From the Director

By Don Pendergraft, Director of Regional Museums

Howdy Partners,

Greetings from a Baby Boomer, who grew-up watching the 30-minute episodes of cowboy television shows. Did you know that there were 16 top-rated western TV shows in the late 1950s into the early 1960s?

We liked the formats of the western series. The good guys enters town and discovers a sad and tragic injustice. They seek-out the truth and in the last five minutes of the episode, after a few words from our sponsors, right the wrongs and rides out of town a hero.

Who was that Masked Man? The question asked after the Lone Ranger, mysteriously rode into the sunset.

So much of our early experiences and influences help form us. The museum is an important aspect of youth and lifelong learners’ education. The museum staff ride the ranges of history. We present past and current events in the museum’s programs and exhibits. This evidence of past stories along with artifacts reconstruct lives and events from the past to connect and inform us.

I’d like to encourage you to bring your family and friends to the museum. This gives you a better understanding of who we are through casual conversations and examining and discussing how we lived. Together we are connecting with our living history to the past. Children and visitors, our audiences then can determine the effects of time and how changes are measured by society.

These personal tours may be filled with your stories of fun and some tribulations of the many crises we have experienced in the recent past. By remembering and relating we give others a window into our lives, an impressive and effective method of teaching cultural history from a personal perspective.

We have several new exhibitions on display for your viewing pleasure, and they are detailed in the magazine.

Thank you for your support of the museum. Please let us know how we can help make your visits to the museum more enjoyable and educational!

Happy Trails to you, until we meet again, Don