rollo jamison museum

The Mining Museum and the Rollo Jamison Museum are two museums (one building next to the other) dedicated to the life and work of one man, Rollo Jamison. The Jamison Museum not only talks about the life of Jamison, it The Mining Museum, located next door, tells the story of Platteville, Southwest Wisconsin and Northwest Illinois, and, how the mining of Lead and Zinc (1820's to 1979) shaped them all. There hundreds of photos dating as far back as the 1880's of lead mines, miners, mining equipment and the many local towns. There is also a lot of mining equipment on display in the museum.My favorite part of the museums was the abandoned Bevans lead mine which you can tour located behind the Mining Museum. A docent will guide you down 90 steps to the large underground cavern created by the lead and zinc miners over 100 years ago. The docent takes you throughout the mine talking about the mine, when it opened, the equipment used and how mining technology helped extract more ore from the mine. I work at a large museum in Chicago and I can tell you that this is one of the coolest, most fun and educational museums in the midwest. Great for kids and adults.

Here is what you can get for $10:Rollo Jamison Museum: hundreds of collections, filled with story and history Mining Museum: 40 min GUIDED tour in a real old mine. you can learn lots of history and see the rough condition the mining workers used to work in (AWESOME)Mine train: around five minutes of real restored mine train that the workers used to ride on to go into the mineThe mining museum itself I can't think of any way that I can spend $10 better. the tour guide is highly enthusiastic. and the history and story is just so fascinating. MUST-GO if you pass the town!!!

Mr. Jamison worked hard his whole life to gather up things that were good representations of his era. It makes for a full and interesting museum. They have designed it to be somewhat interactive. Our 8 year old loved the two player pianos! Something for all tastes.

My daughters school went to the museum for their Christmas display. They showed us how people celebrated Christmas over the year. I learned a lot myself. I would recommend this to anyone. We also went to the museum several years ago and enjoyed it as well.

We stayed in Platteville for a weekend getaway and the museum was close to our hotel so we checked it out.The collection of everyday items from the past was pretty interesting. If you like to see what modern conveniences from years past looked like, this museum will suit you. They have old wagons and carriages, player pianos, kitchen appliances, etc.They do have some hands on things for the kids to do. They have a representation of what a school room was like a hundred years ago. The military hall is also very interesting.We did this museum with our 4yo and he really enjoyed it. It's very inexpensive and includes the mine museum so it's a great deal.

Rollo Jamison, born in Beetown, Wisconsin in 1899, started collecting arrowheads on his family's farm. This was just the beginning of his life-long interest in history and the objects This collection is fascinating. One man collected artifacts from other people. The collection is not only large but also impressive. It represents the history of Southwest Wisconsin. There are stage coaches, clothes from turn of the century, farm wagon and many other artifacts. In addition, next door is the mining museum. It is rich in history and very interesting. For $9.00 one gets to visit both museums. A great deal for kids and adults. Nice visit, I enjoyed it. It is only a half hour from Dubuque, Iowa.

This is a great place to take the young child who may like going underground to learn how the early miners worked to extract lead. There's a small train ride they can take at the end of their visit as well.

If you like museums, this is a good one for you. Many school children go there on field trips. Lots of nice displays - I'd recommend it!

My 10 year old daughter had been to this mining museum before with school and enjoyed it enough to want to return with me. The young lady that gave us the tour did well at providing information about the history, including working conditions and functions of various equipment. Although I found the museum interesting, one visit is enough- especially at a price of $9 for adults and 4.50 for children.

Staff made sure our four kids saw and did everything they had. What a lot of stuff to see and interesting trip down historical memory lane. If you like history at its finest, you will enjoy what you see here.

We've recently moved to Platteville and I love studying local history. I was pleased to see that Platteville had the Rollo Jamison museum. It is chocked full of history from one end to the other. Bring the children as there are some interactive parts to the collection. The staff is wonderfully helpful and the small gift shop is very reasonably price. In the spring I'll be going again to read what I missed and head over to the mining museum. If you just go to the Rollo Jamison museum, set aside 90 minutes at least. That will allow you ample time to read and really look. Set aside a lot more time if you're going to the mining museum as you actually go down into the mine.

The Rollo Jamison Museum shows what life was like in the late 1800's and the turn of the century. I was with a 15 year old and a 6 year old and they were fascinated with the displays, especially that they could pick things up and try them out. The Mining Museum next door takes you into a real lead mine and shows in detail how it operated. The kids also loved the train ride. We spent several hours there and had a great time for a very low price.

The thing that impressed me the most with this museum is that they let you try out some of the exhibits, like the player piano, an old auto horn, a typewriter and more. We didn't have time to see everything in the Rollo Jamison museum, although they offered to let us stay after 5:00 (we had arrived about 3:30 but then spent over an hour with the Mining Museum and tour, which were also very good). So I would suggest getting there early enough so you can spend at least 1 hour in each museum plus more time if you want to see the art gallery.

This place has been on my quirky-visit list for years, but when I finally got around to visiting I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of things there were to see. Apparently only a small fraction of Rollo’s collection is on display, but the displays are interesting and engaging. I spent the longest times looking at the foot-operated player piano, the old washing machines, and the ledger notations from an old General Store’s record book. And of course there are the stuffed boxing squirrels that everybody comments about. My favorite part of the museum was the mine tour, which takes you 80 steps below the surface to an old lead mine. I find it amazing to think that these sorts of mines were the major source of almost every piece of metal you see from before 1900.