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Posted
So, I have been working with a local group for a few years on a Michigan themed military museum and it has finally come to fruition. But first, the beginning... Michigan does not have a museum controlled at the state level for our veterans like many states do. We have an excellent museum called "Michigan's Own" located in the tourist town of Frankenmuth, and we have the Kalamazoo "Air Zoo" as well as the "Yankee Air Museum" but each of these is sort of a specialty museum. Michigan's Own features the largest collection of Medal of Honor's in the world. The other two are aviation themed and not dedicated to Michigan. The state National Guard has a small museum at Ft. Custer but as of 9/11 you must have a military i.d. to get in... So not really serving the needs of the public.

Along comes my group "The Michigan Military Heritage Museum" of MMHM if you will. We began working in the city of Detroit at Historic Ft. Wayne which was an induction point for the military from the 1840s through the 1970's! It is an original star fort with added acreage for the changing times (WWI, WWII etc...) Well, as you have probably heard, things are not well in Detroit and our offer to restore and occupy a building at no cost to the city didn't go anywhere. Apparently people are lining up to do this all over Detroit and its just a really well kept secret B) (yes that was sarcasm). We didn't give up and a strange turn of events has us on the verge of opening a new beautiful facility.

While helping my 8th grade son with a school museum project at the local (Grass Lake MI) historical society, I was approached by the society president about the Ft. Wayne project. It seems that the Grass Lake Area Historical Society (GLAHS) had just been gifted an original 1913 all steel interurban railroad car. While you may think WOW! It isn't that simple. The GLAHS occupies a small historic home from the 1870s and it is set up as a turn of the century home and nothing more. The interurban car which needs and is currently undergoing heavy restoration, is 65 feet long, so where does it go? The short answer for the historic society was in a new building. That in itself created a new issue which was how do you market a new museum where the exhibit is a huge train car that never changes? Again, the short answer is you don't, you need something to generate continuous interest with rotating exhibits. Soooo, the partnership with the military museum was re-born!

We now have a 4 way project involving the GLAHS which will continue to be a turn of the century home for people to visit and kids to learn from. But, now we have a benefactor who has optioned land with another house that should become an office and military and genealogical research center as well as library. A new facility will be constructed at approx. 12,000 square feet to house the restored interurban car and the Michigan Military Heritage Museum exhibits, and we have a beautifully restored train depot that is currently a rental for weddings and reunions as well as a meeting room for monthly speakers that starts on the 27th of this month and continues on the 4th Wed. of each month.

This month we will host Mike Grobbell from Detroits Own Polar Bears Assn. who will speak about the expedition in North Russia and he will feature our local Polar Bear Charles Bidwell whose uniform and photo's will be part of our WWI exhibit in the new museum. Next month we have a local author Cecil Darnell who has assembled a small book on prisoners of war that were housed in Central Michigan (mostly German but some Italian as well). Grass Lake was the site of Camp Waterloo which started as a CCC camp in 1939 and was then used to train Army Military Police while the M.P. school waited to occupy Ft. Custer as it was training the 5th I.D. After this the service corps took over and from 1943-46 about one thousand German POWs were housed year round at Camp Waterloo where they worked in local onion marshes. Mr. Darnell will speak on this topic and contrast it with the uniforms and items of Nelson Loar who was an M.P. in the 888th M.P. Company that guarded the Soo Locks and then served in North Africa and Italy. In October we will feature Dennis Skupinski who is the chair of Michigan's WWI Centennial and also a museum contributor and volunteer. Dennis will speak about the 16th Engineers out of Detroit who were railroad and interurban men. He will tell how the interurban men were looked down upon by the railroad workers until they arrived in France and saw that they would be working with narrow gauge railways! So, overall some good speakers lined up and more to come including some Civil War authors and even a local group of robotic students who have assisted in Palau with the recovery of M.I.A. aviators from WWII.

I wanted to share this for all members as we are excited about the new museum and all of the possibilities it brings to Michigan's veteran community as well as enthusiasts like us. I hope to see and meet as many local collectors as possible at these speaking events, and I hope to be able to share more items as they are donated to the museum. We are off to a great start with many Civil War and WWI/WWII items and we even have some Indian War and Mexican War items! Of course we are always looking for more to tell the lengthy history of Michigan's men and women in service but the response has been great thus far! Thanks for reading this lengthy thing and I look forward to keeping you all updated on speakers and progress as we approach the September 2015 planned opening of the new facility. Some progress and info as well as interurban pictures can be had on the Grass Lake Area Historical Society Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Grass-Lake-Area-Historical-Society/1404304593177794 and we would love to have the visits and likes as well :D Scott
uniformcollector
Posted

It sounds like that will be an incredible museum and it want to thank you for your obvious hard work. I'm still a little confused about the difference between this museum and Michigan's Own. They honor Michigan veterans from WWI (and the largest collection of polar bear items), through the War On Terror as well as displays for valor awards and Michigan governors. All of the people honored in the museum are exclusively from the state of Michigan. I'm not trying to say this museum shouldn't exist (I am sure it will and can't wait to visit it once it's open), but am simply curious.

 

Thanks again for all your hard work in getting ready for what will be a great museum!

Posted

Wishing you the best of luck and a successful museum.. I hope that the visitors flock to your museum and they appreciate the endeavors of those who worked so hard to make it become a reality and permanent attraction..

 

If I find my self travelling to Michigan someday, it will be on the list of places to visit

 

Leigh

Posted

It sounds like that will be an incredible museum and it want to thank you for your obvious hard work. I'm still a little confused about the difference between this museum and Michigan's Own. They honor Michigan veterans from WWI (and the largest collection of polar bear items), through the War On Terror as well as displays for valor awards and Michigan governors. All of the people honored in the museum are exclusively from the state of Michigan. I'm not trying to say this museum shouldn't exist (I am sure it will and can't wait to visit it once it's open), but am simply curious.

 

Thanks again for all your hard work in getting ready for what will be a great museum!

 

Thanks for the kind words. As for the difference between us and Michigan's Own, we are looking at the average Michigan service member in war and peace. Michigan's Own starts with former Governors, moves into Polar Bears, then Medal of Honor/DSC recipients and finally astronauts. For OIF they have Holly McGeogh the first Michigan female to be killed. Nothing wrong with that but there are others... We will pick up where they can't. The Medal of Honor, astronaut, governor etc... doesn't represent the service of the average Michigan Veteran. We were not all Polar Bears, nor did we earn the MOH. They cover this area like no other and that is their primary focus. We hope to fill that void and look at the service of those who came and built the auto industry or those who Lincoln thanked when he proclaimed 'thank God for Michigan" in 1861. Our first speaker is actually a board member of Michigan's Own. So, we will coexist and hopefully fill a needed gap that they cannot. Thanks again and hope to see you sometime. Scott.

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