Douglas county museum
Last weeks news – How long has it been since you’ve made a tour of the Museum? Better yet, have you ever walked through and toured the inside?
When you do, you will find a Daisy butter churn from Nola Maxine (Hall) Lirley; a wooden mirrored buffet once belonging to John and Lotus Bragg, a Philco radio from Rex and Ruth Browning, and a Brunswick Victrola, owned by Virgil York, a well known gunsmith of Douglas County.
Remember ‘the Corner Store’? We have the malt machine used there by Basil Spurlock. We also have a pie safe/cupboard and a spoon collection containing over 75 spoons, owned by Hortense Gentry.
We have increased the hours of the museum by being open on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, in addition to the usual Saturday hours.
About 100 fifth graders came through last Wednesday to tour the museum and had a lot of questions. We appreciated them coming.
Do you want help with your family history? Come by and let us help. We have census, veterans, and marriage records to look through and the most extensive cemetery records of any historical society around. We also have scant information from adjoining counties.
Stay tuned for more.
This weeks news –
We enjoyed the hundred people that came by Saturday to help us celebrate our 20th Anniversary. The music was great and the square dancers were superb. It was a good day that was enjoyed by all in attendance. Stop by and see the Bob Holt display.
Howard McGill has a display at the Museum. He was a ‘rock hound’ and worked with petrified wood he got from some of the states out west. As a young man, Howard broke horses in Wyoming, worked as a fireman, and worked as an engineer on the atomic bomb in Washington state. After retirement, he began working a little every day on his hobby until he was age 97. Many of his works are on display at the Oral Roberts University, but we have a covered wagon and a picture of the replica of the log cabin that his dad built in Douglas County here at the Museum. There are also some bolo ties and buckles and other jewelry that he made on display.
We have thousands of Indian arrowheads in several display cases. They were found mostly by Boone Norman, Jr. on a 10 acre farm about ten miles out on east 76 highway. Boone Jr. had an interest in many things, the Indians in Douglas County, just one of them. Russell Meeker, a well-known painter, painted the Indian faces on the display cases.
We have free parking in the Tracy Murphy Memorial Parking Lot on the east side of the Museum.
The Historical Society has been around since 1974 when Glen Dale Hartley, Geneva McCullough, Marilyn Alms, Alan Rankin, Zona Hightower, Mildred Cornell, Harry R. Stafford, Jr., Cinita Brown, Herb Sanders, Edwin Judd and Erma Welton were charter members. It lost some interest and was then reorganized in about 1984 when Barbara DeVore, Tommy Roberts, Sharon Sanders, Jack and Barbara Breshears, and Pat Carmichael would get interested and join. The Museum was bought in 1988 and work soon began to make it into what it is today. New items are added monthly, so if it has been a while since you’ve visited the Museum, it’s time to go through again.
Stay tuned for more.
