WonderTrek Children’s Museum

Building Project

Designed to Inspire

  • 9 acres of prime land has been secured adjacent to Highway 371 ready for phased development

  • 30,000-square-foot architecturally attractive new construction

  • 17,500 square feet of wonder-filled exhibits and program spaces

  • 5 acres of outdoor exhibits and recreation surrounding museum facility innovatively designed for indoor-outdoor experiences

  • 2,500-square-foot Center for Play & Interactive Learning providing resources to parents, caregivers, teachers, and home school families

  • Several indoor and outdoor gather spaces designed for memorable events and rentals, large and small

Make it Happen

WonderTrek’s Ideal Location

Centrally located in Baxter, MN, WonderTrek Children’s Museum will be easily accessible to the region’s children, families, and schools. As a year-round destination, WonderTrek is a growing, in-demand resource for local families and educators, as well as seasonal residents and visiting families.

  • Adjacent to highway 371 just south of Country Road 48, providing for ease of access to families and school groups from around the region.

  • The highly visible location positions WonderTrek as lake country's new "Gateway to Play" and a new partner in supporting the regional tourism economy

  • Near the popular Safari North Wildlife Park, WonderTrek is poised to spur additional family-friendly development making it clear to all who visit that our region is a great place to raise a family

  • Within walking distance of Baxter Elementary, Forestview Middle, the planetarium, school forest, family friendly residential areas, and a proposed senior living center, creates countless collaboration opportunities to support learning and healthy development regardless of age

 
 

Designed to Inspire 

A Wonder-filled Children’s Museum, Just Right for Our Region

"At the very beginning of this process is an owner who holds a compelling vision for the future, who assembles around them a team where key disciplines are represented, and who fosters an environment of trust and collaboration where good ideas can come from anywhere…  And herein lies the essence of the environment which WonderTrek Children's Museums seeks to create for their guests, a place where we are comfortable experimenting, exploring, seeking, and finding, a place of interaction and introspection, a place for connecting and a place for making connections, a place where relationships are made.  It's the place where we do our best work.  And for all of these reasons, the WonderTrek Children's Museum is not only a place for making, but a place to be made.”

—Jesse Hopkins, Director of Commercial Architecture, Nor-Son Construction

Main Level: Inspiring Curiosity, Launching Imaginations, and Activating a Love of Learning

WonderTrek is designed to be an irresistible destination by activating self-directed learning with every visit. Whether on your first visit or the 101st, visitors will be inspired to let wonder be their guide because every square foot of WonderTrek is being thoughtfully curated for children and their caregivers to play, explore, and learn at their own pace, on their own terms. Working closely with Nor-Son Construction and ORB Management for over a year, WonderTrek’s innovative indoor-outdoor design is meant to instill and sense of pride of place while keeping visitors engaged in every season.

Mezzanine Level: “Over, Under, Around & Through”

So visitors experience something new and exciting with every visit, WonderTrek's second level mezzanine is designed as a flexible space for new exhibits and programs. The grand staircase will draw crawlers and cruisers to practice their climbing skills while the mezzanine overlook with provide new views for growing explorers along with accessibility to WonderTrek’s signature climber.

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 Wonder-filled Exhibits Designed to Inspire

PLAY > EXPLORE > LEARN > REPEAT

WonderTrek Children's Museum views learning as an active, lifelong process directed by the learner. Motivated by curiosity and interests, learning engages the senses, emotions, and mind. Learning takes place over time through interactions with others and the physical environment, builds on experience, and creates new meaning. Design of WonderTrek's exhibits is centered on this view of learning.

Essential Experiences

Children who thrive and feel successful across a range of life settings and situations benefit from a variety of experiences and interactions with peers and adults. WonderTrek's exhibit experiences will foster:

  • Feeling welcome and accepted

  • Noticing, wondering, and exploring the world

  • A growing sense of competence 

  • Supportive relationships

  • Understanding feelings, ideas, and perspectives 

  • Being open to an expanding world

 

  • Water on the Move

    Water is irresistible! A love of water is born as children explore water and all its wonderful and compelling properties in a large stream table representing an abstracted local watershed containing rivers, lakes, streams, and wetlands. Whether we see it or not, water is always moving, inviting endless explorations.

    Types of Play
    While all play is possible because each child is unique, Water on the Move intentionally supports social, symbolic, and pretend play.

  • MaterialsX Studio

    A world of discovery! Children delve into the marvels of materials, from clay to copper mesh, in a space that inspires creativity and curiosity. Here, hands-on exploration meets imaginative play, sparking a journey of learning and invention.

    Types of Play
    While all play is possible because each child is unique, MaterialsX Studio intentionally supports object and constructive play.

  • Metaphorical Farm

    Cluck. Cluck. Cluck. “Time to feed the chickens!”  The sounds of a working family farm greet visitors as they approach this exhibit.  This fantastical farm includes out-of-scale crop maze, a real tractor, plush chickens, a commercial kitchen, a floating farmer’s market, and Minnesota’s longest picnic table.

    Types of Play
    While all play is possible because each child is unique, Field to Fork intentionally supports pretend, social, and object play.

  • Creepers, Crawlers, and Cruisers

    Babies, toddlers, and their caregivers explore the natural phenomena of light, wind, water in a world where the landscape comes alive with the distinct natural environments found around the region. This exhibit makes visible the wondrous ways in which babies and toddlers grow every day.

    Types of Play
    While all play is possible because each child is unique, Creepers, Crawlers, and Cruisers intentionally supports social, physical, and object play.

  • WonderTrek's Outdoor Adventure

    Creating a world in which children run, climb, build, imagine, transform, and generally make sense of their world, the outdoor landscape surrounding the museum is a unique setting that seamlessly blends the existing natural world with built environments. Blurring the lines of indoor-outdoor, it's all about children’s adventure play—taking risks, creating narratives, experimenting with materials, and inventing worlds.

    Types of Play
    While all play is possible because each child is unique, WonderTrek Adventure intentionally supports adventure, physical, and social play.

Be the Spark!

  • The Joy of Play

    “I'm excited for the children's museum to be in our community because it will bring back childhood for everyone. Children and adults will be able to play, engage their senses and be reminded of the joy play brings to daily life. Play is what children need today to be ready for tomorrow. “

    —Shannon Wheeler, Early Childhood Coordinator @ Pequot Lakes Public Schools & WonderTrek Children’s Museum Board Member

  • Inviting Exploration

    “Planning with WonderTrek is inspiring and exciting. As part of its planning, WonderTrek is inviting children to explore; it is listening to and learning from them to create playful, innovative ways to engage children and connect communities in North Central Minnesota.”

    — Jeanne Vergeront, Vergeront Museum Planning, Minneapolis

  • Thoughtful Planning

    “One of the highlights of working on WonderTrek has been our collaboration with local planners and designers. This team of talented and thoughtful individuals has taken a big, complex idea of what a regional children’s museum could be and designed a destination that the area's families and children will call their own.”

    —Jim Roe, Jim Roe Museum Planning, St. Paul

  • Reflecting our Communities

    “Creating the WonderTrek exhibits and experiences with regional families is exciting and powerful. Hearing from children and adults about the ways in which they play, learn, and have fun together will make the experiences at WonderTrek even stronger. Together, we are creating a museum and regional resource that truly reflect the communities we serve.”

    —Mary Weiland, Senior Exhibit Developer