2020 Exhibits
Fred Warren's Amazing
Calculating Engine
For the first time in nearly 70 years, the computing device invented in Three Oaks in the 1870's will be on display here.
It was 30 years ahead of its time, and might have put the village in the map in a big way had its creator not died shortly after completing what may well have been the first working computer in America.
The Marx-o-Chime Colony produced odd musical instruments in a factory in New Troy for decades, instruments sold by traveling salesmen who promised customers "anyone can play" their instruments. See the Uke-lin, the Hawaiian Tiple, and many others, and hear how they sounded.
Learn about the exploits of the Army's 32nd Division, nicknamed the Red Arrow Division after piercing German defenses in France in World War I. Michiana's Red Arrow Highway was, of course, named after the 32nd.
NEW FOR 2020-- a German Mauser machine gun!
"Three Oaks-- Then & Now", a series of fascinating photo montages created by museum board member Randy Miller, juxtaposing the modern village with the Three Oaks of horse and buggy days.
Before shopping malls and before the internet, Three Oaks had a thriving department store. Founded in 1910 as part of the Warren
Featherbone business empire that dominated Three Oaks, the store was later taken over by the Hunerjager family, which ran it for decades, even holding regular fashion shows featuring local folks as models.
Who was John W. Flynn and how did a Three Oaks-to-Sawyer road get named after this Chicago union boss and tough guy. And— was he really a pal of Al Capone's? Our exhibit separates fact from legend.
The legend of the founding of New Buffalo begins with a shipwreck. But did the grounding of the Post Boy in November 1834 really lead Captain Wessel Whittaker to establish a settlement at the mouth of the Galien? And why did Whittaker's dreams of a great lake port city fizzle so quickly? He died penniless just a few years after coming to Michigan.
(Artwork by Sonja Heath, New Buffalo HS Class of 2020)