Children will be racing for saltwater taffy shot from a candy cannon at Fort Nisqually Living History Museum’s Family Fun Night, on Friday, July 14 from 6 to 9 p.m.

Family Fun Night is an evening of 19th century entertainment for kids of all ages. Families can bring a picnic dinner and settle in for games, music, and the firing of the candy cannon.

Visitors can earn prizes for competing in classic competitions like a plate and cup race, sack race, and three legged race. Think you know the fort? Fort staff have devised a challenge in which participants accomplish tasks around the site to win a special reward.

Music was a big part of life at Fort Nisqually in 1855. Kids will have a chance to hear instruments common to the period, learn a song on the penny whistle, and pluck a mandolin and dulcimer. The highlight of the evening comes with the firing of saltwater taffy from the candy cannon. Scramble across the meadow and collect as much candy as you can hold. Ice cream and lemonade will be served, while supplies last.

This year’s Family Fun Night is sponsored, in part, by Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital.
Event admission is $8-$10, and children 3 and younger are free. For more information visit FortNisqually.org or call (253) 591-5339.

About the museum
Located in Tacoma’s Point Defiance Park, Fort Nisqually Living History Museum is a restoration of the Hudson’s Bay Company outpost on Puget Sound. Visitors experience daily life during the 1850s with the help of costumed interpreters. Seven restored and reconstructed 1850s buildings are open to the public, including two National Historic Landmarks. There is also a Visitor Center with Museum Store. The Fort is a facility of Metro Parks Tacoma.

– Fort Nisqually Living History Museum