Celebrating Harbor Springs Historical Museum

Celebrating Harbor Springs Historical Museum

The day's presentation is in honor of International Museum Day and its theme for 2024 - “Education and Research" 

On this special day we will tour the Harbor Springs History Museum, the outdoor installation of Ephraim Shay’s Aha boat and the Andrew J. Blackbird House. After the walking tours, guests will head upstairs (elevator available) in the History Museum for a 20-minute presentation that will discuss how local sources are available and accessible for conducting historical research. 

The Harbor Springs History Museum, in the old courthouse building, officially opened to the public in 2008 and history found a permanent home in Harbor Springs.  The West Vault of the building was added to the former city hall building prior to 1896 and was used to store important records. The West Vault space is now a display area of incredible Native American quill boxes.  The East Vault has been transformed into a small recording space for oral histories. 

The Aha, an all-steel yacht built in 1894 by Harbor Springs inventor and lumberman Ephraim Shay, has returned home to Harbor Springs after an extensive restoration project by the Harbor Springs Area Historical Society.

Chief Andrew Blackbird was an Odawa (Ottawa) tribe leader, historian, and proponent of Indian civil rights.  He purchased his house on Main Street in Harbor Spring in about 1858 for the use of his family of four.  When he was appointed postmaster, the house doubled as the post office, and residents picked up their mail in the Blackbird kitchen. After 1947 the house was sold to the Michigan Indian Foundation, and opened as a local museum in 1948. The City of Harbor Springs purchased the house in 1964, with the stipulation that it be used an Indian museum. It now operates as a museum of American Indian artifacts.

Refunds are unavailable for cancellations within 48 hours of the tour.