Hanley Falls — The Hanley Falls school, built in 1939 by 108 Work Progress Administration workers, closed its doors in 1972. After standing vacant six years, Yellow Medicine County commissioners purchased the building from the Granite Falls Schools for $1, and as the saying goes, the rest is history.
After using grant funds to make necessary improvements, the Yellow Medicine Agricultural and Transportation Museum opened Aug. 9, 1980, during the Pioneer Power Threshing Show. Under the guidance of Minnesota Historical Society Field Service Coordinator David Nystuen, the six-acre site found new life, and soon the name was changed to the Minnesota Machinery Museum.
The Pioneer Power Threshing Show draws many visitors to the grounds the second weekend in August. Seeds were planted for the show in 1976 when Lowell Gustafson and Galen Redetzke organized an antique farm machinery parade for Hanley Falls’ Bicentennial celebration. That parade grew into the annual threshing event. Gustafson and Redetzke, along with Earle Gustafson, proposed the ag museum to county commissioners in 1978.
Five buildings house the museum’s exhibits. A 50 x 100-foot building erected in 1982 by Pioneer Power members displays large machinery donated by area residents. A second building, constructed in 1989, is used for storage today. The building put up in 1993 by Pioneer Power houses assorted old engines as well as plows and other small farm implements. In 1996 an anonymous donor gifted the museum with a building to house cars. Exhibits include the infamous Edsel, a 1910 horse-drawn hearse used in neighboring Clarkfield and a 1932 Ford roadster convertible.
This museum has something for everyone. The Photo Documentary Room houses Ag-Today, an interactive computer program developed by Yellow Medicine East ag students in 2000. Another must-hear/read exhibit is the “listening to each other” display. Visitors can read accounts written by older residents of the community or listen to their recorded interviews as they recall experiences and events that become history lessons for younger generations.
Room 4 in the school building is furnished as an early parlor and bedroom. Many of the furnishings reflect an affluence that may surprise people today. The kitchen contains cooking utensils and items found in kitchens over several decades. Crafters are sure to enjoy exhibits in the Hobby Room. There they can view hand-crafted wooden farm machinery, the scale model of an area farm homesteaded in 1870 and a log cabin village.
Over the years, several Smithsonian traveling exhibits have made a stop at this museum in a community with less than 300 residents in southwestern Minnesota.
Information for this story is found in “Minnesota’s Machinery Museum: A Twenty-Five Year History,” compiled by David R. Pichaske and published in 2005. This book not only describes details of each building, but also relates the story of a community working together to preserve a piece of rural history.
For more information, check the website at www.mnmachinerymuseum.com or e-mail the museum at agmuseum@frontiernet.net.
