairie. The arboretum consists of over 100 different species of primarily native trees and shrubs. The Forest Park complex has grown to include Hastie Hall, Baldwin Hall and the nearly completed Wagner addition. The Alton School house, which is the last one-rroom school house of Dallas County, the1860 Grabenhorst log cabin and the Bill Wagner Scale House are also part of the Forest Park Museum complex.