2024 FREE Museum Exhibit

The Sauk County Historical Museum in the Van Orden Mansion will open for the season on Friday, May 3 at noon. The museum will then be open Friday and Saturday afternoons from 12 to 4 pm through October. In addition to all of the great permanent exhibits, this year’s temporary museum-wide exhibit is titled When I Was a Kid – Toys, Tasks, and Technology. The exhibit will showcase five aspects of childhood: home, school, work, community, and play.

Museum visitors will find a vintage toy display and hands-on toy area in the living room, gorgeous Victorian-era baby buggies in the parlor, an Edwardian-era birthday party in the dining room, a one-room school exhibit, 4H and youth club memorabilia, and much more. Exhibits will highlight a wide range of children’s experiences including stories from the Ho-Chunk community to the World War II era that help tell what it was like to be a kid in Sauk County. Hands-on activities can be found throughout the mansion like vintage-style toys to play with, working rotary dial phones, push-button exhibits, and much more. There will even be a history hunt for kids with prizes. Admission is free.