Fifty years’ worth of maps, trail guides, thank you cards, photographs and other documents from the shuttered Warner Nature Center have been sent to the Minnesota Historical Society, where curators plan to catalog the center’s archives over the next few months.
But the Warner center itself will someday reopen with a new building and renewed purpose, said Greg McNeely, one of the four trustees of the Manitou Fund, the White Bear Lake-based nonprofit owner.
Fund officials on Dec. 31 closed the nature center near Marine on St. Croix, and McNeely said the old building should be torn down because mice, electrical problems and rot have taken their toll on the wood structure.
But he also said the nature center was important to his late father, business magnate Donald McNeely, and that he feels an obligation to continue his family’s commitment to it.
Greg McNeely said he would like to see the trail guides program return to Warner, and more diverse groups of students visiting. No timeline has been set for rebuilding, he said.
“As long as I’m around I’m going to make sure it’s top-notch,” he said.
Longtime Warner volunteers and fans were surprised and saddened when Manitou Fund officials announced the center’s closing last year, ending a five-decade partnership with the Science Museum of Minnesota.
Eleven staffers were let go last month after they relocated the nature center’s collection of live animals and scientific exhibits. Dozens of volunteers who taught schoolkids about the animals and plant life found at Warner’s property were devastated by the news but said they remain hopeful about what’s to come.
