MARSHALL — The Lyon County Historical Society has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Minnesota Historical Society to begin updating the “Life on the Prairie” exhibit at the Lyon County Museum. The grant is part of the latest round of Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Small Grants, which provided $241,168 to 28 projects in 17 counties.
The museum will use the funds to hire a consultant who will research the early history of the Lyon County area. This research is the first step in a multi-phase process to refresh the basement exhibit, which features a log cabin and covered wagon and has not been updated since it opened in 2014.
“This first legacy grant is the first step for making improvements to the exhibit,” said Jennifer Andries, Executive Director of the Lyon County Historical Society Museum. “It hasn’t been updated since we opened it in 2014.”
Andries described the process as similar to the museum’s second-floor renovation. “As part of the legacy grant, you have to do a research plan first before you can do an exhibit plan and then fabrication and installation,” she said.
The research will help the museum incorporate more information about Indigenous history, immigration, and early farming. “The log cabin is not going to go anywhere. The wagon is not going to go anywhere,” Andries said. “It’s just a matter of adding more stories, adding more interactive, adding more information on how these tools were used in early farming.”
The Legacy Amendment, approved by Minnesota voters in 2008, funds the grant program through the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Additional phases of the exhibit update will require larger grants and fundraising.
For more information, contact the Lyon County Museum at 507-537-6580 or email director@lyoncomuseum.org.
