New Lumbermen’s Museum Construction Update
For the past two weeks, work on the new Lumbermen’s Museum — the Jewett Family Building — has been focused on something that isn’t glamorous but is essential: fixing a drainage problem that has been building for thirty years.
When the state highway was raised in the mid-1990s, the area where the old Rock Garden sat effectively became a bowl. Water had nowhere to go. Over the years that turned the soils in that area into muck — not a foundation for anything, let alone a museum building. Before we could think about construction, we had to deal with what was underneath.
We’ve been removing the poor soils and bringing in crushed slate to create a proper base. The drainage challenge is real — we have very little pitch to work with — but we are confident we can install a system that will keep the site dry. This phase should be complete within the next two weeks.
After that, we move to the next milestone: prepping the site for the 30′ × 90′ foundation, which we are aiming to have complete by early July. If all goes to plan, the timber frame — the post-and-beam structure that will define the building — goes up in early August.
Ed Jewett — lead donor, along with his wife Arlene, and volunteer general contractor — is on site every day. His background in construction means nothing gets missed and nothing gets left to chance. We are fortunate to have him.
It’s hard for all of us to see the gardens go. What we can tell you is that many of the flowers have been transplanted to the upper garden around the Historical House, and our goal is to make that area something special — consistent with what the Crafts family would have had in their day. We have more plans in that direction and will share them as they develop.
Stay tuned. We’ll post updates here as the project moves forward.
Ed Jewett — lead donor, along with his wife Arlene, and volunteer general contractor — watching site work from the campus. Ed is on site every day.
Summer garden photo: The Rock Garden, July 11, 2024 — beautiful, and still holding water.
Spring flood photo: May 1, 2023 — more pond than garden.
What came out when we dug down — thirty years of saturated soil.
New fill going in. The Eveleth-Crafts-Sheridan Historical House is visible in the background — the new museum will rise just steps away.