MUSEUM SPOTLIGHT

The Museum features over 100 exhibits depicting life on the Menominee Iron Range from the latter part of the nineteenth century through the early years of the twentieth century. Some of the highlights at this location include:

• A country store welcomes visitors upon entering the museum, stocked with a wide variety of life's necessities from the turn of the twentieth century.

• A dugout canoe dating from between 1650 and 1756, found on the West Branch of the Sturgeon River near Foster City highlights a collection of regional Native American artifacts. A birch bark canoe made by the Menominee Indians who lived in Badwater is also displayed, dating from the early 1900s.

• Early area settlement is shown by a Native American diorama, a trapper's cabin, trading post and real estate office. Lumberjack tools, a gun collection and the interior of an iron mine round out displays focusing on early area history.

• A late Victorian parlor, center of family activity on special days, contains a pump organ, an Edison photograph with elaborately painted morning glory horn and an antique grandfather's clock. A typical bedroom is located in the adjoining diorama.

• A barber shop, doctor's office, dentist's office, pharmacy, watchmaker's shop, ice house, milk house, barn and stable help round out the depictions of everyday life around 1900. Children can sit in the graduated desks in the schoolroom.

• A moonshine still, folding bathtub, hand-cranked washing machine, early musical instruments, mechanical banks and early doll collection prove interesting to visitors.