More than 600 students will converge on the Pioneer Museum of Alabama Friday to get their hands on history.

The museum will host Pioneer Days Friday and Saturday and, although Friday is designated especially for students, the public is also invited.

“We have 12 different schools scheduled to come and we have a great day of hands-on and fun learning events and activities planned,” said Jerry Peak, museum director.

A special added attraction for Pioneer Days 2010 is a Barn Dance that gets off to a high heel-kicking start at 6 p.m. Friday and the Colley Senior Dancers will pick up the pace at 7:30 p.m. Calvin Bodiford and the Southern Strings will provide the beat and the dancers, the feet.

“Those who attend Pioneer Days on Friday will get an armband that will admit them to the Friday night Barn Dance,” Peak said. “Paid admission to the dance will be $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and $4 for children six years and older and include armbands that will be admission to Pioneer Days on Saturday.”

Pioneers Days will feature Bruce Brannen’s Wild West Show, the portrayal of Davy Crockett, a flint napper, a blacksmith and quilting, weaving, woodturning, hand carving and basket making demonstrations.

There will also be cooking demonstrations in the Demonstration and Reunion cabins and visitors will be treated to a pone of cornbread or a cat’s head biscuit.

A Creek Indian camp will be set up and Civil War re-enactors and lots of Yankees will be on the grounds.

“This year, we are expanding the Civil War encampment to include a Confederate field hospital,” Peak said. “That will be very interesting and informative. Also new will be cow milking demonstration and a crosscut saw demonstration.”

There will be two storytelling events. Alice Hayes will be the local teller in the Reunion Cabin and Brent Holmes, a former Trojan who now makes his home in Nashville, will sing his whimsical songs and sign his latest book in the Village Center on Saturday.

Brundidge artist Larry Godwin, who painted the Main Street scene in the Village, will draw caricatures

SheBANG! and the American Legion Dancers will perform in the amphitheater Saturday at 10 and 11 a.m. respectively.

Both days, Don Renfroe and his matched pair of mules will be giving wagon rides around the grounds and Bodiford and Southern Strings and the Broken Strings Bluegrass Band will provide background music that will add flavor and fun to the old-time festival.

“We invite everyone to come out and spend the day with us,” Peak said. “We have a picnic area for those who want to bring along a picnic.

“The Pioneer Museum of Alabama is designed for family fun and learning and there’s no better time to visit the museum than on Pioneer Days.”