Dr. Paul Hayes said his parents, Willard and Ruth Hayes, bought a farm in the early 1960s and the mixer had been sitting there since. It was formerly owned by Gus Ferdine, who used it to pour footings for the buildings on the farm complex in the 1930s.

“It’s been there for years, and it’s part of the history of the area, so I thought it would be a nice addition to the museum grounds,” Hayes said.

The mixer was produced by the Koehring Company in Milwaukee. It weighs 4,000 pounds empty and could hold 10 100-pound bags of cement.

The mixer is on wheels and was pulled approximately three miles to the museum by a pickup truck.

A 1927 portable concrete mixer manufactured by the Koehring Company in Milwaukee will be permanently displayed at the Jake Menghini Historical Museum, 105 Odill Drive, Norway.

“I like it a lot,” said James Stanek, museum board vice president. “The people that had it, he had a construction company around our area, from what I understand. This was something that he had that he used for his business to do cement work and roads and stuff.”

Donations for the display area for the mixer were made by Champion Concrete, The Hayes family, the City of Norway, Forslund Building Supply, A. Lindberg & Sons, Inc. and BK Enterprises the Engraving Store.

Marguerite Lanthier can be reached at 906-774-3500, ext. 242, or mlanthier@ironmountaindailynews.com.