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September newsletter is out about the 150th birthday of Laketown Township - September 2025 Newsletter
July newsletter is out about the Laketown Lutheran Church and Cemetery - July 2025 Newsletter
2025 Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society Activities
SELHS started in 2000 and for 25 years has been preserving local history. We have a museum, active membership, and a good past and an exciting future!
Museum Open Mondays 10-2 year round – average of about 5 visitors and 3 volunteers. Open for special events and visits by appointment for example, genealogy visits, tourism, research and general visits. We are adjacent to a free book exchange and a free clothing exchange open the same hours as the museum. Monthly board meetings third Thursday nights at 6pm
January: Christmas party at the Wolf Creek Methodist Church
March: Annual meeting with election of officers
Memorial Day at Wolf Creek Cemetery – we choose a veteran to research and put together a newsletter about the soldier. Monte Kukk, a displaced WWII Estonian who served in Korea.
June: Old Settler’s picnic started in 1939. 40 attending. It has been down since Covid.
July: Co-hosted the Red School house at the Polk Co fair. 1900 visitors.
August: Swedish club tour of the museum and presentation 20 people
August: Open for Cushing Fun days and the St Croix Falls all-school reunion 50 people
September will be the 20th Annual River Road Ramble – September 25-27
The River Road Ambassadors were out nearly every weekend with their float in local parades and helping with local events as volunteers.
Successes: The museum having year round regular hours now for 3 years has been a very good way to get volunteers and have visitors. Monday of this week we had three volunteers and 10 visitors.
Obsolete Media Laboratory: We continue to expand our ability to digitize old media. The latest purchase was a 16mm sound movie projector that actually works well. We can project movies on a screen and video them as they are played. We are 3 years into a project to digitize the audio, video, slides and negatives from the Polk County Museum. This winter should finish the several 1000 items. We created a Polk Co Historical Society Youtube channel for their video and audio recordings.
Laketown 150th: Laketown Township is 150 this year. We have been concentrating our efforts on Laketown history including scanning and creating print copies from three old scrapbooks from the Laketown Lutheran Church and township records. We had a special day of Laketown items on display at the museum with 50 folks dropping in.
Acquisitions: A tattered 1887 Polk county plat book was donated recently. We didn’t have a copy of that and likely will have this one laminated. We received a lantern/stove used by George A Nelson in 1898 in his two years in the Yukon Gold Rush. He is famous for being the 1936 vice presidential candidate on the Socialist ticket. We also got many photos from the Nelson family. We continue to get donations and our two room museum is pretty full!
Our income for 2025 was about $2500 as were our expenditures. We don’t spend much and so don’t need to do much fundraising. Often when we need something it gets donated to us, i.e. office equipment, and used computers and even paper for printing our newsletters. We got no grants in 2025.
Newsletters: We do a quarterly newspaper that is mailed to 100 members (or former members) as well as emailed to about 100 folks and put on our web page and linked to on our facebook page.
Social Media: We have a free website through Google.
SELHS website: https://sites.google.com/view/selhs/home
Facebook includes our page with pages from Atlas and Eureka,
SELHS: https://www.facebook.com/SELHS/
Ramble: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069706190481
Atlas: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077685690949
Polk Co Fair History: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082709733901
Old Settlers: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076202413654
Eureka: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077272697673
Books: We will add three new books this year to the 20 or more we already have published and have for sale. Book sales are good for about $500 per year over their cost. The new books are copies of the Laketown Lutheran church scrapbooks. They are printed in color on glossy paper and sold for a profit that is donated back to the church.
Facility: We have a new wifi video projector, large pull down screen and can accommodate about 25 folks in our museum for meetings, more if we take down some foldable work tables.
Outreach: Russ Hanson gave 5 presentations on the local history of our area including to the Osceola Historical Society, Polk County Historical Society, SELHS, and the Polk County Genealogical Society. He has one scheduled next Tuesday September 16th at the Polk County Museum – 2 pm on Doc Squirt of Cushing. Russ also videos presentations with SELHS equipment for other organizations like the St Croix Falls historical society, WI Interstate Park friends, Polk Co Genealogical Society, Luck Museum and others. The videos are put on YouTube.
Summary: Being open one day a week for 4 hours has been very good for our ongoing health as a small historical society. Although we always can use more volunteers, we do have some dedicated ones who keep us vital. After 25 years we are proud of our past and look forward to the next 25 years with enthusiasm. A small group of folks working together can accomplish a great deal!
Old Settler's Picnic 2025 - Started in 1939
Bill Lindahl, 92, arrived early to reconnect with old friends. Bill grew up in Cushing, some of it in the living quarters above the old post office his parents operated. At age 90, he purchased a lifetime membership in the Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society—sponsor of the picnic—optimistically planning for many more to come. He enjoyed a talk by local historian Russ Hanson on what you could buy in Cushing in 1955, when the town boasted a car dealer, two tractor dealers, a bank, post office, garage, general stores, hardware store, feed mill, barbershop, church, cemetery, ice house, two bars, and more.
Maurice Christenson, 91, and Donald Erickson, 88, have attended the Old Settlers Picnic since childhood. Their families have been deeply involved in the event for generations. Maurice’s grandparents, Bert and Hattie Brenizer, his parents, Chris and Martha Christenson, and his siblings—Maurice, Ione, Willus, Fern, Rose, and Shirley—all played a role. Donald’s parents, Walter and Eva Erickson, along with Donald himself, have also been longtime organizers, helping keep the picnic tradition alive through its 87 years.
The Sterling Old Setter's Picnic recognizes those who are 80 years or older and have long marriages. Back Row: Carol Medchil, Bill Lindahl, Jan Johnson, Bev Granquist, Gene Swenson, Donald Erickson, Lyle Jahn (93 oldest man). Front - Bonita Hutton, Shirley Medchill (95, oldest woman), Marlyene Jahn (Marlyene and Lyle were married longest at 69 years), May Olinger, and Sena Christopherson. Maurice Christenson left before the group photo.
May 2025 SELHS Newsletter is out
Regular Meetings: Third Thursday of the month 6 pm Cushing Museum (None Dec, Feb, March)
Wolf Creek Cemetery - Memorial Day 11 am program and lunch afteward at the church.
Museum open Mondays 10-2 except on holidays or snow storms
2025 Events: 87th Old Settler's Picnic Sunday June 22th noon potluck at the Cushing Community Center
Red School House at the Polk County Fair Thursday July 25 – Sunday July 28, 2024
20th Annual River Road Ramble Saturday September 27 9-5
2024-25 Museum Projects -- Digitization of local records in the Obsolete Media Laboratory. Negatives, VHS tapes, 8mm movies, scrapbooks, audio tapes, etc. A big box of items from the Polk County Museum, the Laketown Lutheran Church scrapbook history, records held at the local museum and more.
The Atlas history book by Buz Swerkstrom is for sale at the Atlas Co-op, the Cushing Museum and on Amazon. 311 pages, printed in color, the cost is $25 per copy plus $4 shipping if you want it mailed.
SELHS, Box 755, Cushing, WI 54006
River Road Ramble Float sponsored by SELHS
The Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society (SELHS) began in 2000. The group runs a museum in Cushing, Wisconsin in the upstairs of the Community Center
Address: SELHS Box 755, Cushing, WI 54006. email: selhscushing@gmail.com
We are a 501c3 non-profit with bylaws, officers and regular meetings and elections.
We maintain several Facebook pages where the latest events and activities can be found.
SELHS: https://www.facebook.com/SELHS
History of Atlas: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077685690949
History of Eureka: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077272697673
Northwest Wisconsin Museum Consortium: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082899864616
Polk County Wisconsin Fair History: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082709733901
Polk County Wisconsin Genealogical Society: https://www.facebook.com/polkwigenealogicalsociety
St Croix River Road Rambler: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069706190481
Sterling Old Settler's Picnic: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076202413654
We also have an old website for the Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society at
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~wiselhs/
We send a quarterly newsletter to members of the society. Membership is $10 per year.
Polk County is in Northwest Wisconsin. Cushing is midway between Grantsburg and St Croix Falls on Hwy 87
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