Historic 1855 home in Hudson, WI, just miles from the Twin Cities. With COVID restrictions lifted,…read morethe house is back open and ready to be toured. Come learn about the history of the Moffat family that built this unique home as a group, with friends or even solo! There is something to learn for all ages. The staff is very knowledgeable and friendly. The Octagon House also serves tea. Be sure to check out their website or give them a call directly to setup tea time. There is even a gift shop on-site where you can purchase glassware, ornaments, and garden decor. My family had a magical day out of the entire experience.

Drove 20 miles to visit and although the website said it was open when we arrived it was closed.read more

alot to see here. alot of info to take in and see. was fun and the people here are very educated in…read morethere area about history. would go abain for sure.

Little county pioneer museum! It's got a lot of strange farming equipment I don't recognize,…read morebeautiful landscaping, and great family friendly events like this local artist and authors' fair. They even have a pavilion where they give talks! Check it and and, yes, there's a Pokestop. Bring $10/person, $5/kids, if you want to explore the ground.

What a fantastic hidden gem! To spend a nice spring day, my family decided to drive to the little…read moretown of Scandia and spend the afternoon. Since we hadn't been to Scandia before, we didn't have anywhere particular in mind to go. When arriving at a park, we noticed it shared a space with Gammelgarden. When we had parked to go to the playground, we had actually parked in front of a Swedish historical museum. We were so pleasantly surprised! Visiting cultural and history sites is our favorite thing to do, so we couldn't believe our luck. To top it off, they were open on a Sunday for a guided tour! Our guide, named Reese, was in costume and was knowledgeable and had a great sense of humor. Finding a museum open for business on a Sunday in a small town was an unexpected pleasure. For the next couple of hours, we experienced the buildings and artifacts that make up this wonderfully historic little complex, including the oldest Lutheran church inthe state of Minnesota! Each house, called "hus", was filled with original artifacts from the people who lived in Sweden or Scandia as it was first blossoming as a settlement. The museum gave us information on upcoming events and classes that each member of my family would be interested in - including an event thus summer where participants roll "meatballs" made from painted golf balls down to Gammelgarden from a shop on the main street. We will definitely be coming back!

From the owner: Step back in history. Meaning "old farm" in Swedish, Gammelgården Museum of Scandia is the only…read moreopen-air museum devoted to preserving, presenting, and promoting Swedish immigrant heritage in the United States. In buildings that have been carefully preserved and restored, visitors can get a glimpse of the daily lives and artifacts of these immigrants and participate in events and classes. The Välkommen Hus and Butik gift shop are open daily from May through December. The five historical buildings are open from May through October. Join us for a tour of our buildings, Midsommar, Spelmansstämman, Swedish Coffee Parties, Girls & Dolls Tea Parties, Lutfisk, Lucia Dagen, and more.

I saw video from when the original owner had the place and it was actually maintained. What I…read moreexperienced was less than enjoyable. This place needs a lot of TLC. It's more of an animal farm than railroad museum.

Surrounded mostly by small farms and cornfields is a surprisingly interesting railroad museum that…read morefeatures 15-20 minute train rides on the Bumblebee Train on Saturdays between 10am-5pm. Rides cost $11 for adults and $9 for children and seniors. We headed out there to give our 3-year-old a thrill, and we all had a good time. My son's conductor cap blew off during the train ride, and luckily we had an extra cap. Losing his hat was a big deal for him - bring extra for your kids in case they blow off during the ride! The most fascinating part of our visit to the Ironhorse Central Railroad Museum was actually the tour of the grounds, and seeing the trains that they're restoring. We were able to climb inside these huge relics, and ring the bells, sit in the historic seats, and really see everything close up. I'm not even a train enthusiast, but I felt like I was on a steam engine in an Alfred Hitchcock movie and it was really cool. You can bring a picnic and spend some time on the grounds. It's quite lovely, whether you're a train buff or not, adult or kid.

What a surprisingly nice small museum. We had a free afternoon so we checked out this place. The…read morebonus was our free admission with the NARM program. The woman at the front desk could not have been more friendly and helpful. There are many exhibits on local history, geography, culture, and industry that pack this museum. I really enjoyed the extensive displays around farming. They also had a traveling show on super hero which was OK. I could have spent more time given everything you could study. Definitely worth an hour or two of your time.

The Chippewa Valley Museum is a good place to spend an hour to get a sense for local history. It…read morestarts with the arrival of the Frenchman; continues through the logging heyday; moves to the peak days of small town factories; then into the present. There are things to read; artifacts to see; and a couple play areas for kids. Works for all ages. Takes about an hour to get through - unless you read everything. At the end, there's an ice cream parlor - for a nice treat. I found it an interesting lesson on how the locals adapted to changing conditions (forests, lumber, factories, modern times) to keep Eau Claire from becoming a ghost town.

Stars deducted for my own dislike of trains. I guess they are ok, but when they are rusting in a…read morefield useless but for bums and pigeons, who gives a crap. So they were the backbone of the country 100 years ago. So were horses before that. We joked partially about salvaging a few of these old beasts and insulating them and making a crazy modern house. Not so crazy an idea, as their website has some for sale. As for the history side of things? Not my bag. But it is here, and if you are here and you like trains, make a day of it! Go for a ride! Take a tour! Break out those overhauls! Live in the past!

We stumbled upon this Museum as we were making our way across Wisconsin. I love to photograph…read moretrains and take train rides. Unlike Zachary I like trains and found this place fascinating. I only had a little time to explore and what I did see I really like. They have a great collection of fixer up trains and I saw some that I had not seen before. If you have time and enjoy trains this is a must stop. When through this way again I will plan to have time for more sights and hopefully a train ride!

Perfect family destination to spend a weekend afternoon. Seriously, I've been adventuring with my…read morekids for years (we live in the Twin Cities, but a 1-2 hour drive is fine for us), and I had never come across this place before. It's truly a hidden gem. Besides being a top-notch county historical society museum -- complete with a "prairie kid" dress-up room for younger kids, maybe 3 to 7 years old -- there's an incredible maker's workshop in the back with *tons* of STEM-based activities to do and/or take home, for anyone of any age. We could have spent all day there. Family admission caps off at $12. Worth every penny. Again, I can't overemphasize this enough, it's a very exciting hidden gem within reasonable driving distance from the Twin Cities.

I took my grandchildren to this museum and we loved it! 4 Floors. Lots of history. Activities for…read morethem. And affordable! The two ladies at the front desk were so friendly.

The Chippewa Falls Museum of Industry and Technology has actually been in place for several years…read morenow. It started out as the Cray Research Museum and was located in one of the Cray Research Buildings but after the company began to shrink, the museum closed up and the displays went into storage. Later on the CFMI&T moved into a building in downtown Chippewa Falls with the Cray collection. I recently made a day trip to Chippewa County from our place in Upnorth. The visit was partially inspired by John McGivern's "Around the Corner" program from Milwaukee Public Television. He did an episode in Chippewa Falls a couple of years ago that was recently rebroadcast. (You can see it online, if you look for it.) The CFMI&T was featured, which I've wanted to see since it moved out of Cray Research. To be upfront, many years ago, I did some work for Cray Research in CF and the museum is located inside the building I used to work in. Former Crayons know the building was built by the Mason Shoe Company to house their MIS department (look THAT up in your Funk & Wagnall's) with a huge, raised-floor, environmentally controlled room. When the day came that computers didn't have to live better than humans, Mason sold it to Cray Research and it became a training building. Now the shared building houses the Boys & Girls Club, using the old computer room (the raised floor is gone) and the old training rooms house the museum. As you might expect, Cray Research is the keystone of the museum. Seymour Cray was a genius's genius and the founder of the company. Born and raised in Chippewa Falls, he had a storied career. During World War II, Mr. Cray was part of the team that broke the Japanese code. After the war, he was one of the founders of Control Data Corporation and he built the world's first supercomputer, in Lake Hailie, for CDC. He left CDC to open Cray Research and in 1976, sold the first Cray-1 supercomputer, serial number 1, to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. That Cray-1 is in the museum. Sometimes it is called the "Hotel Lobby Cray" (among other nicknames) because it resembles a circular sofa. The design was the secret to its speed because the C shape shortened the distance signals had to travel. You'll find lots more examples of Cray technology here along with memorabilia and interpretive signage. Enough techno-geek talk. Chippewa Falls is also home to lots of other industry. Chippewa Falls is home of Mason Shoes that built a business by selling shoes out of catalogs. (Even Radar O'Riley sold shoes out of a catalog in an episode of M*A*S*H.) The museum houses not only a shoe making display from Mason, but also examples of fire apparatus by Darley (want to see how a fire pump works?) and a display (pun intended) of retail displays from Kell Container (now Great Northern Corporation) still rolling out miles of corrugated cardboard every year. You can play with some educational "toys" from Hubbard Scientific (you probably used some in school science class) and there is a massive display of breweriana from CF's most famous industry, Leinenkugel's Brewing Company. It's a very interesting museum that is open limited hours. (Check first to be sure.) Chippewa Falls has a lot to offer, so afterward, you can relax and have a glass of wine at a local winery or maybe before the museum you can take a tour of Leinenkugel's. Before or after, be sure to take in the Chippewa Falls Museum of Industry & Technology.

I was pleasantly surprised by how lovely this little museum turned out to be. My husband and I were…read morespending the day in Stillwater, and had just finished a very poorly narrated tour of the historic courthouse, when we decided to wander over to the tiny Warden's House Museum. The gentleman who met us out front sold us our tickets ($5 each), and then proceeded to take us through the whole house. It's honestly mostly a mishmash of random items people in Washington County have donated over the years (he mentioned that they are no longer accepting donations of antique pianos because at this point every ground floor room in the house has one). The real jewel here was our tour guide. He was very well versed in all aspects of early Minnesota history, from the rise and fall of the logging industry, to the process of bringing electricity to Stillwater, to the old county jail whose remnants the museum is next to. It was clear the he wasn't just regurgitating some lines he had memorized: he answered all our questions thoroughly and thoughtfully, and clearly was an avid history buff. I highly recommend visiting this little gem.