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Museum News & Happenings 7/16/21

Posted: July 16, 2021

Farm Technology Days is in town July 20-22. Eau Claire's very own Huntsinger Farms is hosting the statewide event which is expected to draw 40,000 people. Chippewa Valley Museum will be at Farm Technology Days with our traveling Farm Life exhibit and an artifact guessing game. Stop in to the Rural Event Center and say hello.

Aerial view of Huntsinger Farms, 1956, Hwy. 37 south of Eau Claire. This is the location of the 2021 Farm Technology Days. 

Listen Up! Outdoor Music Series
Chippewa Valley Museum Grounds, Carson Park

More than a 100 people enjoyed a perfect afternoon listening to the Maple Ridge Band last Saturday. There are two more concerts left in this summer's outdoor music series. The Listen Up! exhibit and Ramone’s Ice Cream will be available during and after the concerts. In the event of inclement weather, music will move inside the museum.
Sunday, Aug. 8, 12pm - 2pm.
Eggplant Heroes. An eclectic mix of originals, literary adaptations, mountain gospel, and folk.

Sunday, Aug 15, 1pm- 2pm. 
Minnesota State Fiddlers Association  (MSFA)
Upper Midwest Music fiddle music.

This free concert series is made possible by WESTconsin Credit Union, Volume One, and Chippewa Valley Family

Summer Scavenger Hunt Results


And the winners are....

Joyce Plummer: $100 Chamber Bucks
Peyton Steward: Fourth of July basket
Traci, Carin, and C.J. Marsolek: Fourth of July basket

More than 80 people participated and 27 groups submitted complete answers to the quiz. You can still search for these summer spots, take the quiz, and discover something new about the place you live. The map and quiz will live on the museum's website for the rest of the summer.

Thank you to Searching for Summer Scavenger Hunt sponsors Volume One/Chippewa Valley Family, Charter Bank, Downtown Eau Claire Inc and West Grand Business District.

Scavenger Hunt

Forest Hill Cemetery Walking Tour
August 2 (full) or August 9, 6:30 - 8:00

There are a few spots left for this summer's walking tour led by retired UW-Eau Claire History Professor Robert Gough and UW-Eau Claire Archivist Greg Kocken. Registration is $10/member, $20/nonmember. Each date is limited to 20 registered participants.

There is a waiting list for the August 2 tour. If you register for either tour but find you cannot attend, please call to cancel so somebody can fill you spot. Start location and other details will be sent to registrants the Sunday prior to the tour. Contact Angela at a.allred@cvmuseum.com or (715) 834-7871 to register or for more details.
Register

Help Celebrate Eau Claire's Sesquicenntenial 
 
That's right. The City of Eau Claire is on the brink of a major anniversary. The City of Eau Claire formed in March 1872 when West Eau Claire, Eau Claire Village (east side), and North Eau Claire agreed to become one big (happy) city.

Your gift to the Eau Claire Community Foundation will help build Eau Claire Then and Now, an exhibit to celebrate this milestone. Every gift today can have an even greater impact because the three organizations that raise the most by July 28 receive bonus gifts: $10,000, $7,000, $5,000. Use this link to see how much each organization has raised.

Here's how to give:
• Cash Donations: Send checks to ECCF, 306 S. Barstow St. Suite 104, Eau Claire, WI, 54701, with the Chippewa Valley Museum in the memo line. Envelopes must be postmarked by July 28.

• IRA Option: Required minimum distribution (RMD) from retirement funds kick in at age 70.5. This may be a great opportunity for you to utilize an IRA to support the museum. You must notify ECCF of the incoming gift by July 28.

• Online. Click the Donate button below and it will take you straight to the ECCF donation page. 
 
Thank you. Your support makes big things happen
Donate

The Village of Eau Claire looking southwest from the Eastside Hill a few years before the big merger with West Eau Claire and North Eau Claire. Your gift to the ECCF will help explore the many changes in Eau Claire's built environment.
The key to the numbers:

1: East Side School
2: Eau Claire Lumber co. farm
3: State Street hill
4: Court House (Wilson Park today)
5: Original First Prebysterian Church, built 1857
6: Chippewa River

There's still plenty of summer left. Go find a Biking Into History map and discover Eau Claire. If you are a Friend member or above ($100+) use your NARM membership benefit and visit other NARM museums, admission-free. Visit Ramone's Ice Cream at the museum and get a Jacobson's Market hotdog or an Ultimate Oreo shake (my favorite). Enjoy the summer as much as you can, humidity and all.

Peace,
Carrie Ronnander
Chippewa Valley Museum Director

P.S. It's no secret I enjoy visiting cemeteries. It's something I do with my husband, also a historian by training and great fan of local history. But rather than carry on about our love for cemeteries, I'm turning the rest of this postscript over to retired UWEC history Professor Robert Gough.
Forest Hill Cemetery, on Eau Claire’s Eastside Hill, is an historic landscape holding stories of life and death dating to the late 1850s. On August 2 and August 9 myself and UWEC Archivist Greg Kocken will unlock and share some of the most interesting stories behind the historically significant burial markers in the cemetery.
       
The markers themselves tell a story. Their design and symbolism say something about both the individual whose death they mark and the ideas that people in Eau Claire had historically about death and burial. The tours will also point out some of the interesting and important aspects of the lives of the buried individuals, including murder, scandal, heroism and heartbreak.
Close-up of Eau Claire plat map, 1877      
Forest Hill still shows its origins in the Country Cemetery Movement of mid-19th century America. But as Eau Claire and its residents have changed over time, so has Forest Hill, creating interesting juxtapositions between burial styles as well as the class and ethnicity of individuals buried in proximity to one another.

Beginning at 6:30 pm, the tours will concentrate on the western half of the cemetery, including a stop at the Jane Putnam Memorial Chapel. After about an hour and a half, persons if they wish can move to the upper level for a short conclusion to the tour. Forest Hill will appreciate not bringing pets on the tours.-- Robert Gough

I know the tours are mostly full. (Hint - to be in the know for upcoming tours, and register at a discount, become a museum member.) If you can't get on the tour registration list, know that we will be sharing some more short video clips on the history Forest Hill Cemetery. 
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