Francy that: Every museum has its stories

Museums are not just repositories of objects, they are living spaces that tell stories, bring people together, and create understanding."

– Unknown

We like to hold on to our history as evidenced by the local museums in Carlton County. Cloquet, Moose Lake, and Esko museums retain artifacts of our past to help us remember people who worked, played and formed the society and culture we enjoy today. The stories and insights we garner from a visit to the museum can improve our perspective on life and enhance our world view.

Last month, Ken Buehler, executive director of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum (LSRM) in Duluth, presented a program at the Cloquet Public Library titled "Most Everything in a Museum Was Stolen." He said, "Theft of history, whether it be great works of art or great works of civilization, have always been stolen." He lists examples of artifacts from the Parthenon in Greece to those of Native American cultures as examples.

"As a museum, you really need to respect where your artifacts came from and who they really belong to and either get permission or repatriate them," Buehler said. "One of the things that makes the LSRM so unique is that we do appreciate where the artifacts came from. We're doing much more to tell that story."

One of the stories Buehler shared is related to the steam engine William Crooks No. 1. Built in 1861, it was the first locomotive in the state of Minnesota. He tells how a young Canadian man followed his teacher's advice to locate near a river because that was where commerce happened. The young man moved to St. Anthony Falls, now Minneapolis, and began a trading company. He joined with others to purchase the William Crooks and other equipment from a bankrupt railroad. They established the first rail line to ship goods from St. Anthony Falls to Winnipeg, Canada. The company continued the expansion to the West Coast and built the Great Northern Railway.

The young man was James J. Hill who became the "Empire Builder," but his first engine can be seen in the LSRM in Duluth.

The William Crooks is "owned by the state of Minnesota, but they had no place to put it. So, we got it," Buehler said.

It's not exactly stolen, just on permanent loan.

Buehler described the acquisition of several other engines by the museum that required a bit of "creative" finagling by lovers of railroad history. Buehler smiled as he explained that one engine arrived with a crew of former employees who repaired the engine when the company they worked for went bankrupt. They wanted to preserve the story of this steam locomotive. So, they brought it to Duluth.

"As the last employees of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific shop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we'd like to donate this engine to the LSRM," the employees said.

However, when Don Shank, one of the founders of the museum, asked, "Who do I send a thank you letter to?" since he wasn't expecting this delivery, the employees said, "No. No, thank you letter." It seems the project was a bit of a clandestine operation.

Buehler recounted another escapade by employees of the US Steel Plant in Morgan Park. As the mill was being shuttered, the rail cars were being sent to the scrap yard. The plant had three small engines used for moving materials around the plant. The employees, as in the case of the Milwaukee crew, did not want to see the engines all turned to scrap. So, one night they managed to take the "Seven Spot" engine, run it into a shed near the plant, and hide it behind other equipment.

Three years later one of the employees called Shank and told him where to find the shed with the engine that is now part of the LSRM collection.

Of course, not all of the collection of LSRM has been stolen, but the stories recounted by Buehler provide insight into the former workers who believe these "iron horses" deserve to be saved and their place in our history preserved. Many former railroad employees are part of the museum's volunteer team.

"What you see when you travel to the LSRM is a piece of historic railroad equipment, but with all things in every museum, there's a story. What we're trying to do is to tell more of the story," Buehler said.

Writer Francy Chammings is a retired English teacher and clinical psychologist who loves living in Carlton County.