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Museums in Northwest Michigan

Visit one of the many museums in Northwest Michigan to learn about the area's history, see artifacts and much more! From depots, historic homes and villages to a children's museum, discovery center and music museum, there's something for everyone in your family to enjoy!


Alden
Alden Depot Museum

10670 Coy St


Exhibits and collections include local history and railroad history books, photographs, documents, artifacts and family stories which showcase these resilient, hardworking pioneers. Browse many photographs of early recreation and resort life around Torch Lake.

Arcadia
Arcadia Area Historical Museum and Carriage House

3340 Lake Street


Housed in a beautiful Victorian home built circa 1880s, the Arcadia Historical Museum contains interesting artifacts, furniture and local history.

Bear Lake
Bear Lake Historical Society and Museum

7750 Main Street


The Bear Lake Historical Museum contains diverse display exhibits of area businesses and local activities from the earliest land grant farms days, the logging boom to life in the mid-1950’s.

Bellaire
Bellaire Area Historical Society and Museum

202 N. Bridge Street


Bellaire Area Historical Society & Museum features displays of local history, civil war and villages.

Benzonia
Benzie Area Historical Society and Museum

6941 Traverse Avenue


The Benzie Area Historical Society and Museum features permanent exhibits showcasing virtually all aspects of life in Benzie County since its inception in 1869 as well as two to four special exhibits annually. They currently have more than 37,000 artifacts in our collection.

Cadillac
Wexford County Historical Society Museum

127 Beech Street


The 5,000 sq. ft. WCHS Museum is the leading source of displays relating to the history of Wexford County. It contains artifacts, photographs, maps, paintings, documents and exhibits of daily life in northern Michigan that reflect the community's history since its inception in the 1870's.

Charlevoix
Castle Farms

5052 M-66


Step back in time with collections of toys, kitchen items, and daily life from the Great War era at the Castle Farms World War 1 Museum.

Charlevoix Historical Society Museum at Harsha House

103 State Street


The historical Museum at Harsha House features different exhibitions year-round.

Copemish
Marilla Museum and Pioneer Place

9991 Marilla Road


The Marilla Museum includes a beautifully restored two story 1870s log home, a large 1900 barn, and a full-size replica hunter-trapper logger’s cabin. Each home is fully furnished and reflects early rural pioneer living. The Pioneer Barn contains many farm machines and implements, displays representing Marilla’s rich logging history, and other items relating to the communities early formative years.

East Jordan
Raven Hill Discovery Center

4737 Fuller Road


Raven Hill Discovery Center is a unique place in northern Lower Michigan where children and adults can link science, history & the arts with hands-on activities and explorations both indoors and outdoors.

Elk Rapids
Elk Rapids Historical Museum

301 Traverse Street


The Elk Rapids Historical Museum has a wide variety of exhibits, including replicas of the Township Hall’s old 1883 jail and the Elk Rapids iron works, vintage clothing, antique tools, local artist displays, old office furniture and machines, and more memorabilia.

Empire
Empire Area Museum

11544 LaCore Street


The Empire Area Museum is fashioned after the original Roen Saloon, a prominent fixture in Empire during the lumbering days. The Museum features the original bar in the Roen Saloon, a Victorian parlor, turn-of-century kitchen, artifacts from Norway Town, a blacksmith shop, barn display, railroad exhibit, a covered wagon, and much more.

Fife Lake
Fife Lake Historical Society and Museum

136 W State Street


The Fife Lake Historical Museum is filled with artifacts and stories of the region's history. Complete your historic walk by visiting the schoolhouse, a realistic representation of an 1880's rural school, and a fire barn, featuring a 1930's firetruck, equipment and uniforms.

Glen Arbor
Glen Haven Village

5121-5395 Glen Haven Road


A visit to Glen Haven, the small village on the Lake Michigan shoreline, is a step back to a time when small villages and docks supplied fuel to steamers along the Great Lakes. Glen Haven is the best preserved cord wood station on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan and perhaps the entire Great Lakes. Glen Haven was a company town and eventually diversified into farming, canning of fruit, and tourism.

Kaleva
The Kaleva Depot

14420 Walta Street


The RR Depot Museum houses many railroad artifacts, photos, and displays pertinent to the Kaleva Railroad Depot, as well as a scale model of the Depot with a model train circling it. Outdoors, visitors will see one of the last two Switch Engines to work in the Kaleva Rail yards.

The Bottle House Museum

14551 Wuoksi Street


In 1941, a unique home was built in Kaleva out of 60,000 glass bottles by John Makinen. Mr. Makinen owned the local pop bottling factory, and he used chipped or flawed bottles from his pop bottling factory for his house.


In 1983, the Kaleva Historical Society was able to purchase the property from the John Makinen family and thus established its new and permanent home. Historic items are faithfully inventoried, preserved and displayed. The museum is home to many exhibits illustrating the Finnish-American history of the community including businesses, farming, and early settlers.

Lake Ann
The Almira Historical Society

19440 Maple Street


The Almira Historical Society is dedicated to collecting and preserving artifacts that represents the history of the Village of Lake Ann and Almira Township. More than 1,500 local artifacts are on display.

Lake City
Missaukee County Historical Society

111 S. Canal Street


The joint Missaukee County Ardis Library & Missaukee County Historical Society "History Room" is located at the Missaukee County Library, open during normal Library hours, available to the public to view family histories, local histories, reference materials, available historical documents, and notebook binders of photos and collected historical details.

Leland
Leelanau Historical Society Museum

203 E Cedar Street


The collections and archives in the Leelanau Historical Society Museum contain more than 20,000 items. Visitors to the museum learn about Leelanau life and maritime history from exhibits, educational programs and publications. Recipient of the 2014 State History Award for Outstanding Local Society, LHS continues to collect, document and preserve items relating to Leelanau history.

Manistee

Manistee County Historical Museum

425 River St


19th-century building offering rotating & permanent local history exhibits & a genealogy collection.

Mesick

Mesick Museum

117 W Mesick Avenue


The Mesick Museum displays preserved items that are loaned and/or donated to the museum that represent the history of the Mesick area.

Northport

Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum

15500 N. Lighthouse Pt. Rd


The Grand Traverse Lighthouse has been restored and is open to the public seasonally. Visitors can tour the restored keepers dwelling and climb the Lighthouse Tower for a magnificent view of Lake Michigan and Grand Traverse Bay.

Petoskey
Little Traverse Historical Museum

100 Depot Court


The Little Traverse History Museum is housed in the former Pere Marquette train station, built in 1892. It provides information and education on the history of the Little Traverse Bay area through programming, facilities, and archives.

Traverse City
Great Lakes Children's Museum

13240 S. West Bay Shore Drive


The Great Lakes Children’s Museum provides hands-on, interactive, and informal educational environments for children and the adults in their lives that invite curiosity, allow exploration, encourage participation and celebrate the child-like wonder in all of us.

The Dennos Museum Center

1701 E. Front Street


The Dennos Museum Center builds community, sparks conversation, and inspires change for audiences of all ages through its exhibitions, programs, and the collection and preservation of art.

Mission Point Lighthouse

20500 Center Road


Mission Point Lighthouse offers visitors a peek into what life was like around the turn of the century for lighthouse keepers and for others who lived and worked in the area at the time.

Williamsburg
Guntzviller's Spirit of the Woods Museum

11060 S. US-31


The Spirit of the Woods Museum has been built over several decades with the goal of sharing the love and respect for wildlife and the outdoors with visitors. Diaramas with beautiful, hand-painted backgrounds feature a vast assortment of native Michigan animals in settings that mimic their life in the wild.

The Music House Museum

7377 U.S. 31 North


The Music House Museum’s unique collection of instruments provides guests with a walk through the history, artistry and engineering of automated music.

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