Small-town museums across South Plains preserve heritage with some off-the-wall trinkets

AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

They house everything from ornate and delicate antique combs to time-worn military uniforms from the Spanish American War and World War I. They document the names, occupations and lives of pioneers long passed from the Caprock soil and often serve as top tourist destinations for counties off the beaten path.

And in a time when rural population decay isn't helping to preserve some South Plains towns, small-town museum organizers say the museums are doing their part to mark their community's place in history.

Where else but a small-town museum could one find such off-the-wall trinkets as a genuine piece of Floyd County's Mad Stone?

The Mad Stone, as documents accompanying the dark brown and porous stone tell it, was a medical marvel once used to absorb poison from the skin of a young boy bitten by a rabid cat.

"That was a primitive medical practice, but the boy lived," said Nancy Marble, a volunteer at the Floyd County Historical Museum. "How can you argue with that?"

The Mad Stone and dozens of other exhibits and thousands of artifacts are on display - some under fluorescent lighting and behind glass cases - in the historic building on the Floydada town square.

"It's not your Smithsonian environment, but we feel we're managing to care for all of the items as well as a county museum can," Marble said.

The museum and its Mary Lou Bollman History and Genealogy Center serve as a resource for historians - professionals and amateurs alike - interested in learning about Floyd County and its 134 years of existence, Marble said.

Walking through the un-air-conditioned, two-story 1912 structure, Marble said one can learn little-known facts about the county with a visit to the museum.

She told a quick story about the first community in the county named after Alamo casualty Dolphin Ward Floyd.

The town of Della Plains existed briefly around the time the county was organized in 1890, she said.

But the town's central location in the county - about seven miles north of Floydada - wasn't enough to keep it alive.

"The only thing they didn't have was water," she said, "so it dried up after a few years."

Though not out of water, Floyd County in the late 20th and early 21st centuries is quickly losing its people. The county lost more than 2,000 people between the 1990 Census and 2009 Census estimates. Floyd County lost more than 1,300 people during he last decade alone, according to 2009 Census estimates that put the county's population at 6,474.

Floyd County and its towns are among the dozens of counties in West Texas experiencing decades of population decline.

Because small museums in those counties rely heavily on donations or entry fees from visitors, having fewer people in the county can make it difficult to keep museum doors open.

Some museums have agreements with larger collections, such as the West Texas Collection at Angelo State University in San Angelo, ensuring their documented artifacts will remain in the public realm if they close, said Suzanne Campbell, head of collection.

Many other museums don't have such an agreement, she said. If the museum can't sustain operations, the items could go back to private ownership.

"And that's one of the major problems - They could be lost forever," Campbell said.

She encouraged small museums with nonprofit status where there is concern the doors can't be kept open to consider pre-arranging an agreement with a larger museum or archive as a backup plan to save artifacts through acquisition.

Campbell said she could think of few museums that have folded in recent years, but said, with shrinking populations in the region, it's certainly a threat.

Howard Taylor, a board member of the American Association of Museums, agreed shrinking populations and resources could threaten small-town museums and their artifacts.

"They're challenged to begin with," said Taylor, the director of San Angelo's Fine Arts Museum. "Many are run by volunteers and are working off donations."

Like other museums, the Floyd County museum is funded through membership dues, donations and an endowment fund, Marble said.

Despite the county's shrinking population, attendance at the museum is stable, said Dorothy Turner, the museum's executive director. The museum for years has consistently seen between 3,000 and 5,000 guests each year - a large portion of whom visit during Floydada's Old Settler's Day and Punkin' Day celebrations, she said.

It's finding young people in Floyd County who are interested in volunteering at the museum that adds uncertainty to the museum's future, she said.

But Marble was optimistic the museum will remain a historical resource about Floyd County through the foreseeable future.

"I think we'll find young people to pick up the reins. We have to. We have to," she said

"Our intention is to always continue with our museum."

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