McFarland State Historic Park — Florence

Certified Autism Center. Closed Sundays.

About this adventure

McFarland State Historic Park is a small history museum in Florence, housed in the McFarland courthouse building, whose original structure dates from 1878. The building itself makes a good lesson for children about how Territorial Arizona was built: it was made by hand from local materials, with adobe bricks of local soil laid on a trench foundation filled with river rocks, and the lumber for its floors and roof was hauled by wagon from northern Arizona. Its wood-shingled pitched roof over traditional adobe walls marks the transition between Sonoran and Anglo-American architecture. Inside, the museum tells the story of Ernest McFarland and of life on the American frontier around the turn of the century, and it is one stop on Florence's history tour of the town. The park is a Certified Autism Center. Children and teens 18 and under get in free, and adults pay $5. From October through April the museum and visitor center are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday; from May through September hours are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the park is closed on Sundays. The park's events page says new programs are added each month; none were listed in late October 2026.