There's ancient history. There's modern history.

And then there's living history. At Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum, history is alive and thriving.

A Pennsylvania German heritage site situated at 2451 Kissel Hill Road, Lancaster, Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum is an exploratory learning tool and a portal to the locale's past. Among its highlights are its interactive nature, craft demonstrations and volunteers dressed in period garb.

"George and Henry Landis envisioned Landis Valley being a Williamsburg in central Pennsylvania," said Timothy Essig, a museum educator at Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum. "They envisioned this living history museum of Pennsylvania Dutch in southcentral Pennsylvania. Living history is a re-enactment of a previous time period. When you come to Landis Valley and you see these different living history demonstrations, you see a living portrait of life from 200 years ago."

Located in Manheim Township, Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum consists of 40 acres of general Pennsylvania Dutch living history surrounded by 60 acres of fields and farmland. Nearly 60 buildings have been erected on the property, some of which are historically interpreted constructions that provide the village with its 18th- and 19th-century atmosphere and others of which serve supportive purposes.

Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum is a state-operated facility that is also supported by the Landis Valley Associates.

"Our goal continues to be to share the story of this unique culture in American history," said Essig. "When you come to Landis Valley, you're going to learn about agriculture, different trades and the architecture of the overall German contribution to the American culture. We do tell a big story."

The peoples who would later come to be known as Pennsylvania Dutch immigrated to the United States and the area in three distinct waves, from the 1680s to the 1840s. Brothers and Landis Valley founders Henry and George Landis collected more than 200,000 objects related to these immigrants' culture and stored them in buildings that, in 1925, became the foundation upon which Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum was built.

When the state became involved with its operation in the mid-1950s, Landis Valley was transformed into the living history village it is today.

"Henry and George Landis were two men focused on their culture," said Essig. "They weren't millionaires, but they spent their entire lives collecting artifacts of that culture."

Today, Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum hosts nearly 70,000 visitors each year for school field trips, family vacation visits, bus trips from destinations mainly east of the Mississippi River, special events and facility rentals. The visitors come mostly from southeast and southcentral Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey and from as far away as the rest of the 50 states and even other countries.

The mission of Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum is supported by hundreds of volunteers.

"History is not 'was'; history 'is,'" said Essig. "You experience history when you visit Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum. History comes to life."

For additional information on Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum, go to http://www.landisvalleymuseum.org.