The next meeting of the Baxter County Historical and Genealogical Society will be at 6 o’clock on August 27th at the Donald W. Reynolds Library in the Knox meeting room. The guest speaker will be Hollie Scoma, the Arkansas Department of Veteran’s Affairs Women Veterans Coordinator. She plans to bring a very special guest, Edith Mitchell, age 102, a member of the North Central Arkansas Military Service Sisters. She plans to share remarks about her service (1943-1946) during WWII in the Women’s Army Corp. The public is encouraged to attend.
The local society has new leadership, new volunteers, new energy, and most of all, a new building. The Baxter County Historical Museum is being created at 300 Bomber Blvd in the former “That Print Shop” building. The society sold their former two level location, near the square with limited public access, and obtained a one level 5000 sq ft building that everyone can enjoy.
The museum is owned and operated by the Baxter County Historical and Genealogical Society, a non-profit organization funded by the generosity of others. The Museum will promote knowledge and appreciation of the Heritage of Baxter County and her people. It will protect digitized pictures, documents, and other records, and family history information, and assist their review by the general public. It will display a variety of historic artifacts as well.
Arrangements are being made with local schools for students to contribute time as Museum volunteers towards their 75 hour community service responsibilities required by the Arkansas Learns Act. They will be asked to help complete meaningful tasks such as data entry to computer programs or configuring display areas for historic artifacts.
The Museum’s research capability is developing. New volunteers are being trained, and the public is invited to visit. Hours of operation have recently been expanded to 10-4 on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. There is still much to be done to obtain, identify, and display historical artifacts. The museum will be a work-in-progress for the foreseeable future.
The public is invited to visit at the monthly meeting, the museum, the Web at baxtercountyhistory.org or on Facebook. New members and volunteers are actively being sought for this enjoyable way to contribute to this community. Newcomers may find the Museum an excellent source of information about their new area.
Since the Society is a non-profit organization, fundraising is always important. In addition to traditional donations, a Go-Fund-Me, crowdfunding page, has been established for the Society, with easy access thru their Facebook page. Also, the Society will be participating in the upcoming city-wide yard sale on October 4th and 5th. Donations of items for the Society to sell would be appreciated and can be dropped off at the museum at 300 Bomber Blvd during regular hours of 10-4 Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday.
A formal grand opening of the museum is planned for November 7th of this year on the Society’s 50th anniversary. For further information contact Lisa Coleman at (870) 421-7504 or Sonny Sharp at (870)-701-3332.
