Camp Five Museum facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Camp Five Farmstead
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 Location in Wisconsin
Location in the United States
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| Location | 5466 Connor Farm Rd., Laona, Wisconsin |
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| Architect | Connor Land & Lumber Company |
| Architectural style | Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals |
| NRHP reference No. | 95001506 |
| Added to NRHP | January 11, 1996 |
The Camp Five Museum is a special place in Laona, Wisconsin. It's a living history museum, which means you can see how people lived and worked in the past. The museum teaches visitors about the forest industry and how people moved goods around in Wisconsin a long time ago.
The museum includes a historic area called the Camp Five Farmstead. This farmstead, also known as Camp Five Logging Camp, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. This means it's an important historical site in the United States. The museum itself first opened its doors in 1969.
A Look Back: The Camp's History
The R Connor Company started a logging camp here in the late 1890s. This was their fifth logging camp near the town of Laona. Logging camps were places where workers lived while they cut down trees.
By 1914, most of the trees close to the camp had been cut down. So, the company changed the camp into a farm. This farm grew food like meat and vegetables. It also raised horses to help with work at Connor's other logging camps nearby. The farm was in a great spot because it was close to town. The land was good for growing crops, and it was right next to a train track. The farm kept supplying the logging camps for many years. Then, in 1969, this historic farm became a museum for everyone to visit.
What You Can See at the Museum
The museum covers about 4 acres (about 1.6 hectares) of land. It has a special museum all about logging and forestry. You can see old logging tools and bateaux, which were boats used to float logs down rivers. There's also a place where animals were prepared for food, a fun petting zoo, and a nature center. You can grab a snack at the small cafeteria or find a souvenir in the museum shop.
The museum offers two short tours that take about twenty minutes each. One tour explores the forest, and the other is a boat ride on the river. To get to the museum, visitors ride the exciting Lumberjack Steam Train. This train travels on the Laona and Northern Railway.
The museum's steam train and its blacksmith shop are part of its daily living history shows. A blacksmith is someone who makes things out of metal using fire and tools. Sometimes, the museum also has people dressed up as characters from different historical times. These "re-enactors" show what life was like during the North American fur trade era, for cowboys, during the American Civil War, and even during World War I.
Awards and Recognition
The Camp Five Museum has received several awards for its important work:
- In 1996, the US Department of the Interior added Camp Five to the National Register of Historic Places.
- In 1987, it won the Presidential Environmental Youth Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. This was for its great education program for Boy Scouts about nature and the environment.
- In 1978, it received an award from the Forest History Association of Wisconsin.
- In 1975, the Arbor Day Foundation gave it a National Award in Education. This was for its "Green Treasure Forest Tour."
- In 1970, the Wisconsin Historical Society gave the museum an Award of Merit.
