Typical to what you would have found in earlier days, the Museum back yard has an apple tree that produces a large crop of apples every other year and a gazebo. Missing of course from the current back yard is the Out House that would have been in service from the building of the house in 1894 up to about 1920.
Backyard Highlights
Listed below are a few of the items in this room that you may be interested in learning more about.
Hodag Statue
This is a chainsaw carving of a Hodag on display in the backyard of the Museum. Gene Shepard, creator of the infamous Hodag hoax, lived three doors south of the Museum and displayed his Hodag in a garage there. So we like to joke that there’s always been Hodags in the neighborhood.
Plaque
This plaque in front of the cherry tree in the backyard of the Museum was originally in a small park on Anderson Street in downtown Rhinelander. The park was turned into a parking area when the Holiday Gas Station moved onto Anderson Street in front of the old Chicago Northwestern Train Depot, now DeByle Realty Office. Since the Rhinelander Woman’s Club had created that park, this plaque commemorates this.
Of note, the plaque is dedicated to Mrs. Edward O. Brown, an indication of times when married women were not formally addressed by their first names.
