Museums

Railroad Memories Museum
The museum is housed in the former Chicago & North Western Railway depot, Front Street, Spooner. 635-3325 or 635-2752. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Railroad artifacts fill 10 rooms, each room representing a different facet of the industry. The museum is non-profit and run by volunteers, many of them retired railroaders. Bus group tours and special showings can be arranged.

Log Museum and Howard A. Morey Homestead
Log Museum: Located beside Birchwood Village Hall, Main Street. Open 1 to 4 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Memorial Day through Labor Day. Morey House, located beside the ballfield, is open by appointment, 354-7300, or through the attendant at the Log Museum. The Log Museum was built by volunteers and houses hand-crafted logging displays, an albino deer, and artifacts from the early logging days. The Morey House is nearly a century old and was owned by Howard Morey, an aviation industry pioneer who trained hundreds of pilots during World War II. The house is restored in the style of the mid-teens to early-1920s.

Museum of Woodcarving
Located on Hwy. 63, Shell Lake. 468-7100. Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., May through October. The museum features the work of Joseph Barta, formerly a school teacher from Spooner. Displayed are more than 100 life-size laminated sculptures made from ponderosa and sugar pine, each depicting the life of Jesus Christ. The collection also includes 400 of Barta's miniature carvings, mostly animals. The museum is one of the world's largest collections of woodcarvings by a single artist.

Stone Lake Area Historical Museum
Located on Slayton Road (Hwy. 70 to Cty. Hwy. AA by the Stone Lake Lions Park; north three miles to Slayton Road; turn right) Follow Heritage signs from Hwy. 70. Open Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Satudays. For information call Barbara Ruprecht, 865-2750, or Rosemarie Bradley, 865-3331. The museum debuted in 1998 in the former Stone Lake Town Hall, created by the Stone Lake Area Historical Society and staffed by volunteers. Artifacts and pictures depicting history in the greater Stone Lake area are displayed.

Washburn County Historical Museums
The Washburn County Historical Society manages two museums in the county.

Shell Lake, 102 West Second Avenue, Shell Lake. 468-2982. Open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Wednesday through Saturday in June, July, and August. Guided tours are held at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Antiques and memorabilia from the area fill the museum, which comprises the former St. John's Lutheran Church, built in 1888, its parsonage, a one-room schoolhouse, and a building once used as a base for searching the sky for enemy German planes during World War II.

Springbrook, off of Hwy. 63. 766-3876 (museum director). Open from 11 a.m. through 4 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The museum is housed in the former St. Magdalene Catholic Church, built in 1906. Displays include historical pictures of the area's history and people, plus old Army and Navy uniforms, farmers' tools, doctors' instruments, railroad items, and church artifacts.

Wisconsin Canoe Heritage Museum
Opening Spring 2009. Click here for the museum website.