Traditional gardens have been added to the Menominee Logging Camp and Cultural Museum this summer without modern equipment.
“We’ve done research. … We did it just like our ancestors would,” said Rebecca Alegria, tribal research and cultural planner. “All of the seeds are heirloom.”
Summer youth worker Omaha Warrington and groundskeeper Tony Brown are using sticks and buffalo shoulder bones as they plant things such as sunflowers, squash and Indian corn. A healing garden has been planted with flowers and grasses.
This year is a test run for the gardens, which if successful will be expanded next year.
“I feel good about being able to help preserve our culture and our ways,” Brown said.
The logging camp is the largest and most complete logging museum in the United States. It is filled with artifacts about the earliest days of Wisconsin’s first industry.
The seven log buildings include a bunkhouse, cook shanty, butcher’s shop, blacksmith shop, saw filer’s shack, horse barn and camp office.
The cultural museum holds Menominee artifacts that have been repatriated from museums and universities across the country, along with those found on the reservation.
“People find them out in the forest all the time,” Alegria said.
The state-of-the-art building promotes the Menominee culture, history and language. There are displays, offices and a growing gift shop, which has items made by local artists.
Tours of the cultural museum are available year round from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The logging camp museum is open the same hours from May through October.
David Grignon is the director and manager of the camp and museum.
