Becker County Museum Cuts Ribbon On New Facility; Will Be Open Full Time March 1

Community leaders and board members officially cut the ribbon on the new Becker County Museum facility on February 17th, 2023 (Photo: Zeke Fuhrman)

Detroit Lakes, MN (KDLM) – It’s been a very busy couple of weeks for Becker County Executive Director Becky Mitchell and her family as she oversaw getting the new science wing and gift shop open at the new Museum facility on Summit Avenue in Detroit Lakes, but all the first step off all the hard work from Mitchell, Museum employees, community leaders, Museum Board members, and others was on full display on Friday evening with the official ribbon cutting of the new $6.4 million museum facility.

The community got its first official look at the new Gift Shop and Science Floor at the new museum, which features over 30 interactive exhibits, maker spaces, and other fun learning opportunities for both kids and adults.

“There is still a lot of work to do, “says Mitchell. “I think (my husband) Kevin is running on about 18 minutes of sleep today. We’re still waiting for phones and networks, and things like interior door locks so we’re not quite open full-time yet, but by March 1st we’ll be ready to have the science floor open to the public and keep working on the historical exhibits on the main floor.”

The dream of a new museum facility is decades in the making. The capital campaign for the new facility began fundraising in 2015. The $6.4 million, two-story 30,000 square-foot facility officially broke ground in late May of 2021, with half of the amount being funded by a bonding bill appropriation approved by the State Legislature in October 2020.

“This project gained a lot of support from the state because of big thinking and really looking outside of the box,” said county commissioner and BCM board member Dave Meyer. “Combining history and science and technology with an emphasis on children being a part of this process. The state recognized that the process is unique and provides endless fun and exciting learning and teaching opportunities for everybody. When I was a kid, you’d just go to the museum. But now, you have all kinds of other opportunities for kids and adults to have learning opportunities together is pretty special.”

The new gift shop at the museum also features a Build-A-Bear workshop, where kids can choose an empty stuffed animal, fill it with stuffing and choose an outfit for it to wear.

“When I moved to this community 20 years ago or so, I remember going to work out at the Holmes Center and thinking ‘man, other communities would love to have something like this.'” said city council member Matt Boeke. “And the more you got involved, and you go to the theatre and you think ‘I don’t know how it can get much better.’ And then you see the museum addition and once again you go ‘WOW, this can’t get much better.’ It is amazing what has been done to set this up for future generations blows my mind.”

In the coming weeks, more and more exhibits will be added to the museum, including an audio recording studio, the full wing of historical exhibits and artifacts including a recreation of former US congressman Colin Peterson’s office in Washington, DC.

“When I left Washington, we moved all of my stuff. I was there 30 years, and there was a lot of stuff,” Peterson said at the ribbon-cutting on Friday. “I was chairman of the Ag Committee twice, and when you’re chairman of the Ag Committee everybody gives you all kinds of things that say how wonderful you are so I have huge pigs and cattle and all kinds of stuff that they gave me naming me the most wonderful…whatever. We have donated all that stuff to the museum. I may just show up someday and hang out in my office.”

And while the public still has to wait to view Peterson’s Washington memorabilia or even a community favorite like Old Three Legs, they won’t have to wait long.

“We decided to take a step back with the history floor. We wanted to get this section open. This is the floor we could get to first,” said Mitchell. “We wanted to get this floor open to the public and start serving our community again as quickly as possible. We’re going to take our time and do it right downstairs. There are a lot of exhibits, there are a lot of artifacts to put away, and there are still a lot of artifacts in storage. We still have a lot of work to do, but we are so happy to be back open to having a little bit of normalcy around here.”