As a Halloween treat, Edgar Allan Poe portrayer Mike Westerman will speak at Monday’s Barton County Historical Society meeting. The free program is open to the public and starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Barton County Historical Society Museum, located at 85 South U.S. 281.
Westerman taught English at Ellinwood High School from 1970 to 2009. During those decades, he presented an Edgar Allan Poe unit every year. Since his retirement, he has impersonated Poe and performed readings from Poe’s works at club meetings, schools and church fun nights. He appears in costume and describes incidents from Poe’s tragic and dissolute personal life.
Barton County Historical Society is located just south of the Arkansas River bridge at Great Bend.