Saturday, June 28, 2025
from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Please join us for an Open House at the Copper Culture Museum at Copper Culture State Park in Oconto, WI. We want to share the newly refreshed building and exhibits with the community on Saturday, June 28, from 10am to 4pm. The Park and the Museum are always free to the public. There will be a refreshments tent and an Ancient Native American Artifacts Identification table in the front garden. Area artifact collectors are invited to bring items from their collection for review. The 125th Anniversary of the Wisconsin State Parks system will also be celebrated.
Archaeological findings about the Old Copper Complex (as it is now known to archaeologists) over the last 20 years have been incorporated into the new exhibits which focus on the lifeways of ancient people of the northeast Wisconsin thousands of years ago. The burials at the Oconto Site are direct prehistoric ancestors of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. According to American Archaeology, Spring 2025, Vol.29 No.1, new evidence supports the probability that the Copper Culture people were the earliest known metallurgists in the western hemisphere, but also one of the earliest, if not the earliest, in the world. The Oconto (archaeological) Site is one of only a handful of similar sites in the Upper Great Lakes region and is the only one with a museum dedicated to telling the story of these prehistoric people.
The Copper Culture Museum is open Daily 10am to 4pm, from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day, and by appointment to small groups during the spring and fall. The Museum is housed in the charming, intricately bricked farmhouse, built by Charles Werrebroeck over 100 years ago in the traditional, Old World Belgian style. The beautiful Oconto milled maple floors have been preserved, and the double-sided fireplace has been thoughtfully enhanced using hand painted panels by local artist Bruce Retzlaff. The Museum is operated under the auspices of the Oconto County Historical Society.
