Museum  Fall Schedule
Monday through Saturday
10 am - 2 pm
Admission always FREE
​Museum tours available by appointment
 ​Please text 833.228.8603, or email to schedule a visit.
​121 S Macoupin St Gillespie, IL 62033
Back by popular demand: The Virtual Museum Tour
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Recently at the Museum
Author Kevin Corley's sequel to Thirteen Steps For Charlie Birger is now available. ​Why bootleggers and gangster books at a coal museum? Our Coal Country legacy was built by the miners working underground and living on top.
click here for a listing of our complete book selections.
After over a year long covid19  delay, the Academy of Advanced Learning (at Lincoln Land College) brought their tour bus to the museum. Part of the group, shown here, takes a break to view several videos in our "Union Hall". 

The August fundraiser for the Fallen Macoupin County Coal Miners was a great success!
Thank You: UMWA Local 1613, Laborers 338, Andrea Duncan, Harold  'Herk' Rauzi, ​Jim Alderson, Joan Page, Helaine Silverman, and the August museum visitors.

Picture
The definitive history of our Coal Country communities, Coal Mines on the Prairie by Harold 'Herk' Rauzi, has been restocked!
Hurry in to buy one for yourself
and one for a friend.
The museum façade enhancement, funded by IDNR,  has been completed! A 'must see' - plenty of photo - ops 
The May 1st. Historic Marker Dedication,
Coal Museum 'Grand Reopening',
and Grow Gillespie Tourism Season Kickoff
was a great success! Several hundred visitors were able to enjoy a beautiful day participating in a 5K run, joining in an Historic Dedication, and mingling with friends at the street fair. The museum hosted more visitors this day than during the entire Covid 2020 shutdown.  
 Geoff Ladd Event Video 
Our Bloody Past
Gillespie Together
The Progressives
​Edited video event clips
courtesy of JASE Media Service 
As part of of our mission to preserve history, the story of the origin of the Progressive Miners of America is commemorated with an Illinois State Historical Society Marker. Many thanks to the Mythic Mississippi Project  
The Museum open! 
The Summer traffic is slowly returning to pre-Covid levels. 
We hope to see you signing in at our new guest book table soon.
After signing in, you will be offered a tour through to 'topside' displays telling the story of happenings above the coal mines. Next, continue to the most dramatic change made to the coal mining exhibit. Your journey through the rich history of Coal County begins with entry through a simulated coal tunnel. 
​Here are some dynamite teaser photos  ​