GREATEST PEOPLE: The Michnas, For Keeping Caledonia's Past Alive

Michael and Jessica Michna believe people connect with history when they can look back in time to a captured moment.

Moments like those in Thompsondale, a neighborhood of summer cabins on the Root River, where bands played at a dance pavilion and residents held an annual Venetian Nights celebration.

“They’d lash together canoes and hold a lighted parade along the river,” said Jessica Michna. “The dance pavilion still exists today in Armstrong Park.”

Then there’s Tamarack Creek, a long-lost tributary to the Root River that now runs solely underground through Racine County residents’ basements that a farmer mentioned casually one day.

“The histories of these families, of the people who lived here are so important,” Michael said. Michael is president of the Caledonia Historical Society, which works to preserve and promote the village's history.

At the in September, Jessica Michna spoke with a widow who remembers standing in a white linen suit at the train station now located in . It was 1947, the woman said, and her fiancee had returned safely from the Pacific. They were about to head to Florida for their honeymoon.

“It was a cold March day, but she was going to Florida and she was going to wear that suit,” Jessica said. “She remembered buying that suit in Milwaukee -- which was a long ways away back then. Her friends were bundled up in winter coats, but she was there in her suit and heels and she was going to Florida.”

Since the day six or seven years ago when the Michnas first stopped at an open house at one of Caledonia’s historic buildings, the two have spent a great deal of their time cementing Caledonia’s connection with the past. They and a dedicated core of other volunteers put together Caledonia’s Homecoming event in late September, and are working to get funding and volunteers to renovate the Sturtevant Train Depot which now sits in Linwood Park.

Many people get interested in history through their own family genealogy. Michael Michna’s family has been in the Caledonia-Mount Pleasant area for generations—that’s why you can drive along Michna Road.

Their property is a microcosm of Caledonia history, with grape vines growing wild.

“My dad laughed when he saw our place,” Michael said. “It was where he got wine for his wedding."

But the Michnas want to make history come alive for others through stories. In addition to their work with the Historical Society, Jessica is a professional historic impersonator, who gives presentations as Mary Todd Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Abigail Adams and Dolly Madison.

The Michnas hope other longtime residents of Caledonia continue to stop by the Old Town Hall and Train Depot and share stories, but the Historical Society needs more than visitors to keep history alive. They need volunteers of all stripes, sizes and persuasions—to renovate and paint the depot, help restore an old doctor’s buggy, set up displays, do basic maintenance and cleaning and do research.

The Historical Society is interested in gathering other buildings from the area (like the 1888 Bohemian School on Hwy. 31 and 5 Mile Road) and creating a village. 

The Historical Society also needs help reconstructing a recently acquired a log cabin that had been located on Alan and Patty Ruud’s land on Highway 31 north of 4 Mile Road. (If you didn’t know the cabin was there, you’re not alone—it had been hidden by a clapboard shell for decades.) Now, it’s in a pile at Linwood Park. Royse Meyers is going to pay for the foundation, but Jessica Michna said there’s more to the log cabin project than just re-stacking the logs.

“We need someone who’s interested in creating a historically accurate kitchen garden with heirloom tomatoes and such,” she said. “We can use all kinds of help with these projects—there’s a little piece that everyone in Caledonia can contribute.”