Region of Three Oaks Museum celebrates continued growth at 2023 opening

BY FRANCESCA SAGALA

It was in the front room of the Three Oaks Township Library where Ron Jelinek and several other supporters met to discuss the “dream of seeing a museum.”

Now, nearly 20 years later, those same supporters are seeing their sought-after museum continue to grow.

“Thank you to all of you that continue to work so hard to make this museum keep going - we all had a dream that this was going to mark history for the region of Three Oaks and I think it does and I think it’s just something great for the future,” Jelinek said at a special ceremony during which he had the agricultural display named for him at the museum Thursday, May 4.

Jelinek, who was a driving force behind the effort to bring a history museum back to the region of Three Oaks, was state representative from 1997-2002 and then state senator from 2003-2010.

The ChamberlainWarren Museum, which was in the building that houses the library, closed in 1952, after 36 years in existence.

Judy Jackson, a founding member and volunteer at TROTOM, said Jelinek helped them stay in contact with Michigan State University. Several of the large items from the original museum are stored underneath the university’s football stadium.

“We want to thank Ron for everything he’s done for almost 20 years to help us with contacts from Michigan State and all these great connections and getting everyone in Three Oaks interested in getting the museum back home,” she said.

Having the display that celebrates agriculture named for him is fitting, as Jelinek taught agriculture and science at River Valley High School for 29 years before serving in the Michigan Legislature.

He was also a generous donor to the museum’s exhibits on agriculture, as many of the artifacts of farming were donated by Jelinek and his extended family.

Due to its continued growth, the museum now is raising money for a 36-foot-by-40-foot storage expansion on the south side of the museum building.

Board member Nick Bogert said that they’ve “run out of places to put things,” as the attic of the library has a lot of large items that the museum doesn’t have space for storing. In addition, Michigan State wants the following items out of the stadium by the end of July: an old sleigh with red velvet seats, a carriage and a horse drawn undertaker’s wagon, with wooden carved curtains.

As of May 4, the museum has raised about $85,000 of the $104,000 project cost. Bogert said that the museum does have some more grants that it applied for and some programs this summer that will charge nonmembers a certain amount to raise the additional funds.

Until May 20, donations can be made through the Facebook fundraiser, “Help-- we’re drowning in history!”

Shelving is an additional expense; however, thanks to Three Oaks native Art Klute, Bogert said the museum has received a “big leg up” in terms of obtaining “fancy, museum quality, rolling” shelving: Klute, who used to sell shelving systems, discovered that Mike Cavasin of Professional Systems Installation has a unit available to the donate to the museum.

Klute also donated his old Boy Scout uniforms to one of the museum’s new exhibits for 2023, “Girl and Boy Scouts and Campfire Girls,” which highlights the Scouts’ outings to Soni Springs, Lake Madron, or Dr. Valentiejus’ place in New Buffalo.

Other new exhibits include one highlighting beauty salons and barber shops of yesteryear, particularly the haircutting Covert family-Chuck Covert and his sisters Kathy, Cecil, Blanche, Babe, and Helen—who owned salons and barber shops in Michiana as well as one that focuses on the great immigration wave from Germany and Holland that transformed the region and brought some wellknown extended families to the area, such as the Driers, Hellengas and Klutes.

This year, the museum’s focus on local road names highlights the Gowdys of Union Pier, who prospered by first logging, then farming, and then developing Union Pier, once known as “Gowdytown”. Union Pier has several streets, such as Gowdy Parkway, that were named after the Gowdy family.

The museum is located at 5 Featherbone Avenue in Three Oaks and is open from noon to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday, through the end of October.