Chippewa Valley Museum

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Chippewa Valley Museum Looking for things to do in Eau Claire? Not just your every day attraction. Jack Arnold, president of the L.G.

Explore the history and culture of the Chippewa Valley through exhibits, events, and our research library at Chippewa Valley Museum. The Chippewa Valley Historical Society, founded in 1952, began to build support for opening a museum with a display in Eau Claire’s Public Library, followed by two “History on Display” exhibits in 1964 and 1965, and a display in the Barstow School in 1965.

1966 the Chippewa Valley Museum opens its doors in the former Meader Candy Factory just north of downtown Eau Claire. Arnold Construction Company, housed upstairs, donates space on the first floor of the building for use by the museum.

1967 the building is sold, and the museum is without a home.

1968 – 1974 UWEC houses the Chippewa Valley Museum at 129 Chippewa Street in a house they had purchased for future development. While the museum had the use of three rooms they could only accommodate the displays and a total of 10 people at a time.

1972 ground was broken for the museum’s present location in Eau Claire’s Carson Park

1974 the Chippewa Valley Museum opens its doors to the public in its present location.

1976 the Anderson Log Home is donated to the museum

1977 the Schlegelmilch House, an example of an early 20th century merchant’s home in downtown Eau Claire, is donated to the museum

Today the Chippewa Valley Museum continues to gather memories, save ideas, and share stories to create a community that connects diverse audiences with all facets of the culture and history of the Chippewa Valley.

Chippewa Valley Museum's new exhibit is The U.S. at 250: From the Collections 1876-1926. “This is US at 250” social medi...
10/25/2026

Chippewa Valley Museum's new exhibit is The U.S. at 250: From the Collections 1876-1926. “This is US at 250” social media series continues the exhibit theme. We will be looking at museum artifacts through the end of the year.

No one could deny the popularity of movies, radio series, television shows, and books during the fifties and sixties. Whether it was a decoder ring you were sending away for or a Daniel Boone hat you wanted to buy at the local store, companies were seeing the advantages of selling merchandise based on your favorites.

In 1957 Parker Brothers understood that designing board games on pop culture icons meant lots of sales. That was the year the first Nancy Drew Mystery Game debuted. The box lid featured colorful art of Nancy in a red raincoat near a mansion carrying her faithful flashlight as a storm was settling in.

The game was updated in 1959 when Nancy traded her red raincoat for a green one. This is the artifact we are featuring today. Players moved around the board using a car and the game was won by the first person to fill in the name NANCY with five disc markers. If this one had come out ten years later, it would definitely have been on my Christmas list. What was your favorite game based on a television show, movie, or book series? Diana, Editor

Nancy Drew Mystery Game, CVM #7250-0018, 1959

BREWERS WIN GAME 2!Game 2 was tied 4–4 after six innings in both 1982 and 2026. Both games ended 5–4. But in ’82, the Ca...
10/25/2026

BREWERS WIN GAME 2!
Game 2 was tied 4–4 after six innings in both 1982 and 2026. Both games ended 5–4. But in ’82, the Cardinals walked away with the win. This time, it was our dogged, it’s‑not‑over‑until‑it’s‑over Brewers who finished the job.

And this photo taken in 1982? The 1980 Plymouth Horizon in the driveway, a pretty new car back then, reminds us how long Wisconsin’s waited to be back in the World Series. Did the owner watch the game? No clue. But one thing’s certain: being up 2–0 today feels a whole lot better than being tied 1–1 back then.

Keep cheering Wisconsin! -- Carrie, Director

📷715 Third Ave, 1982 (Chippewa Valley Museum 410000-0497-003)

BREWERS WIN GAME 1! It’s been a long, long time since the Brewers last reached the World Series — 1982. So long that th...
10/24/2026

BREWERS WIN GAME 1!
It’s been a long, long time since the Brewers last reached the World Series — 1982. So long that the 4th graders from Manz Elementary School who stuffed Trapper Keepers into their desks, traded scratch‑and‑sniff stickers, and watched the Smurfs before heading out to play on Saturday mornings are now 53 and 54 years old.

All series long, we’ll share photos from 44 years ago — snapshots from a Wisconsin that cheered just as hard then as we do now — to remind us how long this wait has been.

Cheer loud.
Cheer long.
Cheer like we’ve waited 44 years for this… because we have. -- Carrie, Director

📷: Manz School 4th grade, 1982 (Chippewa Valley Museum 375900-0097-001)

October is a big birthday month at Chippewa Valley Museum! 🎉One‑third of our staff celebrate this month—and both of our...
10/22/2026

October is a big birthday month at Chippewa Valley Museum! 🎉

One‑third of our staff celebrate this month—and both of our Marshfield Clinic AmeriCorps members do too.

Jaden Hague (Communications Assistant) and Sy Neville (Education Assistant) started their AmeriCorps service in September and have already brought incredible energy and creativity to the museum. Now they’re both officially a year older. Time flies when you’re making history.

Happy Libra season to our October crew. 🥳

Looking for a fun night out? Test your knowledge on Halloween history, pumpkins, candy, local and celebrity ghosts, tomb...
10/21/2026

Looking for a fun night out?
Test your knowledge on Halloween history, pumpkins, candy, local and celebrity ghosts, tombstone symbols, and other fun facts!

There is no admission for this event, but you can purchase a strangely spooky mocktail. Come in first or second place and take home a special prize.

Mention the Wood family during a conversation around Eau Claire, and you will hear lots of stories about car sales and a...
10/20/2026

Mention the Wood family during a conversation around Eau Claire, and you will hear lots of stories about car sales and airplane flying. In 1923, Mary’s father Guy Wood, along with Leo McDonald and M.A. Sine, organized the Eau Clarie Airplane Corporation, leasing 80 acres in Putnam Heights. By 1929, Eau Claire Airways was serving the Twin Cities, La Crosse, Wausau, Madison, and Milwaukee.

Mary was two years older than the airport. The Wood brothers loved flying and built a glider in their parents’ basement. Sister Mary longed to fly as well. She finally got her chance in college. While attending the Eau Claire Teachers College in 1942, she enrolled in the Civil Air Patrol training program. During an interview for an oral history project at the Chippewa Valley Museum, Mary described the effort needed to obtain her pilot’s license. She said that “it was hard work. We had to be there for class, We had night school, ground school. It was pretty hard. We had to put in our hours.”

Ten men and Mary passed their final test given by Max Conrad, flight examiner. One of those men was Marshall Barnes. Four years later when he and Mary were married, he was known as Lt. Barnes. Before their wedding, Mary taught second grade in Mondovi and West Bend.

The only thing Mary loved more than flying, besides Marshall, was being in nature at Lower Long Lake. Despite the fact that he could not swim, she convinced him to buy a cottage on an island there. Her family shared in her obituary that she “never lost the ability to see the beauty and wonder in a tree, a feather, or a ripple on the lake. She also enjoyed reading, birdwatching, and arts and crafts.”

Mary lived most of her life in Eau Claire, passing away in 2008. She volunteered at the Chippewa Valley Museum, Luther Hospital’s Red Carpet Thrift Shop, and First Congregational Church Women’s Fellowship. She also was a member of the Chippewa Wildlife Society, the Sigurd Olson Loon Watch Project at Northland College, and the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo. Diana, Editor

📷Mary Wood, CVM #524100-0019, 1940

Chippewa Valley Museum's new exhibit is The U.S. at 250: From the Collections 1876-1926. “This is US at 250” social medi...
10/18/2026

Chippewa Valley Museum's new exhibit is The U.S. at 250: From the Collections 1876-1926. “This is US at 250” social media series continues the exhibit theme. We will be looking at museum artifacts through the end of the year.

Today’s object allows you to be truly seen. We are talking about X-ray machines. Nobel Prize winner Wilhelm Conrad invented the X-ray machine in 1895. While testing to see if cathode rays could pass through glass, he noticed a fluorescent screen on a table glowing even though the tube was covered with heavy black paper, and he captured the first X-ray, an image of his wife’s hand.

X-ray machines saw a lot of advancements in the fifties. They were used to screen tuberculosis and cardiac issues. However, the medical profession also realized at this time that cumulative radiation damage was a health hazard.

This was important information because not only the medical community used X-ray machines in the fifties. If you were shopping for back-to-school shoes, you also got a dose of radiation. More than 10,000 shoe stores used them to allow parents to see live images of their children’s foot bones inside new shoes. Kids stepped into a wooden cabinet and put their feet over an X-ray tube with no shielding. Many kids had repeated and intense exposures during the decade. Pennsylvania issued the first ban on shoe stores using them in 1957, and other states quickly followed.

Jimmy Choo said “the right shoe can make everything different.” He wasn’t kidding, but the left foot could also light up your life but in a bad way during the fifties. Diana, Editor

W.M. Meyer Co. X-Ray Machine, Model C/1 No. 266, CVM #1238-0002, 1950s

Then and Now: Graham Avenue, 1910/2026 The back of the photo reads “Farmers buying binder twine at Sebenthal’s Store on ...
10/17/2026

Then and Now: Graham Avenue, 1910/2026

The back of the photo reads “Farmers buying binder twine at Sebenthal’s Store on River Street.” From the 1860s on, farmers came into Eau Claire on Saturdays to sell at Haymarket and pick up supplies for the week. Haymarket was the open‑air market on the south side of the Chippewa River.

Frank Sebenthall opened his farm implement store at 131 River Street (Graham Avenue) in 1898 and ran it until about 1926. By the early 1920s, five implement dealers operated within just a few blocks: Sebenthall's, Robbins Implement across the street, Hutchinson Implement at 108 Gibson, Jacobson & Lee down at 305 1/2 S. Barstow, and International Harvester on Putnam Street near the Gillette Tire Factory.

The cluster of implement dealers is a reminder that was farming was big business in the Chippewa Valley. Eau Claire had an industrial identity, but the rural countryside fed its residents and was as important to the growth of Eau Claire and the Chippewa Valley as the northern woods that once fed the sawmills. Agriculture remains a vital part of who we are. -- Carrie, Director

📷: Farmers on River Street (Graham Avenue). Sebenthall's farm implement store is the one-story building with all the signs (Chippewa Valley Museum 631900-0041-001). That location is now the parking lot in the middle of the 100 block of Graham Avenue.

📷: Graham Ave on a Saturday morning, 10 October 2026. All the action was taking place a few blocks north at the Downtown Farmers Market.

Many Eau Claire residents fondly remember Joe Sosnouski. Joe was born in Moline, Illinois in 1917. Upon his high school ...
10/13/2026

Many Eau Claire residents fondly remember Joe Sosnouski. Joe was born in Moline, Illinois in 1917. Upon his high school graduation, he was drafted by the Chicago Cubs. An all-sport athlete and talented academically, Joe turned down a scholarship at Northwestern to travel to Eau Claire to play for the Bears in 1937. He was on the field for the opening game of the baseball stadium in Carson Park.

Joe met Caryel Phillips while in Eau Claire and they were married in 1938. With a wife to support, he took a part-time job at US Rubber.

After playing for two years, he threw his arm out in 1939. Joe joined the House of David barnstorming team, traveling around the country until an injury sidelined him in 1945.

It didn’t keep him off the baseball diamond for good though. He worked full time for US Rubber and then Gillette. He managed the Gillette baseball team. From the fifties to the seventies, you could find him playing on local teams for baseball and softball. He played “Old Men” basketball. He was devoted to getting Little League started in Eau Claire.

You would often find him behind the plate, calling a game. Ron Buckli’s 6-12-1999 Leader Telegram article described a 1950s night when Joe was umping a district semipro game in Strum. He called a third strike on the batter who thought, and voiced, that it was definitely a ball. Joe threw him out of the game and the park. When asked afterward why he was so rough on such a minor comment, he replied, “We needed some excitement on the field. We’ll have a bigger crowd tomorrow night.”

Joe was elected president of the Local 19 Rubber Workers in 1974. He would hold that position until he retired in 1983. In 1975 Joe worked hard to save the Uniroyal plant from closing which was able to continue production until 1992 when it shut down for good.

In his later years, Joe still made it to the baseball stadium at Carson Park, and you would find him sitting along the right-field line, cheering on the Cavaliers.

He and Caryel are buried at Rest Haven Cemetery. I think Joe will keep us entertained at dinner. Diana, Editor

📷Joe Sosnouski, CVM #933000-0141, 1937-39

Address

1204 East Half Moon Drive
Eau Claire, WI
54703

Opening Hours

Tuesday 5pm - 8pm
Wednesday 12pm - 5pm
Thursday 12pm - 5pm
Friday 12pm - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm

Telephone

(715) 834-7871

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