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Michigan Heroes Museum

Introduction

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The Michigan Heroes Museum was founded by Navy veteran Stanley Bozich, who began collecting military artifacts related to Michigan's veterans in 1974. The museum honors Michigan's wartime service personnel from the Spanish-American War to current conflicts, as well as space heroes from the Great Lakes State. The exhibits tell the stories of heroism, leadership, and sacrifice connected to Michigan's sons and daughters in uniform.

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Michigan Heroes Museum, 2021

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Backstory and Context

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Michigan native and U.S. Navy veteran Stanley "Stan" Bozich visited the U.S.S.R. in 1974 and noticed that almost every town he encountered there had a museum to honor its war veterans. When he returned home, Bozich began collecting memorabilia from Michigan war veterans with the goal of starting such a museum to honor Michigan's veterans of foreign wars. The museum, originally called Michigan's Own Inc. Military and Space Museum, first opened on June 14, 1981, in rented space in Frankenmuth's School Haus Square building. With significant support from the state's veterans' organizations, the museum was able to move to a new permanent facility on Weiss Street in Frankenmuth in September 1990.

The museum is the home of the nation's largest collection of Medals of Honor assembled in one place—26 at last count. Stories of more than 800 military veterans, told through the exhibits of personal and historical artifacts, photographs, and documents, rotate through its galleries.

Sources

BeVier, Thomas. "A tough soldier guards Michigan military museum," Detroit Free Press, December 10, 1989, p.M1.

Rubin, Neal. "Home of the brave," Detroit Free Press, July 3, 1997, p.F1.

Rau, Gretchen. "Michigan's Own dedicated to military/space," Frankenmuth News, September 14, 1990, p.1.

"Stanley 'Stan' Bozich [obituary]," Detroit Free Press, October 10, 2018, p.12A.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Deborah Larsen

Additional Information