Just in time for Mother’s Day, the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum will offer $25 gift cards for this year’s perennial plant sale, available for purchase at the museum during operating hours.

For those unable to stop in during weekday working hours, the museum on Main Street in Edwardsburg is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays, in addition to its regular hours of 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays.

This is an easy yet practical gift for people who know their mothers enjoy planting flowers that endure from year to year. This year’s plant sale begins on Friday, May 15, just five days after Mother’s Day, so pick up as many gift cards as needed. (works for upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, and other special occasions, too!)

The Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum again will welcome Mark Dussel to the village on Tues., April 7, for a garden workshop focusing on early spring planting and practices for a successful bed of cut flowers. The event will be from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the new Edwardsburg Branch of the Cass District Library.

There is no admission charge.

Dussel, who owns Dussel’s Farm Market and Greenhouses in Cassopolis, is a supporter of the museum’s annual perennial plant sale fundraiser, which will be May 15-30 on the museum grounds.

Topics for the April 7 workshop will include trends in container and raised-bed gardening; calculating garden space for family needs; weed control methods; varieties of flowers for cutting; sowing seeds versus buying plants; and maintenance for a successful harvest.

Everyone is invited to the Christmas tree lighting at 6:30 p.m., Thurs., Dec. 4, at the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum. The event is co-sponsored by the Uptown Improvement Association (UIA) and the museum and is packed with Christmas cheer. Donuts and hot chocolate will be served. The Edwardsburg High School Choir will sing and Santa Claus will make his appearance. Join everyone uptown on Main Street for this event.

It will be preceded by the annual Cookie Walk from 3 to 6 p.m., sponsored each year by the Edwardsburg Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum is closed for Thanksgiving week and will reopen with normal hours on Tues., Dec. 2. Happy Thanksgiving!!

For several years, second grade classes from the Edwardsburg Public Schools have taken field trips to the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum to learn about daily life for past generations. This October was no exception. Afterwards, they send thank you notes along with their artistic creations to express their enthusiasm for what they have learned. Here are a few from October, 2025.

The final display for the 2025 Season, “Tis the Season,” will open Tues., Nov. 11, at the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum.

The exhibit will feature museum collectibles that represent an old-fashioned Christmas such as tinsels, bells, holly, a wooded sleigh with reindeer, Santa Claus suits, and old ornaments. Several trees will be on display, including the 10-foot tree in the museum’s main gallery. The display will be assembled by volunteers Laura Jamrog and Judy Montgromery.

The museum will close on December 13 and re-open in mid-Spring, 2026.

“Putting the Garden to Bed: Fall Strategies for a Flourishing Spring,” will be the workshop topic covered by Mark Dussel when he speaks in October in Edwardsburg.

The owner of Dussel’s Farm Market and Greenhouses, Cassopolis, will cover everything from weeds to mulch to soil health and more from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Tues., Oct. 21, at the Ontwa Township Hall.

The event is sponsored by the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum, whose annual perennial plant sale is supported by Dussel’s business. There is no admission charge.

The workshop is designed to help gardeners reduce their spring workload to improve plant health with key considerations for Zone 5b, which is in the Edwardsburg area zip code. Included will be fertilization and soil health, protection, bulb planting, pruning, lawn and landscape preparation, tools and equipment, and planning for various seeds and structures such as cold frames or row covers to extend the growing season.

Owen Wright is a veteran businessman and public servant of the Cass County-Edwardsburg area. And his presentation in October on “People and Events in Mason Township” will draw on his vast experiences as a construction company owner, a former Mason Township supervisor, and lifelong resident whose family helped settle Cass County.

His presentation is at 7 p.m., Thurs., Oct. 16, at the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum.

His presentation will focus on the extensive contributions of two long-time Mason Township public servants, the late Waldo (Soapy) Ehret, a trustee for 42 years, and the late Supervisor Robert Smith. He will also cover the history of the township hall, which, as the District 5 Schoolhouse, is on the state and national historic registers.

Wright graduated from Constantine High School and attended Earlham College to study engineering. After marrying his wife, Sharon, who died in 2021, he served in the Army. He became vice president and general manager of John Wright and Sons Inc. in 1965.  It was a family partnership founded by his father in 1956.

The Osceola-based company specialized in construction throughout Michiana, including condominium and apartment projects, shopping centers, and home building. Wright purchased 60 acres on Redfield Street in 1978 and, in 1986, began developing the Maple Glen subdivision. Upon his retirement in 2003, he closed his business.

Wright served as president and a board member of the Edwardsburg Area Chamber of Commerce. He was also president of the Cass County chapter of the National Management Association and, in 1989, was named the chapter’s Manager of the Year. His public service includes the Cass County Board of Public Works. He served as the zoning administrator of Mason Township and was also a township trustee for four years.  He was elected Mason Township supervisor in 1996, serving until 2004. He is a member of the museum’s board of trustees.

The museum’s first Sauk Trail Festival: Echoes of Our Past is history. Hundreds of people attended Saturday, Sept. 27, at the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum, with the largest crowd gathering for the performance by the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi Nation dancers and drummers. There were history lessons everywhere, from the speakers on the podium, including historians Cecil Wilson (Pokagon Band) and Erika Hartley (curatorial fellow with the Niles History Center), reenactors, and the Sarett Nature Center’s 35-foot voyageur canoe on Pleasant Lake.

Naturalists from the Sarett Nature Center, Benton Harbor, will be in Edwardsburg Sat., Sept. 27, to give the public rides on Pleasant Lake in its 35-foot voyageur canoe as part of the Sauk Trail Festival at the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum. The canoe holds up to 19 people, representing years of water travel. The canoes were used extensively for the fur trade from the 1600s until about 1870, when the French-Canadian voyageurs were trading with the Native Americans. A naturalist will be in the front of the canoe with a steersman in the back and riders help paddle. Rides are open to any age according to a nature center spokesperson, but young children must be accompanied by adults. Life jackets will be provided. Rides will last from 20 to 30 minutes. Voyageur canoes are typically made of birch bark, officials noted, but the one used is fiberglass that resembles birch bark.

The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with reenactors on the museum grounds, speakers, and a performance in native regalia by four dancers and four drummers from the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi Nation. Food trucks will be on site. There will be an archeological dig for children.

(photo of the voyageur canoe by Lynn Christensen. The museum’s deck for the was renovated for the Sauk Trail Festival with a grant from the America250MI project which commemorates the upcoming 250th birthday of the United States in 2026. (logo below)