Laura Ingalls Wilder Park & Museum in Burr Oak acquires former Burr Oak Merchantile building

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Park & Museum in Burr Oak is announcing the acquisition of the former "Burr Oak Mercantile."  The building was gifted to the museum by the family of Robert M. Brimacomb.

The former mercantile was built in 1908, 31 years after the Ingalls family lived in Burr Oak, but it gives the museum an opportunity to spread out. Offices and the museum's gift shop are currently housed in the old Burr Oak Savings Bank, which has limited space. The goal is to restore the mercantile building as a gift shop/visitor's center with offices and use the bank building as a Burr Oak History Center.

With the acquisition of the Mercantile, the museum now owns four properties in Burr Oak consisting of the Master's Hotel (the childhood home of Laura Ingalls Wilder in 1876), the former Burr Oak Savings Bank, and the Advent Christian Church (located at the gates of the Burr Oak Cemetery). Both the Master's Hotel & the former Burr Oak Savings Bank are on the National Registry of Historical places.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum welcomes on average 6,000 guests from May to October from all 50 states and many different countries, having a significant impact on tourism for Winneshiek County.

For more information on the Laura Ingalls Wilder Park & Museum, visit www.lauraingallswilder.us