Preserving Young County History: Young County Museum of History & Culture progressing
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(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO | SHANNON PLOWMAN POTTS) The inside of the future home of the Young County Museum of History & Culture at 620 Fourth St. in Graham. The location is undergoing renovations and the organization is hoping to establish a building fund at the beginning of 2023. -
(THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Pistols and holsters on display at the Young County Museum of History & Culture at 401 Echo St. in Graham. The guns and holsters belonged to Charlie Hipp and the Hipp Rodeo and were donated to the museum for display.
The Young County Museum of History & Culture has been making progress toward the renovation of their new facility at 620 Fourth St. in Graham. The museum is dedicated to the collection, preservation, research, retelling and exhibition of the history of Young County, with an emphasis on history from the 1800s through the 1950s.
The museum is currently located at 401 Echo St. in Graham and has several small exhibits on display at the location along with a collection of almost 200 books and documents. The museum includes artifacts, antiques and collectibles representing the earliest recorded history of Young County.
“We’re sitting on a goldmine of history and there’s a few people who have tried to put it out there, (...) but we’re wanting to put it in a place where people can go and learn it all. We’ll have this archive of books so that people can come do research and find out about these people. That’s the way we’ve come across it, and digitizing these records from the courthouse and other places. Hopefully, one day, it’ll be online where you can do that,” Tony Widner, Board President of the Young County Museum of History & Culture, said. “(We have) lots of big plans. I mean, imagine somebody walking into a virtual reality room and being able to talk to (Kiowa leader) Satanta, or William Peveler, or Sheriff (H.S.) Cox about what life was like here before then. I think that’s the things that will really attract people here is to see living history like that.”
The organization has taken out walls and the drop ceiling at their new location and hired an architect out of Dallas to lay out plans for the building renovation. The organization is hoping to establish a fund for renovations in 2023.
“We want to start, hopefully at the beginning of next year, a building fund to help pay for the building, get people to do an endowment fund,” said Shannon Plowman Potts, Board Treasurer of the Young County Museum of History & Culture. “(...) We’re going to find some way to put their names really big somewhere in various sizes, do an endowment to where it helps pay the bills (...) or have them support certain displays.”
For the full story, see the Wednesday, Nov. 9 edition of The Graham Leader.
