The Pine River Valley Heritage Society Museum is honoring our Bayfield soldiers who gave their lives during WWII that ended in May 1945, 70 years ago in the European Theater. The Pacific Theater ended later in August the same year. A new display at the museum will feature this tragic time in our history.

Our seasonal opening will be Saturday, May 30 with free ice cream treats. Look for the pink golf cart, "Lydia's Sweet Treats" in front of the museum at 11 Mill St. The museum opens at 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. with ice cream served between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. We hope you will come out and visit our unique little four-room museum. Admission is FREE, but your generous donations help to support us. Our pioneers have donated items that depict their everyday life style, much different than what we are accustomed to nowadays. We have third, fourth, fifth and sixth generations living in our Pine River Valley who have donated these items.

We have two new large donations this season. In the first room we have Evelyn Gosney Wommer's 1930 pump organ. This was hard to play, as electricity wasn't available to rural homes in our valley until around the 1940s. In the back room we have a replica of a bell tower that holds the original 60-pound bell from the Columbus School, a one-room schoolhouse that is located across the bridge on County Road 501 north of Bayfield. It is now a private residence, but photos in our classroom show the school in the late 1800s.

Arrangements can be made for special group tours outside of our regular hours or days by contacting President, Tony Schrier at 884-7636 or through our Web Site WWW.PRVHERITAGESOCIETY.ORG. We are proud of our little museum and think it is the best one in a small town! It is surprising how many local residents have not been to our museum. if you're one of them, please come out and TAKE A STEP BACK IN TIME.

Pine River Valley Heritage Society

Bayfield