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Museum honors community organizations, individuals
Since 1984, the Marquette County History Museum has been honoring individuals and organizations who contribute to the enhancement and preservation of local history. This year’s awards were presented at the annual meeting in January 2010.
A complete list of Helen Longyear Paul Award winners for individuals and Peter White Award winners for organizations and businesses can be found at www.marquettecohistory.org/au-award-winners.html
The winner of the 2009 Helen Longyear Paul Award for the preservation of history in Marquette County is Loraine Koski for collecting the stories of U.P. World War II veterans killed in action.
Koski has spent the last nine years researching the lives of more than 240 men and women from Marquette and Alger counties who were killed in action during World War II. She spent countless hours going through old newspapers and other resources, spoke with hundreds of surviving siblings, relatives and friends and traveled to every corner of the Upper Peninsula to compile biographies on servicemen who made the ultimate sacrifice.
She and her husband, Jim, have traveled five times overseas to do everything from visit the areas where these Upper Peninsula soldiers were stationed to meet locals who were involved with them, and pay their respects to those who are buried overseas. They have toured cemeteries and battle monuments across Holland, Germany, Belgium and France to learn more about how these soldiers lived and died and have brought those images and stories back home to the Upper Peninsula.
Koski makes these stories available to surviving members of the family by calling, e-mailing or visiting them to share information and images she has collected. She also answers queries online on message boards, helping families who are seeking information about their lost relatives. She makes connections between surviving family members and people overseas who knew or served with their relatives killed in the war.
Travel logs of their excursions, struggles, searches and discoveries are made available to the public, including donating copies to local historical societies. Koski also offers her time to do numerous presentations to the public telling the stories of servicemen in World War II, and about many other historical topics, such as the history of Marquette. Koski is compiling the World War II information into a book, so even though the lives of these men and women could not be saved, their stories will be.
The winner of the 2009 Peter White Award from the Marquette County History Museum is the Lake Superior Theatre for the original and compelling historical productions that increase awareness and interest in our regional cultural heritage.
Since its formation in 1998, Lake Superior Theatre has placed local history at the center of its creative efforts. Their first production, Beacon on the Rock, was an original historical musical written and directed by Shelly Russell. It tells the story of families who left their homelands to carve out a home in this isolated region, finding a way to survive the natural and social challenges in an unforgiving wilderness.
Beacon on the Rock was followed by many other productions with local history as the focus, including the award-winning, Haywire, which tells the story of seventeen-year-old Danny Myron, who runs away from an Ohio coal mining town to join a logging crew in the “Great Northern Forest.” The Lake Superior Theatre Web site states, “Haywire sings a love story to the U.P. that will please those who live in this magical place and those visiting it for the first time.”
Superior Heroes spanned 400 years of U.P. history through journals, letters, stories and music, giving tribute to the many heroes of this wild and rugged country, and is a “hope-filled gesture for generations of Superior heroes to come.” Other productions include, Points North, Holdin’ Our Own: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Voelker: Life on the Fly, Anatomy of a Murder and Keepers of the Light, a dramatic celebration of lighthouses and their keepers.
The theatre is located in an historic building, a working boathouse on Marquette’s Lower Harbor. Each year residents look forward to the exciting, original productions from the talented and dedicated people who make the Lake Superior Theatre a community treasure. For details, visit www.lakesuperiortheatre.com
The 2009 Ameen, Honkala & Richards Young Historian Award honors young people who have demonstrated excellence in the exploration and preservation of local history.
This year’s award was underwritten by Gregg Seipple of GHS Construction.
Axel Seitz received the award for a primary grade student. Seitz attends third grade at Superior Hills Elementary in Marquette. He conducted an oral history interview with his grandfather Harold Michael Wagner. The interview focused on his grandfather’s experiences in the Navy, Coast Guard and at K.I. Sawyer Air Base. In a personal reflection, Seitz wrote, “A lot of people have interesting stories that we just haven’t heard. There aren’t a lot of people left that were alive during World War II. I’m glad I did this project because I got to learn more about my grandfather.” Seitz received a $200 scholarship for his winning entry.
Senara Dollar, an eleventh-grade student from Gwinn High School, received the award for a secondary student. Dollar researched the history of the Harkin house located on East Michigan in Marquette. Her research paper follows the history of the home from its beginning in 1892 to present, including renovations and families who lived there. The home’s first owner, Dr. Frederick Harkin, was the paper’s main focus. Dollar’s research incorporated primary sources, including personal interviews of the home’s current owners. Dollar received a $500 scholarship.
Both projects will be archived at the J.M. Longyear Research Library in the Marquette County History Museum.
Gwyneth Herrick received the award’s first honorable mention. Gwyneth attends seventh grade at Bothwell Middle School. She wrote and performed an original song, “Winter Fun in Early Marquette County” about the history of winter recreation during the 1800s and early 1900s. She was presented with a family membership to the museum for 2010-11.
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