Copper Range Historical Museum offers history for kids Karin Emond By Karin Emond for Keweenaw Today 12/15/00 SOUTH RANGE - Good things come in small packages and FOR small packages at the Copper Range Historical Museum. Inside the walls of the former South Range State Bank in South Range visitors will find more than just another mining museum. With its collection of hands-on and out-of-the-ordinary exhibits, the museum prides itself on making history interesting to everyone, even those humans in small packages called children. Getting youngsters excited about history has always been a challenge. But, as well intentioned as it is, the announcement of a trip to a historical museum is more likely to elicit groans than shouts of joy. Mayme Oja, one of the many volunteers who staff the museum during the season, helps two-and-a-half-year old Summer Emond satisfy her fascination with the school train display at the Copper Range Historical Museum. The idea of quietly and calmly walking along row after row of display cases filled with objects that can’Äôt be touched is often a child’Äôs idea of torture rather than fun. It’Äôs no secret that touching and manipulating objects in the world around them has been a major part in the learning processes of children since the day they were born. "Kids are fascinated with things," says Nancy Birondo, display artist for the museum. Birondo and her sister, Amy Rockwell, have designed several of the museum’Äôs displays to be touched. Instead of a roped off display of a post office, or a collection of postal artifacts in a glass case, visitors can select vintage post cards from a sorting cubicle in the display and read the messages. The cards depict area landmarks and locales and were actually sent from the area by former residents or tourists. The children can tie the past to their present when they see how familiar places and landmarks once looked. Imagination is unlocked as they pretend to be postal clerks - collecting, shuffling and redistributing the cards into different slots in the post office. On the other side of the post office, a collection of once common household items waits to challenge the imaginations and deductive reasoning skills of young visitors. Adults find their memories put to the test. In a game called "What is it?" junior detectives can hold, shake, turn and examine the objects as they try to guess what the items might be and how they would have been used. Every year the game uses ten different articles, so even folks that played the game last year will find new puzzlers to identify. The game provides a memorable lesson on how life was in the past and also provides a yardstick of how much life has changed in the last fifty years. Many adults can identify and maybe even remember using things like a hand-operated eggbeater. But to the young museumgoers, raised in a world of electric appliances, instant food mixes and convenience foods, it is an unidentifiable mystery object. "They can’Äôt guess what it is," says Birondo, "It’Äôs interesting to see how quickly things get forgotten." Older students, as well as adults, might find it interesting to leaf through the large file box filled with actual paycheck stubs from the South Range Bank. Current pay scales can be compared to present day wages while the names provide information about the ethnic background of the miners who lived here then. Many of today’Äôs Copper Country families are related to these early settlers and miners. Sometimes, someone experiences the thrill of finding a stub that once belonged to a relative. This year’Äôs main showcase display featured a look into the kitchen of a miner’Äôs family as it pays homage to that most distinctive of Upper Penninsula foods - the pasty. The exhibit was designed and arranged by Nancy Birondo and her sister Amy Rockwell, who even figured out how to make many of the realistic-looking vegetables for it. It isn’Äôt entirely an accident that the museum’Äôs displays focus on children, explains Birondo, whose father, Bob Bergdahl, founded the Copper Country Historical Society and the museum. "My father felt he was doing it for the kids," she says. "He was a range kid and proud to be a range kid. And he thought kids today should be proud to be range kids." Of course, not every exhibit in the museum is hands-on. Certain artifacts are too fragile; others might cause damage or injury if they were handled. The two showcase exhibits, each of which depicts an everyday scene from life for range families, are a source of great pride at the museum. One occupies a place of honor in the front window of the building; the other is a treasure waiting to be discovered in a backroom For the last three years Birondo and Rockwell have drawn heavily on their own family’Äôs Copper Country history and experiences for ideas for these two displays. Both their great-grandfather and grandfather were involved in area lumbering at the turn of the century. The first question they ask is "What from the area haven’Äôt we seen in other area museums?" And, since the museum’Äôs artifacts are all donated or on loan from area residents, the second question is "What do we have on hand to work with?" From these starting points, each year’Äôs scenes are born. This year’Äôs backyard wash day scene, for example, was a unique and interesting way to display a collection of hand-made quilts. Many were not in mint condition; but by strategic placement, both the worn areas on the quilts and unsightly pipes in the display area were hidden from view. Children’Äôs questions sometimes spark an idea for a display. Such was the case for the display of copper items. Notes Birondo, "My kids didn’Äôt know what copper was used for, so we decided on a display of copper items." This year, things inadvertently went one step further. It started as a fifth-grade history project for Nancy’Äôs ten-year-old daughter, Kiersten Bergdahl Birondo. Impressed by a replica of Colonial Michilimackinac a neighbor girl had built last year for the same assignment, Kiersten originally wanted to construct a similar project. Nancy suggested she might want to do a project with a more local focus. Kiersten Bergdahl Birondo, 10, makes some adjustments to the model of her great-great-grandfather’Äôs logging camp before moving the exhibit to the Houghton County Fairgrounds. The display, a fifth grade history project, won first place at the fair is now on display at the Copper Range Historical Museum. After some discussion, Kiersten decided on a project that was not only local, but personal too. Her project would also, incidentally, make the youngster the third generation of Bergdahl involved in display work at the Copper Range Historical Museum. She decided to make a replica of her own great-great-grandfather’Äôs logging camp that was located near Frieda in the early 1900s. Kiersten interviewed her aunts to gather information for the two-page report that had to accompany the model. She estimates that it took her, with some help from younger sister Katie, about 30-40 hours of work over a month-long period to construct the model. When she was done, a complete logging camp had been re-created. A proud mom describes it as "the most awesome in the class." It did earn Kiersten an A. When Nancy mentioned the project to her sister Amy, up from her West Virginia home for the annual display building week at the museum, Amy asked, "Is it good enough for the museum?" It was. The 10-foot long, 2-foot wide camp, with the accompanying report, is now an integral part of the museum’Äôs logging display. The camp did take a short hiatus from display at the museum so that Kiersten could enter it in the 2000 Houghton County Fair. It was awarded a first-place blue ribbon. The Copper Range Historical Museum has taken a kid-friendly approach to history. As Copper Range Historical Society President Karen Johnson says, "It’Äôs not big, and it’Äôs not boring." And, although it is closed to the public for the season, groups from schools, Girl and Boy Scout troops, or preschools are still invited to visit. Tours can be arranged through the end of February 2001 by calling Karen Johnson at Etc.Etc. in South Range at 482-9171 or Nancy Birondo at 487-9855. Editor’Äôs note: Karin Emond, of Green Bay, Wis., is a guest writer for Keweenaw Today. A former writer and photographer for The Daily Mining Gazette, Karin enjoys returning to the Copper Country to visit her old haunts.