Iron County Museum invites decorated doors for summer fundraiser

The Iron County Historical Museum is asking Iron County to turn plain doors into public art, then spend the summer walking past them in Caspian. Artists and craftspeople of all ages and skill levels are invited to decorate a door and donate it to the museum, where the finished pieces will be displayed outdoors as part of the Star Spangled Doors fundraiser.

The museum says the doors will stay on view throughout Summer 2026 and then be auctioned during A Day on the Farm on September 5. All proceeds will support the museum. Kathlene Long, the museum director, has tied the project to the museum’s Star Spangled Spectacular theme for the year and to the idea of Iron County as a gateway to the Upper Peninsula.

The project is meant to be easy to join. Participants are encouraged to finish their doors by early June, but the deadline is flexible. The museum asks that each door be weatherproofed thoroughly because the pieces will sit outside for months, and any jagged or dangerous edges should be removed before a door is turned in. Long has said the rules are intentionally light as long as the work stays family-friendly, opening the door for families, friends, civic groups and individual artists to take part.

The museum is also treating the fundraiser like a neighborhood connection point. If someone has an old door in a garage, staff may be able to match it with someone who wants to decorate one. If someone needs a door to work on, the museum may help connect the right people. That makes the project part fundraiser, part reuse effort and part community art installation.

The timing fits a museum that already leans hard into hands-on programming. The Iron County Historical Museum, in Caspian, describes itself as one of the largest outdoor museum complexes in the Upper Peninsula and the designated Log Cabin Capital of Michigan. It opened in 1968 on the grounds of the former Caspian Mine, which closed in 1937. Staff and volunteers maintain more than 25 buildings, more than 100 exhibits, an extensive research center and archives, and two art galleries.

The museum’s mission is to preserve the past, inspire lifelong learning and encourage cultural engagement, and the Star Spangled Doors project fits that mission as a summer-long display people can visit, discuss and enjoy. The museum’s calendar also lists History Happy Hour on the third Friday of June, July and August, along with a Star Spangled Spot-It interactive game, keeping the grounds active well beyond the auction date. Behind the local project sits America250MI, Michigan’s official point of contact for the nation’s 250th anniversary, which is building county committees and working with museums, historical societies, educators, Native American tribes and libraries around themes that include Power of Place and We the People.