Life on the Frontier: Laundry

Clothes have always gotten dirty, especially on a frontier ranch like the McCormick’s at San Jacinto. Before mechanical washing machines were invented, women relied on scrubbing their family’s clothes against a washboard to clean them, then hanging them up on a line to dry. It could take all day to do a family’s laundry! Learn how laundry was done in the 1830s and help us clean some bandanas with an old-fashioned washtub and washboard. You might even get to take your bandana home with you once it’s dry!