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- EAGLE RIVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY MAIN MUSEUM CAMPUS -

Camp Tecumseh Group Picture c. 1950-1955

CAMP TECUMSEH RECREATION HALL

Founded and built in 1946, the Camp Tecumseh Lodge for Boys was an all-boys camp consisting of Recreation Halls, cabins, Mess Halls, activity grounds, and lake access all aimed at honing the skills and building the character of boys across the Midwest and broader United States. The camp was constructed and operated by Faye (Ritman)Dorfman, who helped run much of the cooking and medical enterprises and William Dorfman, originally a building engineer held develop and supervise campers activities. The museum's main building is now the former Recreation Hall, it's sister building- the Mess Hall, is now the large dinning room at Eagle Water's Resort.

UNIQUE ARCHITECTURE

As for the actual architectural style of the building features the truss beams used a relatively innovative construction method at the time called “glu-lam,” a process that glued and laminated several pieces of dimensional lumber together, forming one large and strong structural member. At the time of this building’s construction “glu-lam” beams were not only technologically significant, but common place across the Mid-West and Northern Wisconsin.


The process came to Wisconsin in 1934, with Max Hanisch Sr. who came to Peshtigo, Wisc. to start a manufacturing center for laminated products. Among his first projects, Hanisch helped construct the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. The lab at Madison has glu-lam beams that are of the same architectural style and manufacturing process to those used in Tecumseh Lodge.

Main Museum Exhibition Hall c.2024

After the closure of Tecumseh Lodge in 1960s, the building sat vacant for several years until Harry Pride and Francis Sailer purchased the building for the Knights of Columbus #5415 and moved it to it’s current location. In 2012 the E.R.H.S. bought the building from the KC . Below is the time line, from left to right showing the acquisition and the transformative process the museum that has undergone to become what we know today.

WRESTLING IN RECREATION HALL
RECREATION HALL IN OFF SEASON
EXTERIOR OF HALL
MOVING TO LOCATION
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS HALL
PRE-CONSTRUCTION OF MUSEUM
MUSEUM INTERIOR UNDER CONSTRUCTION
MUSEUM GRAND OPENING
WRESTLING IN RECREATION HALL
Wrestling in Camp Tecumseh Recreation Hall c. 1950-1959
RECREATION HALL IN OFF SEASON
Tecumseh Recreation Hall in off Season c.1950-1959
EXTERIOR OF HALL
Exterior of Recreation Hall c. 1960-1969
MOVING TO LOCATION
Recreation Hall being moved to Current Location c.1970-1979
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS HALL
Knights of Columbus #5415 Meeting Hall c. 1980-1989
PRE-CONSTRUCTION OF MUSEUM
E.R.H.S. Museum before Renovation c. 2012
MUSEUM INTERIOR UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Museum Interior being Repaired c. 2013
MUSEUM GRAND OPENING
The "New" Museum as seen from Hwy 45 c. 2014

OUR NEW HERITAGE CENTER

The New Heritage Center will seek to serve the community by offering more space to accommodate existing and expanded programming but offer services that allow for the public to interact with the area's history, heritage, and culture through means of museum exhibition space and new research capabilities.