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Each week a small segment of Vernon County history is published in the county papers.
For the week of 11/1/2026
by Kristen Parrott, curator
The genealogy class will meet for the last time this year on Thursday, November 12, at 10AM, at the Vernon County Museum and History Center. This will be the annual “help each other” class, with students sharing their own knowledge to help other students. Bring your thorniest family history questions, and we’ll see what ideas all of us come up with together!
New students are always welcome to join the class. Vernon County Historical Society members attend for free, and non-members are asked to pay $5 per session. Classes are held in the first-floor conference room. The class takes a break in December and January, and starts up again in February.
Duane Hoff’s autobiography Never Enough Wheels begins with a story that probably drives some genealogists crazy. Duane was born on a farm near Redmound on October 19, 1930. The attending doctor never got around to registering the birth at the Vernon County Courthouse, which was a problem when Duane needed a birth certificate years later in order to sign up for the National Guard.
To prove his birth, his family watered down some ink and his mother wrote his name and birthdate into the family bible. The watery ink made the writing look old and faded, and apparently that was enough proof. Keep that in mind the next time you are doing research!
Duane’s autobiography was just published this year, four years after his death in 2022. The book has been edited and distributed by family and friends. We have copies for sale for $10 in our gift shop. Duane and his wife Dana owned Hoff’s Mobil Service Station on Viroqua’s Main Street for nearly 40 years.
We just got in more copies of another new book, Wisconsin Tobacco Farming: A History, by Gail Klein. They are for sale for $25 in our gift shop. The book is filled with photographs, including many of Vernon County scenes. Chapters cover the tobacco boom and decline, the “Norwegian impact”, the tobacco pool, the tobacco warehouses, and other topics.
Our fall hours of Monday through Friday, 11AM to 4PM, continue through the month of November. However, we will be closed on Thursday, November 26, and Friday, November 27, for the Thanksgiving holiday. Then, we plan to be open on Saturday, November 28, from 10AM to 2PM, for Small Business Saturday, so you can get a start on your holiday gift shopping!
For the week of 10/25/2026
by Bridget Van Beckum, assistant curator
This month, I attended the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Local History & Preservation Conference in Milwaukee. I had a great time and learned a lot about different aspects of museum work, including collections, exhibits, and education.
Two of the lectures I went to were about educational programming and field trips. The speakers, from the Hoard Historical Museum and the Milwaukee County Historical Society, had tons of ideas for different types of field trips, programs, activities, and educational resources that teachers can use in the classroom. They focused especially on hands-on and interactive elements and how to incorporate them effectively into museum programming. This is something I’ve been wanting to introduce more into our current field trips and exhibits for a while now, so it was good to get some ideas!
Many museums, especially smaller museums like ours, often have to take a relatively “hands-off” approach when it comes to exhibits. We ask that visitors refrain from touching the objects on display, as oils from our fingers can be quite damaging to them over time. This is to protect the historic artifacts that have been placed in our care. However, we do recognize that not everyone learns best by looking and reading alone. So, we are hoping to start including more hands-on elements to our exhibits and programming, but we are still in the very early stages of this process.
If you are a teacher, we would love to hear from you! What would you like to see at a field trip to the museum? What standards or topics are you looking to cover? What kinds of classroom resources could we provide if you aren’t able to go on a full field trip? You can get in touch with us by phone at 608-637-7396, or email at museum@vernoncountyhistory.org.
If you are a parent or grandparent, feel free to also get in touch with us to let us know what your kids or grandkids are most interested in. What would make them most excited to come to a museum? Or, for all the teens and adults out there, what artifacts do YOU always wish you could touch at a museum? What types of interactive elements would you like to see in a museum exhibit?
The conference had a lot of good information and resources, even outside of the lectures. One of the tables in the resource area was set up by ACRE, part of UW Madison. They are running a project to document lost rural homes. It’s a citizen science project where anyone can add a point on a map with information or photos about a rural home that used to be located at that spot. If you have memories of a rural home that is no longer standing, you can visit Lost Rural Homes to add it to the map. Just fill out the questions with as much information as you can remember – it doesn’t have to be exact! Projects like this are a great way to get involved and help preserve our collective knowledge for the next generation.
If you just want to see what’s currently been added, you can check the map. There are several homes in Wisconsin that have been submitted so far, but none in Vernon County, so please consider adding some homes to it if you are able!
One last thing...we will be at the Vernon County Fairgrounds in Viroqua for Trick or Treating on Friday, October 30 from 3 to 5 p.m.! Come and find us – we will be playing vintage Halloween music and handing out candy as well as recipe cards for historic Halloween treats. There will also be a couple vintage Halloween artifacts from our education collection for you to see. We hope to see you there, and Happy Halloween!
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