The Oronoco Area History Center is located in the Oronoco Community Center (old City Hall/school) on North Minnesota Avenue, Oronoco, Minnesota.
Hours
We are open to the public on the 2nd Saturday of each month from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM and on the 2nd Tuesday of each month during our meetings (7:00-8:00 PM).
The OAHC is closed each year from January through March.
Facebook
The Oronoco Area History Center now has a Facebook page! Please stop by and check it out. We also have a page for Upcoming Events.
Resources Available
The OAHC has family histories, church records, obituaries, census records, cemetery records, old newspapers, photos, displays, and much more. We also have some Wabasha information available.
Guestbook
First time visitor? Have a comment about the site or Oronoco history that you’d like to share? Feel free to sign our Guestbook!
Questions?
If you would like to submit a question privately to the admins, please use the Contact form.
Thank you for visiting!
The public was invited to the School Days Open House at the Oronoco Area History Center in September and October, 2011. The pictures shown below were taken at one of the events. Much of the work was done by Mary Fuller, Vice President. Treasurer Kris Wiens and President Barbara Smallbrock also helped.
This display shows some of the various classes held at Oronoco School.
Here are some visitors, members of the Zimmerman Family.
Here is a donor, Dan Anderson, and Kris Wiens looking through some of his items.
Here Kris Wiens poses with Mrs. Zimmerman.
Another display showing lists of students and pictures of classes from other Oronoco Area Schools.
Kris Wiens made a chart showing where Oronoco Area schools existed in earlier years.
Other School information including a picture of the first Oronoco Schoolhouse.
President Barbara Smallbrock brought some good home-made peanut butter cookies to share with workers and visitors. In this picture, she is putting together a scrapbook as she waits for more visitors. She has placed several scrapbooks and albums at the Center already, but she keeps clipping newspaper article and fitting them into more books.
The following pictures were taken at the Armed Forces Open House. (click on each picture to enlarge it).
Back row: Don Baker (WWII), Bernard Markham (Korean Conflict), and Gary Kautz (served in Germany during the Viet Nam War); front row: Ed Murray (WWII).
The Oronoco Area History Center is a place where history can be kept and made available to the public. New members are always welcome. Other ways to support the Center are to offer your services to help, donate historical items, and give financial support. Oronoco and the surrounding area has a rich and interesting history. There is no other place in Olmsted County where Oronoco history can be saved and displayed.
Thank you to all who have contributed or helped the Center already. Also, thank you for visiting this site!
(Click on pictures to see larger versions.)
The mannequins in the picture below are dressed in uniforms from WWII. On the left is a soldier’s uniform. On the right is a Red Cross nurse’s uniform. In the center is an old egg case. Some historical items are in the drawers and can be pulled out to view.
This flag was flown over the Coon Grove School.
