Our Exhibitions
Museum Admission: $5 Adults, $3 Students, Free for WCHS members and children 7 and under.
Students doing research for a school project are free!
Current COVID-19 Guidelines While Visiting Our Museums:
Please wear a mask while visiting due to current local data for COVID-19 spread. Thank you for continuing to distance and practicing other ways to keep everyone safe and healthy.
Please wear a mask while visiting due to current local data for COVID-19 spread. Thank you for continuing to distance and practicing other ways to keep everyone safe and healthy.
The Winona County History Center is home to a wide variety of exhibits about our area's past that include local businesses, the lumber industry, architecture, early human life, native peoples, geology, stained glass, wartime, the arts, transportation, our area's cultural heritage, the Mississippi River and more!
We also have the award-winning children's exhibit, Walking Through Time, that traces the human experience in Winona County, from early humans to Euro-American settlers through a reproduction cave, tipi and steamboat pilot house (ages 6+). Preschoolers love to explore The Cube, an interactive area with hands-on activities related to the exhibits found in the museum.
You can also explore Winona County history at home with our Virtual Visit portal:
We also have the award-winning children's exhibit, Walking Through Time, that traces the human experience in Winona County, from early humans to Euro-American settlers through a reproduction cave, tipi and steamboat pilot house (ages 6+). Preschoolers love to explore The Cube, an interactive area with hands-on activities related to the exhibits found in the museum.
You can also explore Winona County history at home with our Virtual Visit portal:
NEW! Slaggie Family Lobby Art Gallery
In partnership with the River Arts Alliance, we welcome local art to this beautiful space of the History Center. Art shows are free! Regular museum admission applies to the main exhibits and archives.
See it at the History Center!
Women's Temperance Union Coffee Cart, c. 1900This unique bit of our past is a coffee cart that was used on the streets of Winona by members of the Women's Christian Temperance Union to sober up those stumbling out of the city's bars.
Rock Shelter ReproductionThe earliest evidence of humans living in Winona County is based on the discovery of a Woodland tradition site (circa 800 B.C.- 900 A.D.) known as the La Moille Rock Shelter south of the city of Winona on the Mississippi River.
This is a replica of that site. In 1889, T.H. Lewis made 43 tracings of the glyphs, or drawings, which covered the walls and roof of LaMoille Cave; he observed that there were “more (petroglyphs) in this cave than have been found at any other point in the Mississippi valley.” |
J.R. Watkins' Original Desk, 1868Its where it all started, The Watkins Company was founded by J.R. with a new formula for liniment, good for man or beast. Since starting in his kitchen, the company is still known internationally for its personal, kitchen and household products. Including Liniment.
Light of Learning Mural Studies, by Kenyon Cox, 1910The Winona Public Library, just a block away from the History Center, is home to a mural entitled, The Light of Learning. It was created by Kenyon Cox, the famous artist also responsible for many works in government buildings including the Minnesota State Capitol, and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Several of his original studies are part of an exhibit showcasing our library's history.
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Our Other Museums
Along with our main museum, The Winona County History Center, we operate the Historic Bunnell House and The Rural Heritage Museum!
At the Bunnell House visitors take a step back to the 1850s when touring the fully furnished home of Winona's first permanent Euro-American settlers, the Bunnells. Willard was up to no good and travelled west to escape a run in with the law over some silver coins. He was a trapper, fur trader, and strong willed man. His wife Matilda, who spoke French, Dakota and Ojibwa, soon followed. Not a dainty housewife, Matilda held her own in the wild frontier. Their children moved on when they both died of tuberculosis about ten years later, and Willard's brother Lafayette moved in, who was quite the character himself. Come tour their unique steamboat gothic house and learn what life was like as canoes gave way to steamboats. (Closed due to Road Construction for the 2021 Season)
The Rural Heritage Museum examines the life of the rural pioneers and agricultural heritage of Winona County through exhibits about machinery, the farmhouse, chores, tools, pioneer spirit and ingenuity, plus more. Also tour the Hill Family log house, a log barn, and the Gainey-McCarthy Schoolhouse.
At the Bunnell House visitors take a step back to the 1850s when touring the fully furnished home of Winona's first permanent Euro-American settlers, the Bunnells. Willard was up to no good and travelled west to escape a run in with the law over some silver coins. He was a trapper, fur trader, and strong willed man. His wife Matilda, who spoke French, Dakota and Ojibwa, soon followed. Not a dainty housewife, Matilda held her own in the wild frontier. Their children moved on when they both died of tuberculosis about ten years later, and Willard's brother Lafayette moved in, who was quite the character himself. Come tour their unique steamboat gothic house and learn what life was like as canoes gave way to steamboats. (Closed due to Road Construction for the 2021 Season)
The Rural Heritage Museum examines the life of the rural pioneers and agricultural heritage of Winona County through exhibits about machinery, the farmhouse, chores, tools, pioneer spirit and ingenuity, plus more. Also tour the Hill Family log house, a log barn, and the Gainey-McCarthy Schoolhouse.