Hi Everyone,

The year 2025 will soon be coming to an end. Next up, 2026! It is hard to imagine 2026
will mark our 10 th year of operating the Museum.

When the past town board asked me to check with the county about using the old town
hall building as a historical museum, I wasn’t sure how many hoops I would need to jump
through. I asked the board to give me a year to sort things out. As it turned out, Eau
Claire County was anxious for older government buildings to be repurposed into
community museums.

I was made aware of the building needing new shingles and new window frames. I went
to work finding people that felt as I did and still do about saving as many artifacts and as
much memorabilia as possible. Dave Manor came to the rescue by donating the cost to
shingle the old town hall building. Next, the windows. My husband Wayne donated
money for new window frames made by the Amish community in Taylor. With some of
the remaining money, we purchased window shades, display cases, and saved the rest
for our next projects.

Many pieces of furniture were donated in Nels Norheim’s memory by his sister, Johanna
Moe of Colorado Springs. This was the first large donation for the museum. When it
became known the museum committee was looking for donations for the museum, we
began collecting pieces that had not seen the light of day for many years. We had
sparked an interest in others to save a little bit of history from our little corner of the
world.

Over the years, we purchased a shipping container/storage unit which we paid for with
donations and fundraisers. This was not done overnight, but we knew we had to make it
happen because the museum was full! With the storage unit, we are able to rotate our
collections to free up space for even more things!

The museum committee had hoped to have the exterior of the building painted in 2026.
However, upon closer examination, we discovered that painting would not cure the
problem. The building was built in 1892 and needs new siding. Since the museum is a
historical government building, the siding needs to be wood like the original siding.
I have contact names of carpenters from the Amish community in the Augusta area. We
will be getting estimates from them as soon as possible. Hopefully this can be an early
spring/ summer project. The committee will need financial help. The committee sponsors
an Arts and Craft Fair in May. Money collected from the vendor’s spots can go toward the
siding along with donations collected when people visit when we are open; donations
collected at the township picnic as well as from sales from our book, The History of
Foster.

Let me know your thoughts about setting up an account at the Alliance Bank under the
Town of Clear Creek Museum/Siding Fund for monetary donations.

Thanks, one and all.

Cheryl Corbin, President
Clear Creek Museum
Call or Text (715) 299-9288, .