Wakarusa River Valley Heritage Museum

09/02/2026

09/01/2026

We had a VERY interesting day working at the museum on Saturday. What started as our usual work day on a new project, ended with a bang.

Our new KU intern and CLHS Board Member have begun a huge project that will involve an inventory all of the museum's collections and reassigning storage locations to use the space more efficiently. We have already seen some interesting items that have not been unboxed in years, like a full, hand-sewn, twill suit for a child from the 1930s or the charter of the American Sunbathers Assoc. (a nudist club formed in the late 1950s in Kanwaka Township).

But it was the next box that made us pause and step back. A WW1 75mm Model H Shell was staring back at us. From the briefest of notations, written in 1996, all we knew was who donated it. Nothing about if it had been decommissioned or made inert. Nothing about how it got here. We did know it was really heavy and something made a noise inside when moved. 😬

The Douglas County Non Emergency Office (Douglas County Sheriff's Office) was called and we were told to leave it be and wait outside. (This shell has been in the basement since 1996!). The deputies showed up and were just as curious as we were. The shell was taken to Ft Riley to be examined. It was x-rayed multiple times and found to have a "concerning substance." So, in the end, the shell was destroyed. I'm sure it was used as part of a training exercise for the bomb squad. Unfortunately, all that is left are the photos and the memories of a very unusual day at the museum.

07/27/2026

We have been working our tails off behind the scenes at the museum and want to have some fun.
Join us Friday, August 7th for an evening of card and table games.

07/04/2026

The museum will be closing at 3pm today to celebrate 4th of July.
Have a fun and safe holiday with friends and family!

Send a message to learn more

07/04/2026

Happy 250th! Happy 4th of July!
Here's 4th of July news from 1861 and 1862 Bloomington.

06/06/2026

Making autograph books and "Cursive with Quills" are great activities for a rainy day.

05/30/2026

The Wakarusa River Valley Heritage Museum will be open extended hours next Saturday for a Hands-On History Day, 10am-5pm.

We think it is important for everyone to be able to read our country's founding documents in their original form. So, we are putting chalk, quills, and pens into your hands so you can practice the lost art of cursive writing. Make an autograph book to gather your friend's signatures. There will be examples of autograph books from our collection to see. We will have family friendly activities covering learning to read & write cursive and why it is so important.

05/25/2026

Memorial Day - Remembering and honoring those that have died while serving in the military.
Photo shows Memorial Day Flags at Clinton Cemetery in 2021.

05/07/2026

We are excited to announce the film screening of "Flooding Kaw Nation", a collaborative project led by Claire Cox, historian and former museum staff. This is part of a larger exhibit that is in the works, Voices of the Valleys, which examines the parallel history of Clinton and Kaw Lake.
A panel discussion will follow with the film makers, historians, and those displaced by the lake.

04/21/2026

THANK YOU to all the volunteers who showed up at the museum on a chilly Saturday morning to do the same work they probably needed to do in their own yards.

Sticks and limbs were cleared, a small field was burned (& volunteer trees cut), the courtyard was cleaned and edged, cobwebs and wasp nests cleared from the eaves, and large quartzite rocks moved to build up a garden slope.

Whew..... it looks beautiful!

The museum's opening weekend is just around the corner - May 2 & 3.