Drummond Historical Museum
Drummond Historical Museum
In the Drummond Public Library
14990 Superior Street
PO Box 8
Drummond, Wisconsin 54832
(715) 739-6500
drummondmuseum@cheqnet.net
Free Admission
Open When the Library is Open
Self-Guided Tours
To Arrange a Guided Tour:
Leave a message (715) 739-6500
or contact Karen Watters 715-739-6204
The Drummond Historical Museum gives children and adults a chance to go back in time.
As you wander past the old photos and numerous logging artifacts on display
you will get a real sense of what it was like to live back in the late 1800's
during the logging era in Northern Wisconsin.
There is also an exhibit of animals in the Chequamegon National Forest in Northern Wisconsin.
Everyone really enjoys seeing all the animals on display!
A Short History of Drummond, Wisconsin
Train in the woods near Pigeon Lake.
The prime timberlands of the Drummond area in the late 1800s contained a virgin forest of more than 80% white and Norway pine. In 1880, the Chicago, Minneapolis and Omaha Railroad began pushing a line toward Lake Superior, which would open the forests of Bayfield County — including those in the Drummond area — to distant markets.
In 1882, the same year the railroad arrived in Drummond, the Rust-Owen Lumber Company chose to locate a sawmill in Drummond. A crew under the supervision of Frank Drummond began building a mill in the spring of 1882. During that summer, workers built a boarding house, tenement houses, a horse barn and a company store. This new town, named Drummond, would be a company town — owned entirely by the Rust-Owen Lumber Company.
Lumberjacks used hand axes and crosscut saws to harvest trees and then cut the trees into logs. The logs were transported to the Drummond mill via wagon, sleigh, waterways and train. When the logs reached the Drummond mill, they were graded for quality and cut to boards. Then the boards were trimmed and cut to lumber length and shipped out on the railroad. In 1891 the Rust-Owen Lumber Company established the Drummond & South Western Railroad (D&S Railroad) to expedite transportation of the lumber made at their mill.
Though change came slowly, the Rust-Owen Lumber Company finally allowed private businesses in town in 1921.
The closing of the sawmill on November 7th, 1930 ended the only way of life many Drummond residents had known. Some people moved on, and the Town of Drummond's population dropped from 1,054 in 1930 to 776 in 1940, but many families who had bought homes in Drummond stayed.
The programs of the Work Project Administration put Drummond's residents to work in the 1930's. In 1937, the WPA began a resettlement project with the Forest Service to establish farmsteads on Forest Service land. Local workers constructed 32 resettlements farmsteads.
Drummond WI, a company town.
Old Mill and Pond
What is now Drummond Lake, was known as Mill Pond back in the day of mill operation. When you are in the Community Park looking toward the lake imagine the mill in front of you. Don’t forget to visit the kiosk in the Community Park which has more photos of the Rust Owen Mill and the Town of Drummond.
More Drummond Area Photos
Please click here for some interesting black & white photos from the logging era, and the start of the Town of Drummond.
Drummond Historical Museum is a Member
of Bayfield County Historical Society
Drummond Historical Museum is one of the ten affiliated local history chapters in the Bayfield County Historical Society (BCHS).
BCHS is a member of the Wisconsin Council for Local History, and is part of a state-wide network of historical organizations that are affiliated with the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Become a Member of Drummond Historical Museum
Annual Dues:
$ 5.00 Individual
$10.00 Family
$25.00 Business
$100.00 Lifetime
Meetings
Find Dates for
Museum Board Meetings
In the Town Calendar
The Drummond Historical Museum is totally separate from the Town and is solely supported by museum membership fees, monetary donations, and memorials. These monies provide the funds to update displays and create documentation, to buy computer equipment and office supplies, and to support all the other financial requirements of the museum.
Without your contributions and memberships, the Drummond Museum would not be as wonderful as it is! Thank You! And a sincere Thank You to the Town of Drummond for arranging for the Drummond Historical Museum to be located in the same Town Building as the Drummond Library.
All of the work done at the Drummond Historical Museum is done by volunteers. The Museum Board Members are all volunteers. We sure could use more volunteers at the museum, and would enjoy having new ideas for exhibits!
You must be a member of the museum to be elected to the board, but you need not be a year round resident. We are able to conduct meetings via telephone, and in several months we do not hold meetings due to holidays.
Drummond Historical Museum Membership Highlights:
Gordon Sorenson
In 1975, a twenty-four by thirty-two foot addition was built on the back of the then existing library (now the building known as the Drummond Business Center), and on July 3, 1976 during Drummond's celebration of the country's Bicentennial, the Drummond Museum was dedicated in a program conducted by Gordon Sorenson. Mr. Sorenson became the museum's first curator and was known as the person who, through his hard work and perseverance, made the museum a reality, and a place to preserve the local history. After Mr. Sorenson's death, Lawrence Gagner took over as curator and with a great deal of hard work, made the museum a centerpiece for Drummond, and a much visited tourist attraction. Lawrence died April 25, 2007 at the age of 92 years.
The museum staff enjoyed an interesting project in 2013 when they completed the Blymer Bell outdoor display, located on the grounds of the Drummond Library and Historical Museum. The bell, which has journeyed from an early Drummond School to the Drummond Free Lutheran Church, is now enclosed in an attractive structure that emulates a steeple complete with benches and floral displays.
Lawrence Gagner at CCC Camp.
The Blymer Bell.