4/14/2009 9:21:00 AM History gets technological upgrade
Finding history
What: Western Hennepin County Pioneer Association's Pioneer Museum Hours: Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Where: 1953 West Wayzata Blvd., Long Lake Phone: 952-473-6557 Admission: Free On the Web:www.whcpa-museum.org
By Beth Thibodeau
If you live in the Long Lake area, chances are you might know Dick Stubbs. Chances are better that he knows you - or something about your family history. He's a volunteer for the Western Hennepin County Pioneer Association's Pioneer Museum, which was founded by a relative in 1958.
Stubb's passion for recording the area's history - and its people - would no doubt please his cousin.
"Everybody my age in this area who's interested in ... history - well, they're interested because of Avery Stubbs. He was a storyteller," Stubbs said.
Those stories - gathered in the form of photos, personal letters, newspaper clippings, family scrapbooks and other items donated by families in the area - make up the museum's collection. But the collection actually began with the inception of the pioneer association in 1907.
Now Stubbs and his brother, Dan, along with board members and museum volunteers are bringing the group and its museum into the digital age.
They have the daunting task of putting more than 100 years of information about the area online.
"There's so much, you don't know what to include," said Stubbs. So the informal selection process goes like this, he said: "Basically if we find something interesting, we get it on the computer."
There are more than 30,000 digitized, searchable images on the museum's computer system, available for viewing during museum hours or by appointment.
And on the association's Web site? "There's just the tip of the iceberg on the Web site now," Dan Stubbs said.
"It's a great way to get people who have moved to come back to look at the area," Dan Stubbs said of the Web site.
And it's an obvious draw for people who are interested in tracing their genealogy.
The museum has files for thousands of families - "many with little notes attached," said Dan Stubbs. "It would be great to get all of that online."
The site includes newspaper clippings with pictures and names of men drafted for World War II.
"We get tons of hits on that each month," Dick Stubbs said.
And as if getting what's at the museum online isn't enough, Dick Stubbs has ideas for gathering and adding more.
"I know that people love to see what they've written," he said. "We could have an area [on the Web site] where people could write their stories - stories they heard from an aunt or uncle or father or mother. And they could say, 'Oh, look! There's my story!' That would produce a lot of interest in the Web site," he said.
When listening to either Dick or Dan Stubbs talk about the endless possibilities, it's easy to imagine Avery Stubb's enthusiasm as he worked to open the museum.
The brothers will need to pace themselves to maintain their enthusiasm.
The process of putting the association's collection - or even a portion of it - online is ongoing work shared by other board members and volunteers, too.
"The transformation is really a work in progress," Dan Stubbs said.
His brother puts it more bluntly: "It's a never-ending project."
But the brothers don't complain about the countless hours they've dedicated to the association and the museum.
Their desire to record the history of the area and its people is a passion they perhaps inherited.
Dan Stubbs said his cousin Avery convinced people to become involved in recording the history of the area by being so dedicated. "He was persistent," he said. That's a quality the brothers obviously share.
"I'd spend more time if I could," said Dick Stubbs of his efforts to publicize the museum and the content offered online. "But it doesn't pay the bills," he added with a laugh.
I just recently read the winter 2009-2010, volume 150 from the Western Hennepin County Pioneers Association. The information about Leo Faser, his family, and the golf course was so exciting!!!!!!!!!! Harry and Mildred (known more as Billie) Maynard were my parents. My Dad was running Lyman Lumber in Long Lake during the 40's. we first rented a house from Spencer and Ruth Smith. It was the first 2-story white house you passed as you as headed to Spencer's wonderful greenhouse where he raised plants to sell. Iv'e forgotten what the greenhouse name was known to the public. Of couse we got to know Spencer and Ruth , as well as the Feser family. They were all so nice. I am so thankful that I now know all the facts about how Leo came to own this land that became Orono Golf Course. I will send for a membership -I would some day like to write about Growing Up Across From the Orono Golf Course in the 40's and 50's.
