Young County museum looking to open in Fall 2024 News Staff Fri, 02/02/2024 - 9:23 am
- (THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) A 1831 Concord stagecoach which is a three-quarter sized replica built by a German carpenter. The stagecoach was donated to the Young County Museum of History and Culture for their new museum.
- (THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) A collection of belongings for Carrie Crouch which is now a part of the collection at the Young County Museum of History and Culture.
- (THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Framing work done inside the future home of the Young County Museum of History and Culture at 609 Fourth St.
- (THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) The front of the future home of the Young County Museum of History and Culture which is currently in the process of renovations. The museum is looking to open in Fall 2024.
Thomas Wallner editor@grahamleader.com
The Young County Museum of History and Culture (YCMOHC) continues to take strides on its new facility as it works toward a Fall 2024 opening.
YCMOHC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the collection, preservation, research, retelling and exhibition of the history of Young County. The museum is currently located at 401 Echo St. in Graham and is working to expand to an acquired facility at 609 Fourth St.
The museum has several small exhibits on display at its current location along with a collection of over 200 books and documents. The museum includes artifacts, antiques and collectibles representing the earliest recorded history of Young County.
One of the main leads on the project, Collections Manager Tony Widner, said progress is moving along. In February 2023, representatives of the museum met with professionals to examine their collection as part of a Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) program who gave them information on how to start a museum.
“We've been able to add to the back of the building along the north wall. There's a brand new metal structure that we've added on,” he said. “We will use that to store items that aren't on display into prep items to be displayed. The experts that we have talked to have told us that you really need to plan on having a lot of storage area. And because you want visitors to keep coming, you want to be able to rotate displays out.”
Widner said new concrete work was completed inside the building and outside in front along Fourth Street. Along with the concrete was a future area to draw more visitors to the museum.
“We've added a new area to the front of the building right along Fourth Street that we hope will be either a coffee bar or a juice bar, a place where people can come and get something refreshing close to the downtown square, and hopefully, come in and visit the exhibits while they’re there,” he said.
The offices, bathroom and retail area inside the new building has been partially framed. The organization is waiting on the electrical work to be completed before they finish the framing and will also be looking at work on the floors and ceiling.
“Everything in the building had to be redone (such as) the plumbing (and) the electrical (which) was the old cloth wire. We still have to do treatments on the walls to preserve what plaster is on there before we repaint that,” Widner said. “There'll be some exposed brick, because that's kind of artistic and nostalgic, so you'd be able to see what the original walls of the building were. We have ramps that are going in instead of steps. We want to be ADA compliant.”
Along with work on the building, the organization has received new items for the future museum.
Widner said the Commemorative Air Force contacted the museum recently and the items within the museum at Graham Municipal Airport were transferred to them.
“All of those veterans that used to donate their time out there to open up, in case somebody wanted to come see it, have passed. So those artifacts are part of Young County's history, not just World War II history. Those veterans did not want them transferred outside of Young County. So those items have been transferred to us,” Widner said. “We have their entire collection of uniforms, books, the stories of the men and women that served, all of that's been moved to this location until we can get it in over there and we can make displays that are appropriate for displaying those types of items.”
Several wagons were donated to display at the museum, including a 1831 Concord stagecoach which is a three-quarter sized replica built by a German carpenter to the exact specifications of the original.
Additionally, the museum was donated items from a descendant of Carrie Crouch, who wrote a detailed history of Young County.
“The person that pretty much made history available to everybody in Young County was Carrie Crouch when she wrote her book, ‘A History of Young County,’” Widner said. “In trying to get this going, Shannon (Potts) was able to... make contact with one of Carrie Crouch's relatives. ...She ended up with a lot of her stuff. So back here we have a bunch of Carrie Crouch's personal stuff (such as) her typewriter, her copy of her book (and) some photos of her family.”
Museum representatives have also traveled to Olney and visited with locals to obtain the history of families in the area.
“We want to share with all the museums here (such as) Fort Belknap, if they open the Newcastle Museum again (and) the Olney Heritage Museum,” Widner said. “We went over and spent two days with them, giving people the opportunity to come in and tell their family stories.”
The museum is planning to have a room dedicated to local research for those in the public to utilize. One goal of the museum is making history available to all in Young County.
“We've already got some of our stories on YouTube,” he said. “We want to be a museum that you can access when you can't come in, (but) some of these things you just need to see in real life to really appreciate.”
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