CHASKA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Exhibits | Wish List | Holiday House Tour | Fund Raising |

Chaska History Center

The Chaska Historical Society was officially organized in 1980 by a group of people who recognized the need to record and preserve the history of Chaska. The Chaska society, a chapter of the Carver County Historical Society, is located in the Chaska History Center at 112 West Fourth Street in a newly restored 1890 Livery Stable.  The organization is led by a nine member elected Board of Directors which meets quarterly. The annual meeting of the membership is held each fall usually in November.

The dues of the Chaska society also cover membership in the county historical society. Members have the opportunity to share in many county and local historical programs and events.

2010 Ornament is now available
 125th Anniversary - St John's Church
$8 donation

New Exhibit Opens July 23rd
Uniforms on Parade: All Decked Out in Chaska's History
March through Chaska History and see the Honor Guard, the police and firemen, the servicemen and the Drum and Bugle Corps! It's Chaska's own stationary parade! Follow the route through the History Center's display of uniforms highlighting not only parade uniforms, but also the uniforms of champions.
Baseball, softball, and high school bands-all reflect Chaska's past. It's a parade you won't want to miss!

Exhibit premiers during River City Days:
Friday and Saturday July 23rd and 24th, 9am-5pm

The Chaska History Center has become a resource center for researching the history of Chaska and its people through exhibits, photographs, letters, diaries, maps, artifacts, documents and copies of the Chaska Herald newspaper. 

Current activities:
- Tours available for student groups
- Creation of a digital cataloging system
- Research on the third volume of the Chaska history book, Chaska, A Minnesota River City
- Reprinting (hopefully in 2010) of the first two out of print volumns of the Chaska History Book, Chaska, A Minnesota River City,
- Developing exhibits and displays. "Transportation in Chaska" is our current display and will remain for most of 2009 - Photos of Previous Displays
- Staffing of the History Center by volunteers Tuesday through Friday afternoons each week
- Cataloging/preserving and adding to our archives 70,000+ negatives/photos from the 1970's - 2000 from the Chaska Herald
- Holiday House Tour December 2006 and 2007
- Annual Meeting in November of each year
- Help earn funds for the society simply by adding the Good Search Tool bar to your web browser. Click here for more details

Available at the Chaska History Center:

• Extensive photograph collection, some of which was donated by the Werner Studio family, which depicts Chaska people, industry, schools, civic organizations, military personnel, street scenes, city and county government, cultural activities, sports, religious life and community celebrations.
• Volumes I and II of Chaska, A Minnesota River City
• Copies of the Herald newspaper from 1862 to the present. Link to the online index of the newspapers maintained by the Carver County Historical Society in Waconia
• Copies of the Carver County Sun newspapers 1969-1973
• Insurance maps which detail locations of downtown businesses around the turn of the century
• Tours available for student groups
• The story of the impacts of the Minnesota River flooding on Chaska from 1881 to the present as told through a series of scrapbooks
• A collection of Indian artifacts
• Chaska historian James Faber's newspaper series on "The Old Home Town" and "View From A Park Bench"; Faber collection of Chaska memorabilia and historical papers
• Extensive research on Chaska families and their origins from 1864 to 1960 (Edward Glatzel papers)
• Video tapes of Chaska happenings circa 1945, and oral interviews with local citizens describing life in Chaska from early 1900 through the development of Jonathan
• Listing of Chaska cemeteries and their occupants

Chaska Historical Society continues to honor the rich heritage of the Chaska community.

For more information contact the Chaska Historical Society at 112 West Fourth Street, Chaska, Minnesota 55318

Phone (952) 448-6077
Hours 1 - 4:30 PM     Tuesday - Friday

e-mail: historical@chaskahistory.org
fax: (775) 542-7155
web site: www.chaskahistory.org