Fred Campbell’s handmade snowshoes.

Butter churns, bowls, paddles, wash trough, and molds.

Early mousetrap

1913 check drawn on National Bank of Cheney.

Rocking chair

made by

Joshua Welch.

Cheney Historical Museum

Be a Part of History

The general merchandise store.

Visit The Museum

The Cheney Historical Museum displays 3 large rooms of artifacts, photographs, and information about the everyday lives of the people who pioneered and lived in the Four Lakes, Cheney, Tyler, and Amber districts starting from the 1870s. Our museum is arranged to show home life, a general store, a school room, farm life and business, as well as displays honoring the area’s participation in military service.

You can hear Cheney’s first school bell, rung by the 16 year old Miss Mary Cook in 1878, or listen to the music folks listened and danced to at the turn of the century on the Olympia music box or Edison phonograph.

See the giant walking spinning wheel brought across country by Mrs. Laura Tyler in 1880, and a pen used by President Benjamin Harrison in 1889 to sign the proclamation of Washington Statehood, as well as the side saddle made by Louis Walter for his daughter Lillian while Washington was still a territory.

Discover the tools pioneers used every day to churn butter, plow fields, wash clothes, hunt and fish, sew, make soap, and entertain their family and friends.

There are many resources at the museum for research, including our photo collection, artifacts, history timelines, pioneer and school scrapbooks, maps, biographies and recollections, school yearbooks, and other documents.