Ohio isn’t known as the best place to be during the winter months, but our area offers plenty of activities for the cold weather visitor. One fun thing to do is visit the many museums in Northern Ohio. You could start or finish right here in Milan, with the Thomas Edison Birthplace Museum, then go to the Milan Historical Museum, a large seven building campus with many exhibits, including the history of Milan, the local Native Americans and the surrounding areas.
Sandusky is another city with wonderful museums. The most famous is probably the Maritime Museum. Many people don’t realize that Lake Erie has been a major shipping waterway for the United States. At the Maritime Muesum, you can learn about boatbuilding, shipwrecks, ice harvesting, commercial fishing, the Underground Railroad, recreational boating, passenger boats, wetlands, and more. The Merry-Go-Round Museum is also in Sandusky. This museum will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about the history of Carousels. They have many beautiful and rare figures and participate in active restoration of wooden carousel animals. You can also ride the Allan Herschell Carousel with the pipe organ playing. The new 2014 exhibit, “Ups & Downs”, starts February 26, 2014. The museum is closed in January.
In near-by Amherst, the Sandstone Museum Center is a collection of buildings made with hand-hewn sandstone, painstakingly re-assembled or restored. There is a museum, an art gallery, a working blacksmith and other attractions.
Going on to Norwalk, you can explore the Firelands Museum. This professionally curated museum is the oldest museum in Ohio and contains several exhibits including firearms, Native American, Civil War and even musical instruments and antique furniture. The volunteers are well-known to be kind and knowledgeable.
We’ll explore some of the other museums in our area in future posts!