Faulkner County Museum plans open house for Saturday
CONWAY — Anyone who has driven by the Faulkner County Museum recently is likely to have noticed its transformation. New landscaping, new paint, and refurbished doors and windows are all part of the new look, which continues inside as well.
The public is invited to take a look at the refurbished museum at its 16th annual Holiday Open House on Saturday. The museum and the dogtrot log cabin will be open and decorated for the season. Activities are planned from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is no admission charge, but donations will be accepted.
“Our theme is Outdoor Adventures,” said Lynita Langley-Ware, museum director.
“We will focus on things like Arkansas mammals, endangered species, fishing and frogs. We will have activities where kids can make origami frogs and bats, go ‘fishing’ and mount their catch and make animal masks,” she said.
“We will have a bake and craft sale and food samples — homemade bread, campfire coffee, Dutch-oven cobbler and Coleman-stove popcorn,” she said, adding that all of these activities will be set up outside on the museum grounds. “We’ll have some of our old standbys — kids can make rope, grind corn, and make corn-husk and string dolls.
“We’ll also have displays of furs and trapping stuff, guns and knives, and castiron cookware. We also have planned some lawn games, including horseshoes.”
Langley-Ware said Kim Little, director of public history internships at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and a member of the history department, and the UCA history classes adopt the museum each year as their service-learning project.
“We will have a number of those students on hand with games, campfire songs and activities,” Langley-Ware said.
Members of the Faulkner County Master Gardeners, the Town and Country Garden Club and the Conway Garden Club will decorate the dogtrot cabin and surrounding area.
Langley-Ware said several new exhibits will be available for viewing inside the museum, including a display of Boy Scout and Girl Scout memorabilia; a World War I display, featuring Faulkner County soldiers; and
a political memorabilia display, featuring artifacts from previous elections. These exhibits are featured in new display cases from Fletcher Smith Jewelers and EM Jeans.
“My UCA intern, Jacalyn Pearce, has helped put these displays together,” Langley-Ware said. Pearce is from Alma and is a senior history major at UCA.
“This political exhibit features some original signatures of cool folks in it, including Orval Faubus (governor of Arkansas from 1955-1967) and Adlai Stevenson (Democratic presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956),” Langley-Ware said. “There is also a lot of memorabilia about Ed Speaker, who was a mover and shaker in local and state politics. We have a photo of Stevenson asking Speaker for his vote. We also have a photo of former state Sen. Guy “Mutt” Jones shaking hands with President [Harry S.] Truman.
“We have some pretty cool stuff,” Langley-Ware reiterated.
“We also have a lot of things relating to Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops in Faulkner County. Several Boy Scouts have used the museum as a focus of their Eagle Scout projects, so we have a long history with the Boy Scouts,” she said.
“And as always, the trains will be running upstairs, and there will be free hot apple cider, coffee and gingersnaps aplenty, served on the cabin porch,” Langley-Ware said. “There will also be a Christmas shop where visitors can find handmade crafts and homemade baked goods.
“We welcome everyone to come see what’s happening at the Faulkner County Museum.”
The open house is sponsored by the Faulkner County Museum, with volunteer help from the Faulkner County Historical Society, the Town and Country Garden Club,
the Conway Garden Club, the Faulkner County Master Gardeners and the UCA History Service-Learning Project.
The Faulkner County Museum is at 801 Locust St. on the Courthouse Square. For more information, call (501) 329-5918. More information is also available on the Museum’s Facebook page, which features an “Artifact for the Day” story.