The museum has been fairly controversial (I seem to remember they had a non-binding vote on it and something like 80% voted against it) because of the subject matter, the money, and the location in Kenosha of it. We went to go check it out today. I have been pretty critical of the museum in the past as well largely because of its location (its big, sort of ugly, and right on the beautiful lakefront - which is what I most disliked), and also I was a little concerned about how well used the museum would be considering the subject matter. From what I saw today I am pretty impressed so far.
The focus of the museum is not battles for obvious reasons, but instead about how the Civil War impacted society. One of the speakers said that 11% of Wisconsin's population served in the Civil War - not 11% of men, 11% of the total - that seems like a huge number, and so its not surprising that it had an impact on society. The museum focuses on the contributions of the 6 states of the Upper Midwest: Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana, and Michigan.
I have to keep myself from being unimpressed with the size of Kenosha Museums, but having grown up in Chicago and the amazing museums there I tend to be overly critical of what other cities have to offer. That being said the museum is quite a big larger inside than I thought it was, and so I am looking forward to the opening in June.
One more interesting aspect of today was to walk through a museum that is still in the process of being built. Its sort of intirquing seeing things being built.
Of course I have pictures and video...
They gave everyone a plastic kazoo bugle, and everyone saluted the opening of the museum.
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