New History Center connects youth with their local history
By Erin Bozek-Jarvis, 17, and Maggie Guter, 13

Over the past year the Marquette community has been witnessing the transformation of the former Marq-Tran bus station from an empty building to the new Marquette Regional History Center. The $3.8 million project, funded by private donations and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, is scheduled to open to the public this month. Visitors to the Center will see that while renovations on the exterior of the building are impressive, an even greater change has been occurring inside the museum.

The updated museum features many new interactive features in its exhibits, including touch screens and computers. Implemented to engage the public, these state of the art features are targeted towards a specific demographic. Tiina Harris, museum educator for the Center, believes that presenting information in fresh and interactive ways will help to attract youth to the new facility.

“ The museum realizes we need to attract younger people and one way to do that is with technology,” Harris said. “Instead of having text all around you’ll just do it by touch screen.”

The new permanent exhibit covers local history from the time of the glacier, up to more contemporary events like advances in snowmobiling and hockey at the Plaestra, predecessor to Marquette’s Lakeview Arena. Despite the wide range of topics, a focus will be placed on the early inhabitants of this region.

“ We’re going to focus our curriculum in the beginning on the fur trade and the Ojibwa,” said Harris. “I definitely want kids to have the experience of trading, early economics and how that worked, and the cultural exchange.”

Included in the new exhibits is an authentic wigwam built by Copper Country Native American craftsman Earl Ochiwanagan. Another highlight is a pioneer cabin that was the residence of a family in Ishpeming and was reconstructed to present to visitors what life was like for a family in the mid-1800s.

Another area titled “ Arrivals and Departures” chronicles the experiences of soldiers from the Upper Peninsula during war. The exhibit covers all the major wars from the Civil War to Vietnam. Included is a replica of a World War I trench and a collection of historic rifles and guns.

Yet another section of the exhibit focuses on innovations and inventions made by people who lived in the Upper Peninsula, including the "wooden lung" artificial respirator and snow scoop.

The exhibit hall has representations of contemporary history as well, including a model of a Yooper Camp and display of a hockey game between the Green Bay Bobcats and the Marquette Iron Rangers.

Harris hopes that the wide range of exhibits will help to attract a new audience to the center. Displayed through out the exhibit hall are countless artifacts that the museum has been accumulating.

“ For 90 years we’ve been collecting artifacts and we have things that date back 10,000 years,” Harris explained.

With the new technology, these numerous artifacts can be preserved for future generations.

“ Now these objects can be protected,” Harris said, “Not just for the kids that are coming here but their kids and their kids.”

At the History Center, young visitors will go through the exhibits and will be offered the opportunity to have a hands-on experience with history. For example, the new facility has an expanded library and a classroom. Harris envisions young people taking advantage of the updated and enlarged library, compared to the former museum.

“ Before we weren’t advertising heavily for kids, like say a primary or secondary school to come here to do research, because we didn’t have space or the staff to handle students and now we do,” Harris said.

Meredith Ruppert, who is an assistant research librarian at the Center, explains what kinds of materials are available to students interested in using the collection.

“ We have a lot of materials like old photographs that people have donated to us that belonged to their family and old scrapbooks and journals and hand written letters that are really old and fragile,” said Ruppert. “So people come here to look at that information and we keep it here nice and safe because it’s old and fragile so everyone can use it.”

The updates to the History Center’s document and book collection will help to enhance the experience of student visitors, according to Ruppert.

“ It’s all accessible and it’s going to be taken care of a lot better,” Ruppert explained. “It’s going to be easier for us to have more people come here and do more things and it’s going to be easier for us to use our materials and our artifacts with programs with the schools.”

Harris agrees that a good museum experience is not just about seeing the exhibits, but also learning the full scope of what museums do.
In addition to the larger library, Harris hopes a classroom that has been installed within the Center will help to improve kids’ experience.

“ We really wanted to create a space where kids could not just learn about history but interact with history,” she said. “Become a part of making history and that’s the need for the classroom.”

The new location and the many improvements made will hopefully help to not only draw more visitors, but also further enhance the educational value of a visit to the Center.

“ I think just by the fact that we have a new, beautiful space that is raising the professional standard that we’re going to attract a higher quality of lecturer or presenter,” Harris said.

She hopes the new Historical Center will attract youth and their families and that youth will become engaged in more than just visiting the exhibits.

“ They can continue to come and get involved in programs and in clubs, working on projects,” she said. “I want this to be a living place where kids and their families interact together and not just a place where you come.”

Harris feels that kids and their families should relate to the Center in a certain way.

“ I feel like this museum is all of ours and that we all have a part in it. Your family’s story somehow connects to this.”

Visitors to the Center may discover a connection to themselves and their history that they were unaware of before their visit. It may also help young people find a cultural identity in the Upper Peninsula, if they were otherwise eager to leave.

“ It’s interesting because you find you’ll learn a little bit about yourself,” Harris explained. “Sometimes I see a lot of young people that can’t wait to get out of the U.P., that can’t wait to move on to college, that want to move on and move to different places. But, this is a really unique area and I’m hoping that this museum can show people that our local history is unique, it’s beautiful.”

Harris believes that the museum will help both youth and adults identify with their history.

“ It gives you a better sense of who you are as a person to know where you come from.”