Inside the Weis Earth Science Museum in Menasha, October 3, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
(WTAQ-WLUK) — The stories of Wisconsin’s geological history can be found at the Weis Earth Science Museum at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Fox Cities campus.
However, the future of the museum is rocky at best.
“It does preoccupy my mind quite a bit just because we do have staff that are student employees and we know that since the museum is not going to be part of the university any longer, we have questions as to what our staffing’s going to look like in the future,” said Weis Earth Science Museum interim director Scott Schaefer.
Outagamie and Winnebago counties own the property.
UW-Oshkosh will be halting operations at the campus in June once the 2025 spring semester comes to a close.
At the latest UW-Oshkosh Fox Cities Board of Trustees meeting, Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson revealed they were looking to sell the property.
At least one interested party appears to be the Menasha Public School District.
No matter who takes on ownership, Scott Schaefer, who runs the Weis Earth Science Museum, hopes it will continue operations where it currently stands.
“It’s the narrative that we have. Literally, the panelings on the wall that tell the history of the state from the oldest geologic history we have 2.8 billion years ago all the way up through our modern mining industry and that narrative would be lost if we had to move,” said Schaefer.
Those with a deep interest in geology, like Kevin Ponzio, who have donated items to be on display at the Weis, are concerned about the Weis as well, which is the state’s official Mineralogical Museum.
“It keeps the specimens from the region, Wisconsin and the Midwest, that have been discovered and mined here for hundreds of years in our area, instead of going to museums in Germany or somewhere else in the country,” said Ponzio.
Former museum curator Don Mikulic was circulating a petition at the fundraiser in hopes of preserving the Weis.
“We’re the only one that actually focuses on the entire history of the state through geology. And so, you would lose that opportunity to, you know, promote that,” said Mikulic.
County leaders say more information regarding the future of the campus will be coming out sometime this month.
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