Comments on: Hanka Homestead Museum

By: Walt Shiel

Walt Shiel — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:54:15 +0000

If he’s home, the part-time caretaker (who lives just up the road from the homestead) usually spots incoming traffic and rides over on his ATV to open up the buildings and provide a guided tour. So, I guess he wasn’t home that day.

By: Darlene Norris

Darlene Norris — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:26:26 +0000

We stumbled across the Hanka Homestead last Sunday when we were in the area picking up a boat motor my husband bought from someone. What an amazing place! I’m so glad to hear that it’s being maintained. There was nobody there, so we just walked around the looked in the windows. We really enjoyed it, and we want to come back for a guided tour this summer.

By: Walt Shiel

Walt Shiel — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:09:29 +0000

Probably blackberry, blueberry, and the thimbleberry jams, all of which are common throughout this area. Also, there’s an apple orchard in the field beyond the horse stable.

Not likely to have been any peach anything, as peaches don’t grow near the shores of Lake Superior.

I didn’t think to ask the docent about any digs through trash pits, but there is a lot of old stuff adorning the shelves, counters, and walls of the house and outbuildings. Maybe I’ll post a photo of the old workshop, that’s filled with all kinds of cool tools — from a blacksmith’s anvil to a manually operated (?) drill press.

By: Janelle Meraz Hooper

Janelle Meraz Hooper — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:17:33 +0000

What a great place! I can just see myself, living in that house, writing a book at the kitchen table…while Indians crept around outside the window, lol. (What tribes lived in the area?).
Love the root cellar. I wonder if they filled it with jars of blackberry cordial for Christmas? Quince jam for their biscuits? Pickled peaches?
Do you lnow if the archaeologists ever did a dig in the trash pit to see what old bottles and other stuff might be there?
Thanks for sharing! Janelle