The Soo Locks Children’s Museum adds long-awaited exhibits

There was a special delivery for the Soo Locks Children’s Museum on Tuesday morning.

Three large exhibits and several smaller exhibits were transported from the Great Lakes Children’s Museum (GLCM) in Traverse City to Sault Ste Marie on three semi-trucks. A freighter, lighthouse, Coast Guard and other Great Lakes-themed exhibits were moved to the old Lynn’s Auto Parts building on Portage Ave. unloaded until they are finally moved to the SLCM in 2025.

The GLCM just moved to a new location and offered the exhibits at a can’t-miss price of $8,000.

Raquel Fernande-Earns, chairwoman of the SLCM, was excited as the trucks pulled into the parking lot and the exhibits were unloaded.

“We’ve been working on this since August or September. They contacted us because they could no longer use these exhibits because they were moving and could no longer be used. We coordinated with them to see what they had. Kathy Flickinger came “We came by and visited the place like kids in a candy store,” giggled Fernandez-Earns.

Once construction is complete at the 223 W. Portage Ave. location where the SLCM is located, the exhibits will need to be dismantled, moved and then reassembled.

“We are excited because as soon as the construction work is completed, we will have exhibits that are ready to move into. We are finalizing the tender for this, so construction work should begin soon. Once that happens, we’ll be able to move these pieces in and have something for ourselves.” “We’ve gotten some beautiful exhibitions. It’s hard to believe they’ve been in a children’s museum for so many years because the cool thing is the exhibits are already themed around what our museum is about,” Fernandez-Earns said.

The costs for the exhibitions were covered by Dr. Craig and Kathy Flickinger took over.

“My daughter Ashley is a board member of SLCM and has called for the purchase of these wonderful exhibits and thought I would be interested. “I had been given some money as a gift from my parents and she thought it would be a nice legacy from her,” Kathy said.

Fernandez-Earns said the cost of everything they just received would be about $100,000 if purchased brand new.

The $2 million project is expected to open in late summer or early fall 2025.