Bringing history to life

HARTINGTON — Over 200 area residents enjoyed a century of memories on display here Sunday at the Cedar County Historical Society Museum.

The museum hosted a picnic and Open House at their Highway 84 facility to mark the museum's 60th anniversary.

The event featured tours of the main house, the expo building and the log cabin located behind the house.

Leo Arens' antique Model T car was also on display for the occassion, which included birthday cake, lemonade and hot dogs.

The anniversary party proved to be a great opportunity for Historical Society members to show off all the improvements they've made over the last few years, as well.

The major improvements include a new front and side porch, including a new floor, support columns and railing. For those visitors to the museum who benefit from a handicap entry, a new handicap access that meets state requirements also has been installed. This includes a ramp with railings leading to a new and wider access door on the front west side of the museum.

Also included in the museum makeover was a new lighted sign out front, renovation and illumination of the vintage walkway light to light up the front and new sidewalks leading to the front porch steps and the handicap ramp on the west side of the house.

The landscaping in front of the entire museum includes rock gardens with flowers, grasses and bushes that have been added to enhance the museum front, giving it an inviting curb appeal.

All of the outside improve- ments began as the first phase of a multi-phase project that included the upgrading of the electrical components throughout the house and those that supply power to the adjacent exhibit building and carriage barn. This included re-wiring the entire main house.

A 200-amp service was added to service all of the three buildings. The previous service, likely placed in 1900, was as much a relic as the antiques it was fostering, with only a 100-amp service.

Lloyd Sudbeck was stationed inside the log cabin behind the main house so he could explain the history of the cabin and some of the work that had to be done to better preserve the 12x24 foot house his great-grandfather, Herman Sudbeck, built in 1869.

“There’s a lot of history here. A lot of family history and just a lot of history for the county," Sudbeck said.

The cabin was originally built on a rock foundation located one mile west of Bow Valley. At that time, the house featured an eight-foot basement, Sudbeck said.

The cabin was picked up and transported down the road to the museum property in 1983. Some work had to be done at that time to make sure the back wall would not fall o#. Sudbeck said Jim Ander son was instrumental in helping with that work.

Sudbeck said he has been spending time on many small projects inside the cabin, including installing doors and making wooden door handles to replicate those of the era.

The cabin also features a a wide open second story, but no work has been done on that level, he said.

Sudbeck said he considered plastering the walls to make the cabin look more homey, but because of the exteme heat and cold the building endures each year, plaster would simply crumble o#, he said.