Copper Range Museum holds Open House, displays new exhibits By Karin Emond for Keweenaw Today 06/08/2001 Nancy Birondo, left, of South Range and her sister Amy Rockwell of Belle, West Virginia,  enjoy a laugh while trimming signs for the Copper Range Historical Museum’Äôs displays.   SOUTH RANGE ’Äì The Copper Range Historical Museum might just be South Range’Äôs best-kept secret.   But the word is getting out. Last year nearly 1,700 people visited the tiny museum housed in the former South Range Bank building. Not surprisingly, most have been tourists. Many of the local folks have never been inside, perhaps fearing it to be just another boring mining museum filled with the same old rusty mining implements. However, nothing could be further from the truth.   On Saturday, June 9, Copper Country residents and visitors alike will have a chance to see for themselves when the museum hosts its annual Open House from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Admission is free, and refreshments will be served. It’Äôs a guarantee that even those who have visited the museum before will find it different this year.   ’ÄúIf you’Äôve seen it before, you’Äôve got to come again,’Äù says Karen Johnson, president of the Copper Range Historical Society. ’ÄúEach year it’Äôs different.’Äù   Nancy Birondo, display artist at the Copper Range Historical Museum in South Range, is seen through the glass of a display case containing a collection of writing tools as she irons clothing for another display.   The fact that every year both slice-of-life showcase rooms and about 80 percent of the museum’Äôs other exhibits are completely re-done is a major source of pride for the museum as well as for the museum’Äôs two display artists ’Äì Nancy Birondo of South Range  and her sister Amy Rockwell of Belle, West Virginia. With the board’Äôs approval, these two ladies take the displays from conception to completion, often drawing on their own family’Äôs range history for ideas.   Birondo and Rockwell are the daughters of Copper Range Historical Society founder Bob Bergdahl, who was born in Freda on the logging camp his grandfather Axel Bergdahl started in 1910. Later the family moved to Atlantic Mine. Although the sisters themselves did not grow up in the area, they spent family vacations in Atlantic Mine.   One of the reasons their father started the Copper Range Historical Society and the museum in the first place was that he felt range towns and range life were not being adequately represented in other area museums. In keeping with that tradition, looking at what aspects of Copper Country life haven’Äôt been covered in other area museums is the first factor contributing to the unique exhibits and day-in-the-life displays seen at the museum. When trying to come up with new ideas, Birondo always asks herself, ’ÄúWhat from the area haven’Äôt we seen in other museums?’Äù She keeps current by visiting other area museums to see what they are displaying.   Amy Rockwell, surrounded by some of the guys, hot glues moss to a ’Äútree’Äù in the lumberjacking showcase display.    The second factor contributing to the museum’Äôs collection is what’Äôs available in the way of artifacts, donations or loan items. The young museum’Äôs collection is still relatively limited, but growing all the time as community members donate personal belongings or family relics. Birondo often makes interesting and unique exhibits from what might otherwise be considered mundane objects by taking them out of the context of a normal collage-type exhibit and grouping similar objects together.   For example, one year she put together an exhibit of hangers.  A hanger placed into an arrangement of personal grooming or bedroom objects might be of little interest or overlooked entirely. However, put 30 or so different styles of hangers together, many locally produced, and voilˆÝ! An interesting, unique and engaging exhibit results.   The idea for the Millinery shop showcase, presented several years ago, came when the museum received a donation of a large number of fancy hats and hatboxes. Instead of simply making a run-of-the-mill display by lining them on shelves, placing them on manikin heads, or fastening them to the wall, Birondo decided to show them in the context of turn-of-the-century life by working them into a scene from the past. The end result was much more interesting.   This 1886 vintage spinning wheel has been moved to a more prominent location atop the museum’Äôs new display cabinet.     This year the museum will feature several unique collections related to sewing. Unusual thimbles, darning eggs, decorative yet functional tape measures ’Äì see if you can find where the tape comes out on some of them ’Äì and pincushions will be on display.   The back showcase will take visitors into the forest for a look at a lumberman’Äôs life, while the showcase in the museum’Äôs front window seems to have taken on a life of its own. Last year a very pregnant range miner’Äôs wife was depicted making pasties for her husband. The calendar on the wall read January 1931.   The scene in the front window showcase display is the natural progression of last year’Äôs ’ÄúPasty Kitchen’Äù scene in which mom was very pregnant. This year, the baby’Äôs arrived, courtesy of Junior Girl Scout Troop 131 of Houghton, who donated the baby to the museum as a thank you for their tour last fall.   This year, the calendar shows March 1931, and the baby’Äôs here! She arrived via U.S. Mail with a thank you note from Houghton Junior Girl Scout Troop 131, who had toured the museum last fall. While viewing the pasty kitchen display, the girls had asked if the wife would have the baby next year. Birondo had answered that might be a possibility. The girls decided getting the baby for the museum would be a great way to say thanks for the tour.   Community support for the museum has been strong. ’ÄúWhenever we call for something, we get it,’Äù says Rockwell. And sure enough, not five minutes after uttering those words, the women decide they need a brass plaque for the side of a recently donated display cabinet. A quick call to a local jewelry store and it’Äôs a done deal.   Other area businesses are equally generous with donations of materials and supplies. They often help the museum raise funds by underwriting the cost of charity auctions, concerts and other fund-raisers, enabling most, if not all, of the proceeds from the event to benefit the museum.   ’ÄúEveryone donates wonderfully to us,’Äù says Birondo.   Local organizations and individuals also make monetary donations, some small and some large. At last year’Äôs grand opening celebration on May 20, 2000, the Houghton VFW Post made a $2,000 donation to the museum.   Tangible proof of strong community support came last summer when on July 7, at 7 p.m., only seven years after signing the mortgage on the museum building, the society was able to hold a mortgage burning celebration. A concert by Whitewater, a popular folk group from Amasa, was part of the festivities.   Of course, the museum’Äôs success would not be possible without the help of many volunteer individuals and organizations. From the docents who answer questions for museum visitors, to the students from the Michigan Tech Fine Arts Department who painted the murals on the walls for last year’Äôs washday scene, to the people who help with building maintenance ’Äì many Copper Country residents support the museum by donating hundreds, if not thousands, of hours in volunteer labor. Birondo and Rockwell alone spend two solid weeks every spring re-doing the exhibits. This doesn’Äôt include the many hours spent planning and gathering the needed artifacts and supplies.   The 2001 edition of the ’ÄúWhatisit’Äù game. Visitors can touch, examine and operate ten once common household items as they try to figure out what the items are. (Photos by Karin Emond)      The end result of all this generosity and hard work is on display for all to see. Test your deductive reasoning or memory skills on the 2001 edition of the popular guessing game ’ÄúWhatisit.’Äù There are several real stumpers in the lineup this year. Check in on mom and the new baby, or see how they used to ’Äúdress U.P.’Äù Whether you have ten minutes or two hours, the Copper Range Historical museum invites you to stop by.   The Copper Range Historical Museum is located at 44 Trimountain Ave (Hwy M-26) in South Range. It is open daily from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. through Oct 15. Admission is a suggested $1 donation. Children under 12 are admitted free.   Editor’Äôs Note: Karin Emond, former reporter for The Daily Mining Gazette, is a free-lance writer and photographer from Green Bay, Wisconsin. She returns often to the Keweenaw Peninsula to visit her old haunts.