Northwoods Forestry Museum

  • Exterior Rendering

The Manitowish Waters Historical Society and North Lakeland Discovery Center will relocate and transform an underutilized building into a forest history museum. The building is a former Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) barracks from the 1930s that was taken apart and reassembled on its current site, where it was used as a recreation center for the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) camp until the mid-1990s. CDS proposed two possible locations for the building, as well as two interior museum layouts. A final scheme was chosen that subdivides the space into separate exhibits, each representing a different era in Northwoods forest management history. The final layout includes a small welcome area and space for rotating exhibits, digital displays, and a demonstration of what the building looked like when it was used by the CCC. For the museum’s facade, CDS recommends that as much of the current cladding be preserved or restored as possible, including the green color. The roof, however, needs to be replaced.