Virtual Museum

Since 2003 the Society’s Oral History group, Page & Stage, has produced soft cover volumes of county oral histories consisting of photographs and interviews with people whose lives and experiences provide first person narratives of County life. Our newest group, History Speaks, has local storytellers telling stories on the County’s history. Finally, the Society collaborates with other organizations to help promote the County’s history through various programs or projects of interest.

The Society produces a quarterly newsletter and PDF copies are available for viewing. In addition, news media stories related to the Society are listed. Although the Society does not provide research services to the public, volunteers have made their research available.

Several videos of Society events are listed and available for viewing through the OCHS YouTube channel. From a virtual tour of the Wolcott Keeper’s House to lectures on various subjects of interest, the Society’s YouTube channel will provide hours of entertainment.

Authors love writing about Ottawa County. Here we list books known to reference or be about the County.

The Keeper’s House is used by the Ottawa County Historical Society to provide free, summer docent-led tours and events that provide an opportunity to experience an 1800s frontier home. It was the personal residence of the first keeper of the Marblehead Lighthouse and American Revolutionary War veteran, Benajah Wolcott. and his wife, Rachel, the first female lighthouse keeper on the Great Lakes, being named at the death of Benajah in 1832.  The structure was built one year after the Lighthouse by the same stone mason, William Kelly.  Significant structural components include: native quarried limestone and walls 28” thick, ‘ random rubble’ building method, i.e., stone ready-at-hand and worked into the structure, all original plaster work, and exact reconstruction of second hall fireplace completed using creosote stains left on the interior wall. The exterior stone steps appear exactly as built in the 1800s.  On the four exterior corners appear indentations into the stone originally thought to be musket portals, hence the local understanding of the house as ‘Old Stone Fort’. The portals are part of a construction method used for exterior scaffolding. Rachel lived in the home until the 1850s with Wolcott family ownership ending in 1896. It remained a residence until 1985 when it was purchased by the Society. It is now the property of Danbury Township.