Canosia Township
Town Hall Museum
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  When you come in to vote or attend a meeting in our Town Hall, you will see many donated pictures and artifacts on display which depict the early history of our immediate area.
 

Evidence of the first people to inhabit this land is shown by some of the stone implements used to help support their lifestyle of hunting and fishing. Stone artifacts have been found in several places near some of our lakes.
 

Our mystery rock, found near the center of our township, may have been formed by the ice age glaciers or manmade for some use by a local tribe. The stone sits in front of the Town Hall, moved there by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources from where it was found while building a dike for the Canosia Wildlife Management Area in 1975.
 

Hanging in our front entry and on the walls of our building we also have farm implements, railroad rails, lumbering saws, cant hooks, measuring rods, and even a rough-sawn white pine plank, found in the attic, which remains from those used to build our Town Hall.
 

After our large white pines were cut and immigration increased, families settled on small farms around our area. Our collection includes many of the old bottles, cans, crocks, and glass items which were found in old dumps found in low spots of the old homesteads. We also have other household and clothing items. Recreation, which was always a part of family and school life, is shown in our collection by a bobsled and swim suits.
 

We have several sites where our Township built schools; usually designed so the teachers could live in the same building. They were mostly one- or tworoom schools which usually held classes up to the sixth grade. Many books from these schools have been donated to our collection and are on display.
 

Our summer cabins, hotels, and recreation buildings housed those able to travel here from town to seek relief from the summer heat and enjoy this beautiful area. We have furniture and dishes from the Auto Club that was established in 1909 on Pike Lake. Atlantic City was north of the Auto Club and provided canoes, boats, swimming (with suits and changing rooms available), roller skating, and dancing. At Caribou Lake, Kehtel’s had a store and cabins, too. We also have pictures and signs from Annabelle’s Tavern, which was located just south of the Town Hall.
 

If you have something to add to our collection, please feel free to do so.
 

Millicent O’Connell, Canosia Historical Society