#953. See the Mayville Schoolhouse Museum

I don’t why I initially added Mayville Limestone School Museum on the bucket list. I must have read or heard something about it and decided it sounded cool. I try to complete 5 items on the original bucket list every year which is becoming more difficult because most of it is now out of my budget or I need to find a travel buddy. Since the Mayville Limestone School Museum is in Wisconsin and less than an hour away, I figured it would be pretty easy to get to. However it proved more difficult than first thought because really who goes to Mayville just because? Not to mention that the hours were a bit inconvenient… the 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month between May and October. That gave me about 12 tries to get there last year and it never happened. When the hubby said he was doing the Legion Game in Mayville on the 3rd again this year, I checked the calendar and confirmed that we could go the museum beforehand even though the hubby wasn't overly thrilled.

The Mayville Limestone School Museum was built to accommodate a growing population of students in 1857. It was built from limestone taken from neighboring quarries. An addition was added in 1877 to make it the size it is today. The school was used until 1981. The building is now a museum of not only the school but also local history.

Both the hubby and I were impressed by the museum. It was 3 floors of artifacts. On the main level there was an exhibit of all sorts of stuffed wild animals, Edgar G. Mueller's photographs, and a whole room devoted to Indian Arrowheads. The hubby really enjoyed that.

Because everyone needs a zebra rug

So who really used the alcohol???

Upstairs, in the large auditorium, you could vote for your favorite picture in the annual photo contest. There were too many good ones that it was too hard to decide which one was my favorite. Across the hall was an exhibit on baseball and scouting in the area. Mayville had a team in the Rock River League and the Rock River Hall of Fame is located in the museum.

Also upstairs was an exhibit on the old schoolhouse classrooms. There was a lot of teaching materials that were fun to look at. There were old maps, books, and toys. I loved looking at the old teaching material. How many do your recognize?

Original Kindergarten Desk

Map from the 1820s.. Look how big Lake Superior is and how small Lake Michigan is

Down in the basement was possibly the best part of the whole museum. The entire climate controlled basement was devoted to the iron ore mining in the 1800s in Mayville and Dodge County as well as Sauk County. I never realized that the area had iron mining. Not only did they mine the ore but they also smelt it because the closet blast furnace was in Indiana. There was a lot of iron in various forms, diagrams explaining the process, and tools that they used. It was very interesting to say the least. There was even pictures showing where the buildings stood and what they are used for now if they are still standing. If you were real adventurous you could attempt to find some of the remnants of the iron mining days. If I wasn’t with the hubby, I might have tried to find some of the places.

Random Fact of the day: 80% of the iron is still in the ground even after mining for 83 years.

Original Iron Stove 

The museum took us about an hour to visit and we were really impressed. It was definitely worth the donation. If the exhibits change, I won’t mind going back but most of them seem pretty stationary so for me it’s a “been there, done that” kind of museum. However, if you never have been there and find yourself in Mayville on the 1st or 3rd Sunday of the month in summer, make a donation and check out the museum. Trust me it is well worth it… even the volunteers are friendly and eager to help.