APPLETON (WLUK) — The History Museum at the Castle in Appleton is now, in part, a natural history museum.
Watch the video below to see inside the new exhibit:
Appleton’s History Museum at the Castle opens new exhibit from Weis Museum collections (WLUK)
The collections from the Weis Earth Science Museum moved the Castle to create the new main exhibit. It has dinosaur heads, ancient fossils and a collection of rare minerals and rocks.
This move was prompted by the UW-Oshkosh Fox Cities campus closure last year, initially leaving the Weis’ future in doubt.
“To have the History Museum step forward with this proposal was really the cure, right? The broken heart went from the saddest of lows to the highest of highs,” said Stephen Weis, the son of the museum’s founders. “And today really is that pinnacle of this opening, because the community deserves a place like this.”
It may just seem like dinosaur bones and fossils in a room, but the exhibit teaches history. Walk through it and visitors are guided by a geological breakdown of Wisconsin and even the world.
“There was so much to choose from to put on exhibit, and so we really needed to choose the storylines and the things we wanted to focus on,” said History Museum at the Castle Executive Director Dustin Mack.
Mack said the transition was more extensive than he thought it would be after realizing the collection had 50,000 items — not 20,000, as he initially believed.
“We changed our layout inside the museum to accommodate this exhibit and bring natural history to the people of Northeast Wisconsin,” said Mack. “We’re proud of it.”
Appleton’s History Museum at the Castle now displays the collections from the former Weis Earth Science Museum, previously located on the UW-Oshkosh Fox Cities campus, March 25, 2026. (WLUK/Mike Gard)
He’s proud, but maybe the second-most excited one in the Mack family.
“I like it because in my family, I’m the one that likes the dinosaurs the most,” said Mack’s son, Bryant.
The History Museum at the Castle now has a much broader appeal, especially for young visitors.
“I think it’s really cool, because you get to know that there were actually dinosaurs roaming around the Earth, which we would not see that today since they went extinct,” said young visitor Eva de la Cruz.
Added another child visiting Wednesday, Beau Reiland, “Dinosaurs got extinct a long, long time ago, and these bones are from the dinosaurs.”
The exhibit officially opens to the public Thursday. The museum, located near the Lawrence University campus at 330 E. College Ave. in Appleton, plans to rotate through items from the Weis collection every 3-5 years.
