Historical/Museum

Marquette County is named for Jacques Marquette–the French Jesuit explorer who traveled here by canoe in 1673– Marquette County is home to those same idyllic waterways that continue to make for great canoeing, boating and fishing, all rich in wildlife and tranquil beauty.
Marquette County was officially organized in March of 1844. After being voted seven times, the county seat was established at Montello. The original record of these proceedings is located at the Marquette County Historical Society in Westfield.

The Marquette County Historical Society Museum
125 Lawrence Street, Westfield
Take a walk through Marquette County’s historic past, brought to life in the Historical Society’s extensive collection of artifacts, dating from the area’s earliest pioneering days through the mid-twentieth century. The Museum’s collection is exhibited in three separate buildings: the newly constructed Kerst Exhibit Building, and two historic structures, a railroad section house containing memorabilia of earlier railroad days, and the Cochrane-Nelson House, a stately twostory home with high-ceilings and filigree woodwork constructed in 1903. It’s furnished from top to bottom with antiques and collectibles that were useful and fashionable when the county was young. The Museum is open everyWednesday and Saturday from 1:00 pm. to 4:00 pm., from the last Wednesday in May through the first Wednesday in September.

The Montello Preservation Society
PO Box 473, Montello
In 1912 J.P. Vaughn built a two-story cement block building that would become his blacksmith shop on the first floor and hold community events in the upper level. He never knew then that his building, constructed of formed block that used what was then cutting edge technology and made right in Montello at Neck and Brothers Company would one day be listed on the National Historic Registry, but it is. Today it’s home to the Montello Museum and owned by the Montello
Historic Preservation Society. The Montello Museum in Vaughn Hall presents revolving exhibits as well as information about Marquette County. A recent exhibit titled Unearthed: Evidence of the first people of Marquette County included artifacts from the Milwaukee Public Museum and told the story about the earliest people to live on this land including Paleo-Indians, Archaic Culture, the Woodland People and Oneota Tradition. Once there were over 600 effigy and conical mounds around Buffalo Lake.

Additional Sites:
Located on Hwy. 23, just west of downtown Montello, are two historic buildings:
Le Maison Granit, a Georgian Revival style mansion built of Montello granite in
1909, at present time a private residence; and, the impressive Marquette
County Courthouse, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Also see Cochrane-Nelson House - Westfield and Unearthed display - Montello