Otsego County History Museum

The Claude Shannon exhibit is a permanent display at the Otsego County History Museum in downtown Gaylord. Items currently featured include: photos of Claude's 1932 Gaylord High School graduation class, GHS diploma, statue at Shannon Park on Main Street, his parents Claude, Sr. and Mabel Wolf Shannon.

A replica of the barbed-wire telegraph system reminds the views of the one he and his friend Rodney Hutchins put together which connected their house 4 blocks apart. Claude's love of juggling and riding a unicycle are also represented in the museum exhibit. There is also a mention of Tommy Tropic's juggling program named in Claude Shannon's honor. This youth-oriented fun event helps connect the past with the present.

To remind the museum guest of Shannon's important role that he played in creating the Digital Age, several examples of everyday technology are featured. these include a computer disc, cell phone, digital camera, and lap top computer.

Since 1992, the museum has been the center of Otsego County history and offers permanent exhibits honoring the lumbering & railroad era, agriculture, one-room schools and Gaylord's native son Claude Shannon. Volunteer docentsare available to provide information about the two galleries and there is also a gift shop which is stocked with local history books such as "Early Times of Otsego County, Michigan" "Otsego County Women In History", "Places of Our Past", and Waters, Michigan: The Town With The Bottle Fence."

Visitors to the museum will also learn that when the building was constructed in 1911, it was originally a cigar factory. Later it was a pool hall called Merry's Recreation. In the early 1960s, Gordon and Marlene Everett purchased the building for their businesses The Northern Star and subsequently Northern Office Supply. This is the first of 10 history markers presented by the Rotary Club of Gaylord in 2017.

The building was constructed in 1911 by Charles L. Merry for his cigar factory and store. His son, Earl, later converted the building to a pool hall.

Gordon and Marlene Everett, whose shopper guide business, The Northern Star, was in the building to west, purchased this property in 1964. They added the room on the north end for a large printing press. When their business outgrew this building, they relocated to a new, larger location. The front of the building was then used for an office supply store.

When the Otsego County Historical Society expressed an interest in establishing a museum in downtown Gaylord, the Everett family made the nonprofit group a generous offer for their now-vacant storefront. The museum opened in the spring of 1992 and held its mortgage burning ceremony five years later.