October is the month for picking apples, finding your way out of corn mazes, leaf peeping, attending homecoming football games, and eating candy corn (if you're me). October also holds a number of fun museum programs and events.

Vintage Base Ball Program

Saturday, October 14

The American National Game of Base Ball: Grand Match for the Championship at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken, N. J., 1866. Courtesy The Met.

Corky Gaskell, former board member of the National Vintage Base Ball Association, will be at the museum on October 14 to share some of base ball's early history as it emerges as an organized sport in the 19th Century.

Program: Vintage Base Ball History, 2:30 - 3:30, included with museum admission. Pre-registration is encouraged with walk-up registration available as space allows.

Workshop: Build Your Own Base Ball, 3:30 - 6:30. Limited to 8 participants. $30 members/ $40 non-members. Fee includes base ball history program at 2:30, materials, and instruction.

Contact Karen at k.jacobson@cvmuseum.com or 715-834-7871 with questions.

Members -- to receive discounts, log in prior to registering for lecture or workshop. You can reset your password & recover your user id by selecting "Need helping logging on?" under the Log On button. For additional log in assistance contact Jill York

Escape Room Fundraiser

September 30 - October 29

WEAU recently featured the Krampus Escape Room on its early morning Hello Wisconsin show. Watch the footage to get a taste of what this year's escape room is all about. It's a fun one and definitely takes a full team. 

Location: Historic Schlegelmilch House, 517 S. Farwell Street

Cost: $140 for 4 players, $35 each additional player up to 16 max.

Minimum age: 12
Reservations required. Bookings available Wednesday, Friday-Sunday, Sept. 30 - Oct. 29.

For questions contact Tactical Escape 101, 715-418-0012. For information about admission, reservations, and hours, visit tacticalescape101.com and select "Schlegelmilch CVM-Fundraiser"

Carson Park 5 & 10

Saturday, October 28

Check out this year's Carson Park 5 & 10 t-shirt design by UW-Stout student Isabel Smith! Part social gathering, part race, part fundraiser, the Carson Park 5 & 10 is the oldest running race in Wisconsin. Join us for this community event.

Race options: 5K run or walk, 10-mile run, 1 mile and 1/4 kid's BOO-gie run or walk.

What's included in your registration:

• A really cool t-shirt showcasing the things we love about Carson Park.

• Chippewa Valley Railroad train rides for kids in costumes and adults with bib numbers

• Museum admission until 12:00pm

• Post-race snacks and one soda or beer (must be 21)

Proceeds from the event are split 50/50 with the Indianhead Track Club and help support the missions of both organizations. 

Thank you to sponsors Scheels, Festival Foods,Visit Eau Claire

Now Open

Have You Heard?

Have you Heard? features interview snippets, original musical recordings, photos, video, and historical objects. This 20-minute multimedia show demonstrates how music fits into the fabric of life and is included with museum admission.

Below is a bonus slideshow showing the development of Have You Heard?" 

American Red Cross Blood Drive

Monday, October 23, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm 

Don't delay. If you're able to give blood, take the time to add this blood drive to your schedule. Make a blood donation appointment today by selecting the button below. Use Chippewa Valley Museum as the sponsor code. For registration assistance, contact Tim Hirsch (after 9/15)

Heritage Germans Across Generations in Eau Claire

Wednesday, October 25, 6:30 - 7:30 pm 

Using Schlegelmilch family letters and documents, Luca Ciletti will explore how the German language evolved in Wisconsin’s heritage German communities.The museum will remain open through the conclusion of the program, with admission to CVM’s exhibits included in the registration fee.

Preregistration is encouraged, with walk-up admissions available as space allows. The cost of admission, which includes the program, is $12 per adult, $10 per senior, and $5 per Student or Youth, ages 5-17. Members can attend the evening for no cost. Contact Angela at a.allred@cvmuseum.com or 715-834-7871 with questions.

Enjoy the fall colors and I hope you get to visit at least one apple orchard or pumpkin patch.

Peace,

Carrie Ronnander
Chippewa Valley Museums Executive Director

P.S.The new Have You Heard? multimedia exhibit has been an active project for two years, but like any good project, it builds on what came before. The Listen Up! exhibit (2021); Musical Identities, contemporary folk and traditional music documentation project (2019); and UW-Eau Claire Sounds of Eau Claire oral history project (2017-18) all helped inform Have You Heard?

Have You Heard? also relies on the work of retired UW-Madison professor and folklorist James P. Leary. Some of this work is available online in the Local Centers/Global Sounds: Historic Recordings and Midwestern Musical collection. 

We collected and reviewed far more material than could possibly be used in a 20-minute show. Places like Mabel Tainter Memorial Theater (Menomonie), Fourniers Ballroom (Eau Claire), and the Bohemian Hall (Drywood, Chippewa County) are not in the show but have been important gathering places and hold special memories for many.

Bohemian Hall near Cadott, date unknown (CVM 678000-0112-001)

Archivist Jodi Kiffmeyer wrote about the ZCBJ Bohemian Hall last spring as part of the weekly #ChippewaValleyHistory social media series. Below is the post.

Not long after Bohemian immigrants came to Drywood (near Cadott) in the late 1890s, they banded together to build a community hall. Funding for that first hall came in part from the Cypreanson Brothers, the land company that encouraged Bohemian settlement in the area.

After volunteers completed construction, the hall began hosting dances and other entertainment for the community. Thomas Kysilko provided fiddle music for most of these early events. Jeanne Kysilko, who grew up in Drywood, remembered that parents would often put their babies and toddlers to sleep at the Prokupek home across from the hall so they could continue dancing into the night. One family forgot a sleeping baby and had to turn around their horse and buggy and backtrack three miles to retrieve the little one.

It didn't take long for the community at Drywood to outgrow the hall. The Západní Cesko Bratrská Jednota (ZCBJ) building, shown above, is the second incarnation of the hall. It was built in 1907 near the old hall, which was repurposed as a stable for horses. ZCBJ was a Bohemian fraternal organization that provided insurance benefits and social activities to its members. ZCBJ Hall also hosted a branch of the Sokols, a gymnastics organization for children. Young Jeanne Kysilko, shown here practicing gymnastics, was probably a member.

There's far too much history of the Bohemian Hall to fit into a social media post. To learn more, check out this ar article about the hall by the Society of Architectural Historians:and the Wisconsin Historical Society's property record. -- Jodi, CVM Archivist, with research assistance from volunteer Nikki J

Long Live the Squeeze Box Festival, ZCBJ Bohemian Hall, 2017. Photographer Nick Poss.