Christmas Open House & Silent Auction – Dec 1-5

Excitement is building at the Pope County Museum, as more than 30 brightly wrapped baskets of goodies are being filled and decorated for our Christmas open house. The annual Christmas open house will be on Saturday, December 5^th, 1-4:00. This year’s open house has a special feature – a gift basket silent auction.  PCHS board member, Wendy Zander, has worked diligently gathering merchandise, handcrafts, art, entertainments, diversions and gift certificates.

Many baskets were assembled to relate to exhibits in the museum gallery.  There will be home made wooden bird feeders from 4-H members by the woodshop exhibit, a road trip basket with goodies and essentials for a Sunday drive by the 1914 Chevrolet Baby Grand touring car, and a “diaper cake” in the children’s nursery.

To make sure that everyone has an opportunity to bid on these great baskets, the open house lasts all week! The Museum will be open free of charge, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., December 1-5. The baskets will be on display and bidding will start Tuesday, December 1 and will end Saturday, December 5 at 4:00.

Some other items up for auction include: Ski and tubing passes from Andes Tower Hills along with hats, hot chocolate and hand warmers; prints and note cards by local artists; Curves Membership, with water bottle and pedometer; hair care products from Milady Milad and Profiles by Janel, gift certificates to area businesses; and a family pack from the Alexandria Beetles including tickets to baseball games, t-shirts, hat, ball & autograph book.

The baskets also include some fun events such as a home cooked wild game dinner with Chris & Tara Nelson; a special tea party; a round of golf on the Pezhekee National Golf Course and an evening or weekend day of ice fishing out in Jim Schroeder’s fish house complete with underwater camera.

Food items play a prominent roll as well. You can bid on dessert, casserole, or soup baskets that include everything you need to finish the recipe from all the ingredients and even the pan!  Keep and eye out too for baskets of jelly and pickles, seasonal pies delivered through the year; even a few special bake sale goodies.

“The Pope County business community and museum members have been very generous!  We know you will be impressed with the fantastic selection of baskets.  We had great fun building theme baskets relating to museum exhibits,” said Wendy Zander.

Stop by the Pope County Museum between Dec 1-5, check out the exhibits and place your bids. While you are there you can check out your family file in the archives.

Give to the MAX!

Today is Give to the Max Day! On this day of giving, we hope you will think of the Pope County Historical Society and that you will take advantage of this online matching gift program available only for gifts made on GiveMN.org or its sister site, Razoo.com, from 8:00 a.m. on November 17, 2009 until 8:00 am on November 18, 2009.

Every donation made during Give to the Max Day will receive a portion of the $500,000 match. This means the exact amount matched per dollar donated will be determined after Give to the Max Day concludes.*

GiveMN partners are paying the transaction costs for gifts made to Minnesota nonprofits through GiveMN on Give to the Max Day. These generous funds allow 100 percent of your gift to go straight to the Pope County Historical Society

What is GiveMN?
GiveMN.org is the smart way for you to discover, support and engage with the charities that are right for you. The online giving platform allows you to find and support organizations that match your philanthropic goals and easily keep track of your donations all in a single online location.

• Give local. Find your perfect Minnesotan match, such as the Pope County Historical Society.
• Give fast. Make online donations quickly and easily via credit card to any U.S. nonprofit.
• Give smart. Record all online contributions and store receipts.

As you consider your charitable end-of-year giving this season, please consider giving on Give to the Max Day (Nov. 17). Max your contribution to the Pope County Historical Society by making an online donation on Nov. 17. Go to GiveMN.org and click on the Pope County Historical Society.

*Individual donation transactions greater than $2,500 will be eligible for matching gifts up to $2,500 only. For example, if a donor makes a $2,500 donation to an organization, the full $2,500 will be eligible to receive a portion of the matching funds. If instead she donated $10,000 to an organization, only $2,500 would be eligible to receive a portion of the matching dollars.

Examples of how the matching dollars will work: if Give to the Max Day inspires $500,000 in donations, we will provide $1 in matching funds per dollar donated to an organization; if Give to the Max Day inspires $2,000,000 in donations, we will provide $.25 in matching funds per dollar donated to an organization.

Collection find – Shoshone Dolls

This pair of Shoshone dolls from the Wyoming tribe is from our Cleora Helbing Native American Arts and crafts collection.

According to Cleora’s notes, these dolls were made by Eva or Annie Washakie, granddaughter of Chief Washakie. (Cleora’s object notes listed the maker as Annie Washakie, while her guidebook said it was Eva Washakie that made the dolls.) The story in the guidebook notes that Eleanor Roosevelt came to visit Haskell Institute, and the director of the school wished to give her these dolls, but the student refused. She said she had made the dolls specifically for Miss Helbing.

In 2008, we contacted a Shoshone Artist names Eva McAdams (Formerly Eva Washakie), but unfortunately, she was not the maker of the dolls. She did however remember Annie Washakie who had a daughter Eva who went to an indian boarding school. Both Annie and Eva have since passed away.

Display panels

About one year ago, we installed a new mobile display system. Since that time, it has attracted the attention of other museums. Just this morning, we received a call from the Sherberne History Center and heard that the kind folks at the Minnesota Historical Society told them that we had a great system in place. It is exciting to hear our display praised and to help other museums with their art storage and display solutions.

Here is the original article about our art display:

With the help of Clyde Machines a new mobile display system has been installed to hold over fifty large framed portraits.  These images have been in storage for several years.  Working from a catalog photo and museum dimensions, Steve Nestor, “Old Settler” and PCHS volunteer, designed a custom fitted series of display panels to hold the settler portraits.  The panels hang in front of shelves of record books.  The panels are easily shifted along tracks usually used for pole barn doors to allow access to reference shelving behind the panels.  Chad Barsness led Clyde Machines’ staff to weld and paint the metal mesh panels.  Nestor and PCHS board member Dave Cooley installed the overhead track and hung the completed panels in place.

The whole project – design, materials, fabrication and installation – were underwritten by Clyde Machines of Glenwood. Company officials, Jennifer Barsness and Araura Nestor, are very pleased to have been able to assist in the project. Clyde Machines was established in Glenwood in 1961 by their father, the late Clyde Olson.  Mr. Olson was always interested in “making new stuff” and made a career of designing new products especially for the farm and airline industries.  Nearly fifty years after bringing his business to Glenwood, Clyde Olson’s creative spirit and can-do attitude are evident not only at the company that bears his name but throughout our community.  We are especially proud to complete this project with the talents of our membership.  The result is a beautiful and very functional display system customized to the space and needs of PCHS.  Please join us in extending our appreciation to Jennifer, Araura, Steve, Chad and the staff at Clyde Machines!

HAUNTED TOUR

HAUNTED TOUR – SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24th

Just in time for Halloween, the Pope County Museum invites you aboard the SPOOKIEST SPOTS IN POPE COUNTY BUS TOUR!

70 year old Lowry mystery solved? New information on the Sawyer Ranch House! Searching for the Lost Regiment Swamp.

Rebecca Webb will lead you on a two-hour sunset tour to destinations associated with some of the more chilling aspects of Pope County History. New insights have been added since our 2006 tour. This tour sold out last time and seating is limited.

Call the museum to reserve your spot today 320-643-3293. Price of the tour is $10 and the bus leaves the museum at 4:30.

Please note – this event is not recommended for children under 13.

A Child’s Joy

Child's Joy Exhibit

Our summer rotunda exhibit is in its last few weeks. This year’s summer exhibit features toys from different eras to encourage inter-generational discussions about favorite toys.
One of the fun things about toys is that many of the favorites are truly timeless. We have a toy farm with wooden figures and another new plastic farm. Even the modern “view-master” has an older ancestor in the stereoscope.
Please stop in and visit the toy display and post a note letting us know what YOUR favorite toy was when you were a child.

Visitors have posted notes with their favorite toys.

Annual Meeting Saturday, September 19, 1pm

Managing the Collection is the topic of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Historical Society. Merlin and Ann will use recent examples to talk about the various collections at PCHS. What do we collect, how can we pare down the collection, how do we use it for local history research? Join us!

St. Paul’s Church

Annual service at St. Paul's

Emmanuel Episcopal Church of Alexandria held their annual service at St. Paul’s Church on museum grounds last Sunday. A picnic lunch followed at Barsness Park. It was a beautiful day for it! We completed the St. Paul’s paint project last week. Members of Emmanuel generously supported the paint project and we thank them very much! PCHS board member, Wendy Zander, is also a member at Emmanuel and spearheaded the fundraising. Thank you Wendy! We also replaced the cross on the steeple. Storm damage required repairs, and Steve Haeckel assisted with placing it back on top.

Steve Haeckel reinstalls the cross on St. Paul's.

Potato Peeling Contest at the Fair!

The third annual potato peeling contest at the Pope County Fair is now history.

Merlin and his potato tower

Marge Lang was crowned the champion for the second year in a row. Our own Merlin Peterson was again a participant, but was unfortunately disqualified. His non-traditional peeling method was against the rules. Cutting the sides off with a knife just does not qualify as potato peeling.

But the rest of the contestants gave it their best effort. KMGK radio did a live “peel by peel” of the event. The grand champion for the 2nd year in a row was Marge Lang.

Potato Peeling Contest

Pope County Fair

The 123rd Pope County Fair is underway! PCHS has booth space in the “Industrial Building.” We brought in a few of Martin Boyers patented inventions and a slide show of 4H field day activities and livestock shows at the fair from the early 1960’s. Here are a couple of the shots. Stop by and say hello!