Last night, Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center was honored to receive a Preservation Award for “community effort” from the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota. Betty Hemstad, the first president of the Gunflint Trail Historical Society accepted the award last night at Laird Norton Addition to the Winona County Historical Society in Winona.

According to the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota website, over the past 26 years, nearly 300 projects across the state have received recognition through the Minnesota Preservation Awards program in the categories of adaptive reuse, addition/expansion, advocacy, archaeology, career achievement, community effort, education/interpretation, emerging leader, preservation planning, restoration/rehabilitation, stewardship, and sustainable design. A new recognition area for preservation publications was added this year to the education / interpretation category. Awards are presented not on the basis of size or investment, but rather on the merit they provide to their community.

Hard to believe that in just five years, Chik-Wauk went from looking like this:

To looking like this:

We couldn’t have done it without hundreds of volunteers and countless volunteer hours. Thanks too to all our visitors — all 9000 of you! — who have made Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center a success!