Dowagiac Area History Museum Receives $1 Million Endowment Gift

Plans Layout Transformation

The museum features ongoing programming on local history and maintains a collection of more than 20,000 documents, photographs, and three-dimensional artifacts.

Dowagiac, Michigan, September 18, 2025 – The Dowagiac Area History Museum, the freeadmission community museum dedicated to preserving the history of Dowagiac, Cass County, and Sister Lakes, shared updates with its supporters at its annual “Keep History Alive” fundraising event on Wednesday night. In their remarks, Director Steve Arseneau and Dowagiac Mayor Don Lyons shared the following with the crowd of museum supporters:

Lyons and his wife, Joan, have committed $1 million to a new endowment fund for the museum. The Lyons’ commitment is being funded progressively and will accrue income through 2032, when the funds will be available for use.

This endowment is being managed through the Michigan Gateway Community Foundation, an independent third party that helps individuals and families develop strategic plans for charitable contributions to their community and assists with funding oversight. As part of its involvement, the Foundation has granted the Museum $8,000 to develop a new strategic plan of its own, which it will assist in creating and executing.

The Lyons family also created Downtown Dowagiac’s Heddon Museum, which preserves the history of the Heddon family’s contributions to the fishing tackle industry. In recent years, the Lyons family donated its vast collection of Heddon lures, rods, and more to the Dowagiac Area History Museum, which now operates the Heddon Museum.

A new governance structure for the Museum has been developed to ensure strong longterm management and fiduciary oversight. Paired with the Museum’s fundraising arm, the Friends of the Dowagiac Area History Museum, this new 501c3 entity will develop policies and plans to ensure the Museum’s long-term success.

The Lyons family and Lyons Industries will fund a significant transformation to the museum’s exhibits. The Museum’s first floor will be reconfigured to better highlight the Round Oak Stove Company. The company brought the Industrial Revolution to Dowagiac in the 1870s, and its beautiful stoves are highly sought-after collectibles.

Arseneau hopes to complete the renovation by late 2026 or early 2027.

In their remarks, Arseneau and Lyons went on to thank the crowd for its support of the Museum and note that there are ways for all types of people to get involved with its success:

● Planned giving: Including the Museum in financial and estate planning.

● Ongoing giving: Supporting the museum through monthly or annual contributions, and through paid memberships.

● Volunteering: Donating time to assist with the Museum’s operations and help it operate in a cost-effective manner.

“Keeping history alive requires more than meticulously cataloging artifacts and planning exhibits and programming,” said Dowagiac Area History Museum Director Steve Arseneau. “It also requires strong long-term planning and constantly looking for opportunities to keep our content fresh. We thank everyone who’s been involved in supporting our efforts, and we encourage the community to contribute in whatever way makes sense for them.”