Moundridge Museum Complex - Moundridge, Kansas Moundridge Museum Complex in Moundridge, Kansas. may be the finest, lesser known historical museum in Kansas. The buildings and exhibits are very nicely done. The complex includes the Cole House Museum, Agriculture Museum, Heritage Museum, Blacksmith Shop, Moundridge Electric Shop, Water Tower Display, and Depot Museum The Heritage Museum is in a large red barn, which is their largest building and houses most of their community exhibits, including the Soda Fountain which was part of Orth's Drug store. Folk art enthusiasts will like the Henry II Toews Collection of farm equipment miniatures. Henry would photograph the equipment during drives in the country and then make the miniature models from the pictures. The Agriculture building is much newer, but is made to look like a barn in the interior. It houses plows, farm implements, and early tractors. Among its more interesting exhibits are one about Kansas farm crops from the 1800s and a prototype zero-turn mower invented by John Warren Regier in Moundridge. Regier Mowers were eventually manufactured as the Hustler Excel in Heston, Kansas. Next to this building is the restored Moundridge Electric Shop and a blacksmith shop built in 2012 as an Eagle Scout project where a blacksmith works on Tuesdays. Some of the blacksmith's creations are available to purchase. The showpiece of the museum complex is the furnished Cole House Museum, which was in the first house built in Moundridge in 1875. The original home was only two rooms, but it was added too many times over the years.
Moundridge
Museum Complex web site
copyright 2023-2025 by Keith Stokes |