What do you do when you have a nearly 30-foot-long canoe that won’t fit on the elevator or up the stairs of your new building?
You build around it!
That’s what happened on March 27, when a replica of a canoe carved by the Indigenous Haida people of the Pacific Northwest Coast, was moved into the still-under-construction Nature & Culture Museum of Wisconsin on 6th and McKinley.
The canoe, which was only display at Milwaukee Public Museum for 30 years – hanging above the Victorian-style Sense of Wonder exhibit at the top of the main staircase – will be installed in the Living in a Dynamic World gallery of the new location, became the first exhibit component to be moved into the museum, which is due to open in spring 2027.
This type of canoe was used by the Haida for fishing and transportation, and indeed, Haida communities still build these boats today. This one, however, was made in 1996 by Craig Yanek, who based its design on a model in the museum's collection and built it using Navy-surplus World War II balsa wood.
Because of the boat’s size, it was lifted by crane through a fourth floor window of the new museum building before installation of the window glazing. The 27-foot boat, which weighs about 2,300 was boxed into a crate for safety for the move.
Here’s video of the canoe being moved into the new building:
The canoe is the first of many objects that will be moved into the new museum, with most items being moved beginning later in 2026.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
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