A visit to the Mormon Battalion Historic Site is an absolute must for your trip to San Diego, California. After a whirlwind week of amusement parks, I know that my family is ready to move at a slower pace, but still have fun and be entertained.

The interpretive and interactive center commemorates what happened with the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican-American War. The visitors center was extensively renovated in 2010 including the addition of new technological enhancements that your kids will love. My mom had been to an early version of the center in the 1990s and she was beyond impressed with the updates!

Everyone from Grandma to my 7 year old son enjoyed the high-tech step back in time. There’s just enough entertainment value for your kids to not even realize that they are learning about history.

Volunteers dressed in period clothing take you from room to room or rather experience to experience! If your kids like the moving pictures in Harry Potter, they are going to like this exhibit! The characters in the pictures guide you through what life was like for several hundred Mormon volunteers who marched from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and then on to California for a one-year United States Army enlistment. You get to hear the perspectives and stories from men, women, and children in the camp.

One of my favorite parts of the center was being able to discover our connections to the Mormon Battalion. We didn’t have any direct relations, but it was cool to discover some distant cousins like Lyman Stevens!

My kids love seeing how they are connected! It makes the experience come to life a little more for them.

At the revamped center, you can pan for gold, make bricks and wear replica period clothing. Authentic artifacts are on display, including muskets, bricks from the foundation of the Old Town courthouse and a cannon that the battalion rolled across the United States.

I loved that we ended our visit with time in the tower. The views were incredible!

The tower has binoculars and a map showing Old Town San Diego

I hope that this updated visitor’s center is taste of what all the similar centers will soon be. It reminded me some of the fun features at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City. We can’t wait to visit more historical sites!

What other historical museums and centers should be on our bucket list? What ones have you been to that you have enjoyed?

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