The Fillmore County History Center and Genealogy Library is open to the public weekdays year round.

Museum Hours: Monday-Friday: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Central Time
CLOSED ALL MAJOR HOLIDAYS.
Closed week-ends except for special museum events or for museum tour groups of ten or more.
The genealogy library is NOT open week-ends.

(NOTE: Please make requests for week-end museum tours via email or phone at least three weeks in advance.)
 

No admission fee is charged for museum access or for use of our genealogy library, but donations are welcomed, encouraged, and gratefully received. A standard fee policy is in effect within the genealogy library for copies from our collections.

The Fillmore County History Center Museum and Genealogy Library is located near the start of the Root River Recreational Trail at the junction of Highway 52 and County Road 8 in the charming village of Fountain- Sinkhole Capital of the USA.  Trails, rivers, bluffs, and quaint Amish farms abound in our little corner of beautiful southeast Minnesota.

Our county museum features a wide diversity of themed exhibit rooms. Visit a turn-of-the-century newspaper office, an old-fashioned post office, an antique country kitchen, and an old-time hardware store.  Children will enjoy our displays of vintage dolls and toys.  For the textile enthusiast, our museum maintains one of the largest collections of vintage clothing to be found anywhere in southeastern Minnesota.  The two attached agricultural display buildings interpret the farming history of Fillmore County, and include 36 completely restored Oliver tractors, as well as a treasure trove of early agricultural machinery.  We're extremely proud to display two airplanes: a 1932 Model T Sky Scout and a 1947 Air Camper built by Bernard H. Pietenpol of Cherry Grove. Known as the "Grandfather of the Experimental Aircraft" Pietenpol became world famous for designing a home-built airplane powered by an automobile engine.  Our outdoor complex includes a 1860s log house, a country school, and the Bernard Pietenpol hangar.

Each year hundreds of people visit our genealogy library in their quest to trace family roots. Many more contact us by email or phone to request mail order copies of our documents. Thousands of books, photographs, microfilmed newspapers, as well as county birth, death, and marriage records, obituaries, and cemetery transcriptions are available.