Variety will reign in July at the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum with metal detecting, Sauk Trail history, and music on the museum’s back deck.

A badge from the 1894 Columbian Exposition (The Chicago World’s Fair), a 1925 dance card from the University of Illinois Military Ball, a running board from a 1909 Model T, printing plates from the Edwardsburg Argus, and a 1935 half dime. Neil Hassinger will address all of these, discovered while metal detecting.

Hassinger, a Niles native who, with his wife, Kathleen, has lived in Edwardsburg for 38 years, will speak on “What’s Underfoot in Edwardsburg” at 7 p.m., Thurs., July 17.

It is just one of the things Hassinger has done after retiring from a business he owned. A 1977 graduate of Niles High School, he attended Southwestern Michigan College. In addition to metal detecting, he is involved with the archaeological digs conducted each summer by Western Michigan University at the Fort St. Joseph site along the St. Joseph River in Niles. He also serves as a museum volunteer and actively participates in reenactments.

On July 22, the display, “Sauk Trail: Echoes of Our Past,” will open. The exhibit will feature artifacts on loan from the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi, which will curate the showcase. Also included are grinding wheels, stones, woodworking tools, and old axes that were used when Edwardsburg was settled. The display will be featured during the Sauk Trail Festival on September 27.

The Relics band will perform at the museum at 7 p.m., Sat., July 26, on the museum’s back deck. Classic rock and pop music will be selections from the group’s repertoire.

Admission to all three events is free.

EDWARDSBURG–For those who enjoy tasting wild plants–whether in a pizza, frittata, or as a digestion-stimulating drink–opportunities will be available when Jim Meuninck presents the “Forager’s Dozen” at the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum at 7 p.m., Thurs., May 22.

There is no admission charge.

Meuninck, who lives at Eagle Lake with his wife, Jill, is an author, biologist, counselor, and mycologist (who studies fungi), will entertain guests with his knowledge of twelve wild plants that, he notes, ‘provide superior nutrition, are easy to identify, and make tasty substitutes for conventional ingredients.’ He has spent at least 60 years foraging and makes annual trips out west to collect information for his guides on wild plants. His guides and films have received high ratings from several organizations and publications.

His video presentation will highlight his work, along with demonstrations, tastings, and ideas for life-changing habits, as well as a few ‘health-stimulating laughs.’ Meuninck grew up in Mishawaka and graduated with degrees in biology and counseling from the University of Hawaii. He taught biology and science for eight years for the Department of Defense on military bases in several countries and also taught in South Bend, Indiana.

Peonies, roses, lilies, grasses, and other favorites will be sold when the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum holds its yearly perennial plant sale fundraiser from May 16 to May 31.

Supported by Dussel’s Farm Market and Greenhouses, Cassopolis, the event will take place on the museum grounds in Edwardsburg and will include more than 1000 plants. A wide selection of potted annual plants, suitable for patios and cemetery placements, will also be available.

Plant prices range from $1 to $30 each and include several contributions from community members. Volunteers will manage the sale; all proceeds go to the museum’s general fund.

The theme is vegetable and floral gardening, and the presenter is Mark Dussel of Cassopolis, who will lead a workshop Tues, April 22, at the Ontwa Township Hall, 26225 U.S. 12, Edwardsburg.

The event will be from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Admission is free. The appearance is held in conjunction with the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum.

Dussel is a veteran farmer who has owned Dussel’s Farm Market and Greenhouses for nearly 28 years. He will cover four topics. The first is general gardening, which focuses on vegetable gardening and landscaping around the home. Details will include plant height and locations. Secondly, weed control will center on identifying and controlling annual and perennial weeds.

Growing cut flowers, the third topic, covers which species work best for long-term cuts. Lastly, container gardening suggestions will highlight the best soil media for growing containers of both flowers and vegetables.

It’s a Christmas Gift. It’s a STOCKING STUFFER. It’s the museum’s new coloring book!!!

It’s $2 and it is on sale until Dec. 14, when the museum closes for the season.

Where else can you get a coloring book with a concise history of the Edwardsburg area, written especially for elementary students?

Thanks to Retired Teachers Leigh Goyings, Judy Singley, and Pat McCain, the coloring book on local heritage is here. The three educators researched and wrote the text and selected the photos. The cover photo was shot by Bonnie Elder and the map on the back cover was drawn by Marilyn Christner. The digital design class at Edwardsburg High School used software to change the photos into coloring pages.

The book’s printing was made possible through a grant from Midwest Energy & Communications so that it can provided without charge to all Edwardsburg fourth graders.  Additional funds for the initial printing were gifted in memory of the late Otis and Mary Montgomery, longtime supporters of the community and instrumental in the museum’s development. The funds for re-printing then were provided in memory of the late Jo-Ann Boepple and her husband, Dick, who worked tirelessly for the museum’s founding.

The museum is open from 1 to 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays, and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. It will be closed from Wed., Nov. 27, through Sat., Nov. 30, for the Thanksgiving weekend. The books also will be available during the museum’s open house at the Christmas Tree Lighting on Thurs., Dec. 5.

It is a special way to remember a loved one for the holidays, whether a family member, friend, or special pet. 

This year, a remembrance tree will grace the porch of the museum’s main gallery, and the public is invited to purchase a personalized ornament for the tree. The ornament is a 2 1/2-inch clear acrylic circle. The top will read “Remembering” and the bottom, “This Christmas.” A small suction cup comes with the tree for hanging at home.

Each ornament is $5 and order forms are available until Nov. 18 at the museum during open hours, which are 1 to 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays, and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturdays, until Dec. 14.

The ornaments are available for pickup after the Christmas tree lighting at the museum on Dec. 5, through Dec. 14, when the museum closes until May 2025. There is no limit on the number of ornaments purchased.

For questions, call Judy at 941-524-1271.

Tickets are on sale for the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum Cemetery Walking Tour, to be held on Sept. 28, 2024. This year the actors will portray Dr. John Sweetland, Publisher George Andrus, Business Owner Mary Catherine Morse, Librarian Lois Keller, Educator and Museum Founder JoAnn Boepple, and Educator Robert Mette. The tour begins and ends at the museum with a short wagon ride to the Edwardsburg Cemetery. Tours are scheduled for noon, 1:15 pm, 2:30 pm and 3:45 pm. Tickets are $5 and may be purchased at the museum 1-4 p.m., Tuesday thru Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Notice…..The noon tour is sold out! 

Life in America’s small towns conjures up baseball games and other team sports, board games, jacks and marbles, apple pie, bubble gum, bobbers, hot dogs, denim, t-shirts, and bicycles. There will be no shortage of those items and many others when the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum’s first exhibit of 2024, Small Town Americana, debuts on May 14.

Drawing upon both the museum’s inventory and items loaned by museum members, the spirited display, which celebrates small-town life, will run through July 13.

It will be followed by two other exhibits, Edwardsburg 1900-1920, which opens July 16 and closes on Halloween (Oct.31), and Christmas in Toyland, from Nov. 5 through Dec. 14.

The last two are still in the early planning stages, but display chairs Laura Jamrog and Judy Montgomery will pull items from the museum inventory for Edwardsburg 1900-1920. That exhibit will showcase the collection of Edwardsburg photos taken by George Andrus of The Edwardsburg Argus in the first two decades of the 20^th Century. George and Charles Andrus, along with their grandfather, Henry Andrus owned the Argus. The collection of about 350 photographs, was donated in four large binders by Charles Andrus’ son, Dean, soon after the museum was founded. They are images of people, buildings, streets, animals, and businesses, mostly in the Village of Edwardsburg. They will be complemented by various documents and items such as sheet music, and utensils, as well as mannequins outfitted in popular clothing styles from those decades.

The last exhibit, Christmas in Toyland, will be a colorful exhibit that will be, as Jamrog said, “all about being a kid again.” All Christmas trees will be decorated, with toys everywhere throughout the museum rooms.

The museum will close on Dec. 14, and re-open in mid-May, 2025.

MARK DUSSEL

7 p.m., June 20

Farmer. Grocer. Landscaper. Mark Dussel of Cassopolis wears all three hats and he will speak at the museum on general gardening and floral landscaping practices on June 20.

Most of what he knows stems from hands-on experiences contact and with the grower network he has developed over the years.

Dussel grew up in Penn Township on the 250-acre family hog farm on Quaker Street, which he still farms along with his own 140 acres on Dutch Settlement Street and additional leased crop land.

A 1985 graduate of Ross Beatty High School, Cassopolis, he started farming as a young boy. After graduation, he worked in a van conversion factory until he was 21, then married and began farming full-time. In 1997, he purchased the market and greenhouses in Cassopolis that today bear his name and in which he sells his own beef and several produce items he grows. He employs five farm and greenhouse workers, although the number can swell to 20 during the summer months.  His landscaper, Gloria Chavez of Decatur, has been with him for 30 years and oversees the greenhouse operations.

Dussel is a supporter of the museum’s perennial plant sale. His wife, Kristy, the company bookkeeper, is a teacher at Horizon Elementary School in Granger. The couple has three sons and two young granddaughters.

STARLA DEMOSS

7 p.m., Aug. 22

She has been an adventurer in search of experiences for many years.

And Starla DeMoss, a recent transplant to Edwardsburg, will talk about the many aspects of Dutch oven cooking and its place in American history-particularly pioneers–when she speaks on Aug. 22

A native of Casper, Wyoming, DeMoss grew up in Cheyenne, and initially left there after high school in 1973. She met her first husband in high school and they had four children. He was in the United States Air Force and they lived in Arizona. After the marriage ended, she returned to Cheyenne where she married Ed DeMoss, who also was in the U.S. Air Force. After he left the military, they moved to Pender, Nebraska, where Ed was a refrigeration supervisor for Tyson Foods. They remodeled a house and Starla became a seasoned gardener and mastered food preservation practices. She later returned to school to become a licensed practical nurse (LPN), and worked in the medical field for several years. After her husband died in 2017, she traveled extensively to visit her children.  She moved to Edwardsburg in 2022 to continue to be near her daughter and family, who relocated from San Diego, California, to Elkhart.

But in the 1990s, DeMoss attended Being an Outdoors Woman (BOW) camps, where she studied a variety of subjects, including canoeing, archery, native plants, and Dutch oven cooking. She cooks with several stackable cast iron pots over fires of hot coals, and has several recipes that she will share during her presentation. (but no, she will not cook over hot coals in the museum).

NANCY CLASE AND JOE PIANE

7 p.m., Sept. 19

World travelers Nancy Clase and her husband, Joe Piane, will share their adventures during a presentation on Sept. 19.

Clase, a 2021-2022 inductee into the Edwardsburg Public Schools Hall of Fame, taught French at the high school for 46. She was hired in 1972 after graduating from the University of Evansville (IN), studying abroad, and having been an Au Pair with a French family.

Over the years, Clase led 22 groups of Edwardsburg students, parents and community members on trips to France and other European countries. In 2005, she was named Michigan World Language Teacher of the Year. Her husband, Bob, also an Edwardsburg teacher and coach, whom she married in 1975, died in 2008.

Joe Piane is retired from the University of Notre Dame, where he was the cross-country and track and field coach. A four-year letter winner in sports at Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa, he was inducted into that school’s Hall of Fame in 2003.

Piane went to Notre Dame in 1975 as an assistant track coast and instructor in 1975, and became head coach in 1976. His teams won 26 conference championships and he was the recipient of numerous Coach of the Year awards, including at least six Midwestern Collegiate Conference Coach of the Year honors. After retirement, he volunteered his coaching expertise with the Edwardsburg High School track and cross-country teams. Through the years, he traveled extensively with his wife, Mimi, who tragically died in an accident in 2016. Piane met Clase in 2017 and they married in 2020. As transcontinental travelers, the two have many stories to tell.

Gary Sanders

7 p.m., Oct. 17

Edwardsburg Native Gary Sanders will speak about his life in Edwardsburg at his Oct. 17 presentation. Born on Leet Road, Sanders graduated from Edwardsburg High School in 1959. He worked in the tool and die trade until his mid-30s, then started and operated the Trading Post with Scott Quimby of Edwardsburg for 10 years. He was a dealer’s representative for several years, then became a licensed real estate agent. He has been with Cressy and Everett Real Estate for 23 years.

Sanders and Carla Jones of Edwardsburg were married in 1963, and have a son, Tim, who is a retired carpenter and lives in Lansing. The couple has two grandchildren who live in Lexington, KY, and Edinburgh, IN, respectively.