Cook County Historical Societies Alliance Study

The Cook County, Gunflint Trail, Schroeder Area, and Tofte historical societies have partnered to learn how to work more effectively together. These partner organizations received a Minnesota Historical Society Heritage Partnership Program grant for 2022-2023. The grant funds will be used to hire a facilitator to conduct the Cook County Historical Societies Alliance Study and report on the viability of forming an alliance or a process of collaboration. Goals for this project include improving ways to take collective action to solve current limitations and to sustainably fulfill our missions.

Local heritage sites operated by these four historical societies include the Bally Blacksmith and Metal Shops, Chik-Wauk Museum & Nature Center, St. Francis Xavier Chippewa City Church, Cook County History Museum, Cross River Heritage Center, Johnson Heritage Post Art Gallery, Nee-Gee Fishing Tug & Fish House, and the North Shore Commercial Fishing Museum.

The strong cultural network along the North Shore shares a purpose of preserving regional heritage and has a history of collaboration. In 1929, the North Shore Historical Assembly formed and included Cook, Lake, and St. Louis County historical societies (Thunder Bay was added in 1942). The group’s goal was to promote historical knowledge of the North Shore of Lake Superior through presenting papers and addresses at their annual meetings, held in each county on an alternating basis.

The heritage organizations of Cook County, including the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Grand Portage National Monument, Grand Portage State Park, and Sugarloaf: The North Shore Stewardship Association, have worked together since 2001, with the support of Visit Cook County, to provide the Passport to the Past program, designed to encourage visitation to county historical and cultural sites. Through continued cooperation, collection and preservation efforts have been strengthened and provide a stronger foundation for developing programs and exhibits, expanding outreach, and fundraising.

The study will address the issues of scarce resources among the partners – there are limited members, volunteers, board members, staff, and funding dollars. All of the partner organizations are experiencing impacts from the pandemic, climate change, and changing lifestyles that have caused shortages of these valuable resources. This is despite increases in tourism and residents in Cook County and on the North Shore of Lake Superior. There is a shared desire to find and retain skilled staff, minimize redundancy, and maximize efficiency.

The main objective of the partner organizations is to put the alliance study results into practice in order to heighten and expand collaboration and networking. Through the exploration of an alliance and the development of this grant application, committed board members and project personnel have shown strong motivation and demonstrated a teamwork capacity capable of effectively developing this project and sustaining an effective alliance.

The four partners, led by the Schroeder Area Historical Society (SAHS), began exploring the Heritage Partnership Program in 2021. Together, they looked at a similar study by six historical organizations in the Lake Minnetonka area. SAHS’ Executive Director, Erik Simula, led the research and motivation to apply for the Heritage Partnership grant with a goal of promoting and fostering collaboration among heritage organizations in Cook County. Erik will be leaving SAHS at the end of July to take a position with the University of Minnesota in collaboration with the 1854 Treaty Authority. We are very excited for Erik and will miss his insight and enthusiasm as we embark on our study.

We are currently in the process of sending Request for Proposals out to qualified facilitators with the goal of hiring for the position by August 1st. We have a dedicated joint committee of staff and board members all playing valuable roles in this study.

The enduring value of this study will be through the development of transferable skills for future projects and collaborations; a new awareness of strengths and weaknesses through self-assessment and introspection for all organizations involved; a new shared foundation of best practices and resources; and an overall ability for all organizations to strengthen their missions. The details of the study and resulting report will be made available to the public both online as well as at the partnering sites. In addition, the history network of Minnesota will be strengthened as this report will be added to the existing resources available to other groups wishing to explore a similar partnership.

This publication was made possible in part by the people of Minnesota through a grant funded by an appropriation to the Minnesota Historical Society from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.