Menomonie Local History

museums, mansions, & arts

Caddie Woodlawn Historical Park

9 miles S. of Menomonie on Hwy 25, Menomonie

The house in which Caroline Woodhouse lived has been moved to the park from a nearby farm. Her granddaughter, Carol Ryrie Brink, based the 1935 Newbery Award-winning children's book Caddie Woodlawn on her life.

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Colfax Railroad Museum

500 E. Railroad Ave., Colfax

The depot houses the large collection of lanterns, railroad china, and the nation's largest railroad paper-weight collection. The primary purpose of these artifacts is to show what people encountered on day-to-day activities with the railroads and how the technology changed throughout time.

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Fall Creek Historical Society Museum

E111940 County Road J, Fall Creek

See items from Fall Creek's history including a doctor's office, a drugstore, dresses, and military uniforms. Also on the grounds are a washhouse, kitchen, and jail. Open weekends from Memorial to Labor Day, or by appointment (call ahead).

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Historical Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts

205 Main St. E, Menomonie

The Mabel Tainter building includes a lavish 313-seat "crown jewel" Victorian theatre and a historic reading room. It is a premier example of a restored vintage American Theater. Take a self-guided tour to inspect the intricate hand-stenciling, hand-carved white pine archways, rich walnut, mahogany, and oak woodwork, gleaming brass fixtures, leaded glass windows, and a rare working Steere and turner tracker pipe organ with 1597 pipes.

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Old Courthouse Museum and Jail

315 W. Madison St., Durand

Wisconsin's last remaining woodframe courthouse features an iron-latticed cellblock in the jail, upstairs courtroom in near-original condition, railroad room, bridges of Durand, century-old paintings, doctor and dentist office equipment, and antique appliances & tools. Open Thurs-Sun 11am-4pm Memorial Day through Labor Day and Saturdays 1-4pm Memorial Day Weekend through mid-October.

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Wilson Place Mansion

101 Wilson Circle, Menomonie

Wilson Place was built in 1859 by Capt. William Wilson, a principal in Knapp, Stout, & Co. lumber company, founder and first mayor of Menomonie, and the area's first state senator. Three generations of Wilsons remade it from a colonial house to a Queen Anne-style mansion to a Mediterranean villa. Call for admission rates and tour times.

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