Morrison County Historical Society

Programs: The morrison county historical society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving and sharing morrison county history. It owns and operates the charles a. Weyerhaeuser memorial museum. In meeting its mission in 2017, the organization engaged in the following activities:created mchs's first formal strategic plan. Led an initiative to have an economic impact study done on the history, arts and cultural organizations in morrison county. The study was conducted by creative minnesota, with results released in february 2018. Published 4 newsletters, featuring articles such as "fallout shelters," "ed tanner's snowsuit," "growing the green," "landmark lost" (fire that destroyed the darling church), "brown's syrup," "the history of america first," "unsolved: disappearance of harold tidd," "st. Otto's orphan asylum," "e. I. Horsman company 'brother' doll," "the courage of their convictions," "pete liljedahl: little falls' coach & world war i hero, and "kiewel copper steam whistle. " grew the mchs collections through donations from members and friends. Assisted visitors with county history research and taking self-guided tours of the museum. Provided guided tours to various groups, including regional school children. Hosted a number of special events, including a cemetery walk, a retirement party for museum assistant alice smuda, "how to analyze the news" class, "sorting for history" class, a presentation on the archives at st. Cloud state university by tom steman, "marvelous contraptions of morrison county"(exhibit by intern rin gaubatz), a 90th anniversary exhibit for charles lindbergh's flight, a program by rob mann on archaeology at the little elk site, a walking tour of the little falls ravine, a guided tour of the historic morrison county courthouse, luncheon for the lincoln/jefferson highways tour, exhibit on disasters at the morrison county fair, archaeology of state parks program at annual meeting by jim cummings, a dream catcher class, a book signing by marcia anderson (author of "a bag worth apony"), lunchtime on location with the little falls chamber of commerce, november new member month, and new year's eve candlelight hike (postponed a week due to extreme cold). Maintained an active online presence via our blog/website, facebook and twitter. The mchs websitesaw 89,324 unique visitors during the year. Received veterans' records from morrison county's veterans services office. Organized various projects related to the building and grounds into the capacity improvements project. Contracted a study of the hvac system by questions & solutions engineering. Mary warner served as a member of the legacy strategic agenda collaborative and was a member of the state review board for the national register of historic places. She also received disaster planning training for museums. Curator ann marie johnson presented a session at the state historic preservation conference with preservation alliance of minnesota and linden hill. Hosted a raffle and a silent auction as fundraisers. Provided guidance on historic preservation for an historic cabin on lake alexander. Started a collaboration with the lindbergh house & museum and minnesota military museum on the project "central minnesota remembers vietnam. "had prairie seeds harvested by doug ploof's little falls high school natural resources class. Had an intern, april legatt, assist with accessioning musical instruments. Number of members in 2017: 233number of collections donors: 93number of researchers: 364number of visitors who signed guest book: 840