Envisioning history

Displays for new museum taking shape

By KRISTEN KOHRT Journal Staff Writer
MARQUETTE — The Marquette County History Museum is still two years away from moving to its new home on Spring Street, but the staff is already getting geared up for the move by literally picturing what the new exhibits will look like.


The museum employed Taylor Studios in Illinois to create sketches depicting dioramas for the new facility, such as a fur trading post, a beaver dam, underwater Lake Superior and an American Indian’s wigwam.


Executive Director Kaye Hiebel said the new museum will have more exhibits focusing on the natural history of Marquette County, like how glaciers formed the Great Lakes and how beaver dams effected the ecosystem and began the trading of fur.


“The natural resources are really what brought everyone here,” she said. “There’s no other museum that really tells the story of the natural history of this area.”


Many of the exhibits will be three-dimensional, allowing visitors to actually enter a fur-trading post with a fur, have it weighed and see what kind of supplies they can get by trading it. The Lake Superior exhibit will give visitors the illusion that they are deep under the water.


The museum is working with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to catch some of the deep lake fish species that many people did not even know existed in Lake Superior, Hiebel said. The National Weather Service will include information on how the lake impacts weather systems.


Museum educator Tiina Harris said she hopes the museum will be able to work more closely with area schools and integrate the exhibits into the schools’ curriculum.


“I really want to make the museum an extension of the classroom,” she said. “It’s totally under utilized right now. I want to make it more accessible.”


Harris said by including natural history in the exhibits, teachers can use the museum for more than just history lessons.


Hiebel said the museum will also refer visitors to other museums that have a more specialized theme, like the Marquette Maritime Museum and the Negaunee Iron Industry Museum. Overall the goal is to remind locals about the heritage of their community and to show tourists why the Upper Peninsula is so special.


“We really want this to be a very special experience for people who live here,” she said. “And for visitors, we want to give them a better understanding of what makes us tick up here.”