Harrigan Learning Center and Museum opened to the community and beyond

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

MILO — A lifetime collection of fossils, minerals, native peoples’ artifacts and more from around the world now has a permanent home to benefit schoolchildren from near and far and the region with visitors traveling to see the various exhibits. On May 12 the Harrigan Learning Center and Museum, owned by the Three Rivers Kiwanis Milo-Brownville Foundation through benefactors Tom and Nancy Harrigan, was formally unveiled to the public.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

HARRIGAN LEARNING CENTER AND MUSEUM — Tom and Nancy Harrigan cut the ribbon, behind held by Three Rivers Kiwanis President Brenda Kelley and District 2 Kiwanis Lt. Gov. David Pullen, to formally open the Harrigan Learning Center and Museum in Milo on May 12. The museum, located on the Gerrish Road next to the home of the Three Rivers Kiwanis, houses Tom Harrigan’s lifetime collection of fossils, minerals, native peoples’ artifacts and more from around the world.

Grand opening emcee Eben DeWitt began the dedication held in the covered outdoor area adjacent to the new structure by saying the museum is the second Three Rivers Kiwanis building made possible by the Harrigans, with the Milo couple funding the organization’s headquarters that opened in 2014. Both the Kiwanis headquarters and new museum are located at 24 Gerrish Road off of outer Park Street.

“This building will undoubtedly have an impact on the people of the area and beyond,” DeWitt said. He said the Harrigan Learning Center and Museum will be a draw for tourists as well as serve students from the area and across the state.

“I wonder, in my wildest dreams, and maybe you do to, what we will be dedicating in 2018 with the Harrigan name attached,?” DeWitt said.

After congratulatory letters from U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin were read, University of Maine Professor Emeritus Dr. Hal Borns spoke. “I’m standing in the middle of a dream of Nancy and Tom Harrigan, I really believe that,” Dr. Borns said. “Some people get an idea really early in life and then they make a plan and I think that’s what happened here,” he said, as Tom Harrigan has amassed his collection over a lifetime.

“To me this is the best museum of this type — Earth history — in the state,” Dr. Borns said. “There’s nothing as complete as this.” He said museums are not static, as visitors to the Harrigan Learning Center and Museum will be able to look at exhibits, such as the minerals, and then take this knowledge with them as they will then go home and look at the rocks and minerals in their own backyards.

“I thank them for their contribution to my field, which is geology in general,” Dr. Borns, who has taken over two dozen trips to Antarctica, said.

State Sen. Paul Davis (R-Sangerville) said Tom — who retired from AT&T Bell Laboratories as an electrical engineer in 1987 — and Nancy Harrigan have traveled around the globe “and now they have brought this world they have collected back to Milo, Maine to all of us.”

“Museums, they are about interacting with the past and how we consider the future and Tom and Nancy are all about,” Davis said. He and State Rep. Norm Higgins (R-Dover-Foxcroft) then presented the Harrigans with a Legislative Sentiment.

Higgins said when he was first getting to know the Milo area he was told two of the people he needed to meet were the Harrigans. “I knew he had a few and I made the mistake of asking could I see some of them,” Higgins joked about the items in the collection, which previously had been stored at the Harrigans’ home. “Lucky for me I had nothing else to do that afternoon.”

Higgins said he asked Tom Harrigan about the possibility of a finding a home for all of artifacts and Harrigan mentioned he was thinking of doing just that. As construction progressed on the Gerrish Road, Higgins said he stopped by on several occasions. “Each time it was fascinating as I got to see this project come together,” Higgins said.

“It’s an opportunity for our young people who often don’t get to travel and see the world, have the world come to them,” he said.

District 2 Kiwanis Lt. Gov. David Pullen said, “Three Rivers Kiwanis has been honored to be the maintenance people of that building. This building is our privilege to be able to care for and nurture in the days ahead.”

Three Rivers Kiwanis President Brenda Kelley said she could not thank the Harrigans enough. “There’s a lot of great things to look at, the murals painted by Suzette (East) are beautiful.”

“This would probably be No. 1 on my bucket list,” East, a resident of Brownville who painted over a dozen murals of scenes from moments in history depicted in artifacts at the Harrigan Learning Center and Museum, said. “As an artist I have always wanted my work to be in a quality museum.”

Linda Belisle, who helped set up the contents of the facility and was listed in the program as invaluable museum volunteer, said Tom Harrigan “had a master plan, he had a spreadsheet, he knew what was going in each case and he knew what was going on the wall over it.”

She said every day boxes were brought in and unpacked and “this has been eight or nine months of Christmas,” with the seahorses and ostrich eggs among the most exciting items Belisle saw.

“Those kids who haven’t had exposure to these remarkable finds, it’s going to change how they see the world,” Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Denise Buzzelli said, adding the museum will serve as an economic draw for the region.

“We are looking at a couple who literally have all around the world but chose Milo when they could have chosen any other place,” she said. Buzzelli said if people think they cannot do much just as one individual, then they should consider Tom and Nancy Harrigan.

There are two new buildings, “all because of people who are generous and want to see a quality of life here,” Buzzelli said.

Before the ribbon cutting, Tom and Nancy Harrigan had their turn at the podium as they thanked both East and Belisle.

“A lot of people have asked me why we did this and it’s a simple answer,” Tom Harrigan said. “We want to expose children in this area to things they have never seen before, and we want to bring other people here.” He said these visitors, such as tour buses, will visit Milo and make purchases at area businesses during their travels.

“Another reason is I have had grandmothers come to our house, with their grandchildren, and say this is the only place they can take them,” Harrigan said.

He said the next project is to put a restroom facility in the parking lot, suited to handle a tour bus.

Nancy Harrigan said for more than 40 years she has been helping her husband collect. “Knowing him for 40 years, I’m still amazed by this project,” she said.

The Harrigan Learning Center and Museum will be open from May 15 to Oct. 15, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sundays from 1-3 p.m. or by special arrangement. For more information, please go to https://www.facebook.com/HarriganLearningCenter/.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

A LOOK INSIDE — The Harrigan Learning Center and Museum was made possible by benefactors Tom and Nancy Harrigan of Milo, and the newly-opened building will provide schoolchildren with an opportunity to see artifacts they may not be able to view otherwise as well as draw visitors to the region. Over a dozen murals depicting scenes from throughout history were painted by artist Suzette East of Brownville.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

LEGISLATIVE SENTIMENT — State Rep. Norm Higgins (R-Dover-Foxcroft), left, and State Sen. Paul Davis (R-Sangerville) present Tom and Nancy Harrigan with a Legislative Sentiment as part of the Harrigan Learning Center and Museum grand opening and dedication on May 12.