Cokato Museum

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Cokato Museum & Gust Akerlund Studio is a local history museum in Cokato, Minnesota, United States, focused on the city of Cokato and the surrounding townships of southwest Wright County. The museum comprises two adjacent buildings, the modern museum hall and the August Akerlund Photographic Studio—the only known early-20th-century photographic studio still standing in the Upper Midwest. The museum is operated through a partnership between the City of Cokato and the Cokato Historical Society, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.Cokato MuseumThe Cokato Museum opened in 1976. Its permanent displays explore the region's cultural, economic, and social history. A second gallery features temporary exhibits built around local history themes. Within the museum are several full-size replicas, including a furnished log cabin, a partial reconstruction of the Titrud Round Barn, and an early-20th-century streetscape. The museum also has a research area, which includes local newspapers, state and federal census records, church records, cemetery listings, and family histories.Gust Akerlund StudioThe Gust Akerlund Studio was the commercial photography studio of Swedish immigrant August "Gust" Akerlund (1872–1954). Akerlund operated the studio for most of the first half of the 20th century. Akerlund purchased the building from another Cokato photographer in 1902. In 1905 he had the studio moved to its current location and added a skylight. In 1927 he married Esther Hanson, who was thirty years his junior, and within the next few years he had an apartment added to the rear of the studio to serve as their living quarters.