We ARE Open

Despite the big hole in the road between us and town, we are open. You just have to approach from the south.

Locals…cut through Barsness Park.
Out of town visitors, follow the detour signs for Highway 104.

Or call for directions 320-634-3293

Museum reduced hours

Due to rare scheduling conflicts, the Pope County Museum will be
closed on Thursday, September 22.
It will be open only from 10-12 on Friday the 23rd.
Normal hours will resume on Saturday the 24th.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

The Pope County Museum’s usual hours are 10-5 Tuesday – Saturday.

Class of 1923 – I know you!

The Pope County Historical Society received a donation from the Savre family. The main gift was a beautiful wedding dress worn by 2 generations of brides. That is a story for another day.

What I want to share with you is a photograph that came in with dress. This is Glenwood High School class of 1923, taken when they were freshmen, so probably in 1920. (Valborg Savre, one of the brides to wear the dress, is a member of this class.)

I am sitting at my computer cataloging the image into our museum database. Everyone in this image is labeled, so I have lots of names to enter.

What strikes me most as I type in the names, is how many names I recognize. I am 44 years old, these people would be about 107 if they were still living. I have never met any of them personally. Yet, after working at the museum for 10 years, I “know” many of them. It is fun to see them as young people.

I will introduce you to a few of my friends in the class of 1923:
Agnes Hovde put together the toy exhibit in the museum when it opened in 1966. Most of the dolls in our collection belonged to her.
Donald Fralick enlisted in the Army to fight in the Spanish American War. He was sent to a camp in Georgia under very poor conditions. Although he didn’t see action, he was brave enough to enlist and suffered hardship during his service. Upon return, he worked for the Soo Line Railroad and was active in city government.
Charles Royster was brother to William, the man who created the Railroad pension system, upon which our modern Social Security System is based.
Faun Hommen is in pictures already in our collection of children in front of a country school.
Lucille Berry and Elsie Toombs are sitting next to each other. Their families are linked by marriage and were the proprietors of Berry and Toombs Furniture and Undertaking in Glenwood.
Gilman Gandrud and Sophus Hafstad are ancestors to my schoolmates. Jean Elsey and Walter Finden are ancestors (or a great aunt) to my parents’ classmates.
Other surnames are very familiar, even if I don’t know the individual without looking up his or her file: Grove, Barsness, Lybeck, Ronnig, Dougherty, Christilaw, Quist, Squire, and Peacock are long standing Pope County names.

I know that if I actually started pulling out family files and researching the individuals, I would find many stories about these 55 young people and where their lives led them. But that will have to wait for another day – I have more photographs and artifacts to process today.

Feel free to stop in to see what’s new in the collection and discover what we have on YOU and YOUR FAMILY.

If you are really curious, these are all the people in the photograph:

Barlow, Mabel

Barsness, Lila

Berry, Lucille

Christilaw, Chester

Councilman, Clarence

Councilman, Lara

Davidson, Sidney

Davis, Nora

Dobbin, Wallace

Dougherty, James

Eastman, Lubelle

Elsey, Jean

Finden, Walter

Fischer, Orrel

Foote, Maynard

Fralick, Donald

Gandrud, Gilman

Grove, Hazel

Haberman, Elenora

Hafstad, Sophus

Haltorson, Harry

Hammond, Stephen

Hammond, Willard

Hanson, Adah

Homman, Faun

Hovde, Agnes

Jenkinson, Annis

Johnson, Vernon

Johnson, Viola

Jordan, Lloyd

Jorgenson, Iver

Kohler, Albert

Larson, Leonard

Lubeck, Richard

McLean, Hector

Milsten, Gilbert

Morck, Viola

Nelson, Katherine

Norris, Edmond

Olson, Clifford

Padden, Walter

Pederson, Grant

Peterson, Stanton

Quist, Orning

Ronning, Ruth

Rowe, Edgar

Royster, Charles

Sansness, Ellen

Savre, Valborg

Smith, Ruth

Squires, Charles

Strand, Julia

Susag, Florence

Toombs, Elsie

Turner, Alice

Cabin Repairs – Day 8

Work continued over the weekend, but I didn’t capture it on film.

Today is the last day with the work crew and it is amazing what they accomplished in a week.

Still working on the windows

Adding a few new shingles and a new ridge line to the roof.

The Torguson cabin is looking good too.

And… the “after” pictures just before the crew left.

One window on the “Courthouse” cabin finished.

Two windows on the Torguson cabin finished.

We will finish the last two windows on the Courthouse cabin, stain the new logs and add water seal.

Thanks for a great week!!

Cabin Repairs – Day 5

The final caulking is being applied to the Courthouse cabin.

The log replacements are complete.

They even practiced splicing two logs together.

The second coat of chinking is being applied to the North side of the Torguson Cabin.

While the South side is being prepped with metal strips to hold the first layer of mortar / chinking.

Cabin Repairs – Day 4

Cleaned out areas are filled in with putty.

The spaces between the logs are filled with foam strips.

The foam strips are sealed with “log jam” caulking.

Progressing to the far side of the cabin.

Young workers are learning preservation skills from log cabin veterans.

Cabin Repair – Day 3

Moving right along with cabin repairs.

Weather sealing crack in good logs

Shaping the beams

Setting the new logs into place

This piece was “painted” with vinegar to weather it. We need to find the right formula to weather the new logs to match the old ones.

The Torguson Cabin chinking is also moving along. The old concrete was removed, metal mesh is added to the space to help hold the new mortar.