Visiting one or more of the many area museums will free of charge on Saturday.

Museum Day, created by Smithsonian Magazine, started over a decade ago and 40,000 institutions are expected to participate, including museums in St. Joseph.

St. Joseph Museums Public Relations Officer Kathy Reno said there are a variety of museums in the area with something for everyone.

“Each museum kind of does their own thing, they have their own hours, they may be having docents more on site that day.. I would check with each museum that you’re interested in visiting, and check out their hours on their website and plan your day,” Reno said. “I do think this day is a lot of fun… You might want to do the Remington Nature Center, which I know my three-year-old granddaughter just adores. So you can also think about the age of the people in your family and plan your day that way.”

Reno said one of the things being offered at the Glore Psychiatric Museum is guided tours of the history of mental health treatments.

“We thought we would provide our best guides and give you the experience of it. It can be intense and it helps if you have a guide and they make it interesting,” Reno said. “They’ll include one of the tunnels in the tour. Tunnels once connected the main buildings of the hospital. There is one that is accessible that was part of a patient art project.. Quite unusual.”

Guided tours of the history of mental health treatments will be given at 11 a.m. and at 1, 2, and 3 p.m. at the Glore Psychiatric Museum. At the St. Joseph Museum, the featured exhibit is World War I St. Joseph:  Community and Conflict.  At the Wyeth-Tootle Mansion, docents will be available to share the history of the Mansion and visitors can tour “Intersections of Time and Buildings,” “The Architecture of E. J. Eckel,” “Confluence:  The Great Flood of 1993,” and “Ruth Warrick:  Fame and Politics.”

Museum Day takes place Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018. For more information and a list of museums participating in the area, click here.