The Mower County Historical Society was awarded a $47,750 grant by the Minnesota Historical Society. The money will be used for the collections building renovation and artifact storage shelving.

The completion of the collections building, which will allow for greater public access to objects in the collection and allow the MCHS to open up buildings currently being used for storage, is one of the Historical Society’s goals for 2018. MCHS Director Randy Forster hopes to have the building completed before the Mower County Fair.

“This grant is going to help finish that project and we are very excited to receive that money from the state historical society so we can see that project to fruition,” Forster said. “There has been a lot of hard work toward this project and its nice to see we’re being rewarded for that.”

The grant was one of 46 grants awarded by the Historical Society in 27 counties for the 2018 fiscal year. The MHS awarded a grand total of $3,297,352 in grants.

Other grant recipients included the Steele County Historical Society in Owatonna, the Olmsted County Historical Society in Rochester, and the Dodge County Historical Society in Mantorville.