History buffs and potential volunteers can attend an orientation meeting next month at the Barton County Historical Museum and Village. This program is also open to people who just want to learn more about village, said volunteer coordinator Karen Naylor.
The free program starts at 1 p.m. on Thursday, April 3, at the village, located just south of the Arkansas River bridge in Great Bend on U.S. 281. While people who are interested in becoming volunteers will need this training, anyone may attend the orientation without obligation, Naylor stressed.
The meeting will help volunteers, new or returning, to become acquainted with life at the village and to learn more about the new happenings and the new displays at the museum. Refreshments will be served.
While it is currently closed on weekends, the museum/village’s expanded summer hours start Tuesday, April 8. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through Oct. 31. The museum is closed on Mondays.
Beverly Komarek, executive director of the museum, said volunteers are needed for a variety of tasks that suit different comfort levels. Some people can lead tours, while others are needed to greet people or do desk work on weekends.
“We always need new volunteers, and need to welcome back returning volunteers,” Komarek said.
The village boasts several authentically furnished period buildings and collections which tell the story of this area from the Paleo Period (11,000 B.C. to 8,000 B.C.) through the Indian Wars to World War II and beyond. Buildings include a country school house from Barton County School District No. 50; the Castleton Post Office, built circa 1871; a native stone house, originally erected on the homestead of the E.J. Dodge family in 1873; and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad depot from Belpre.
One of Komarek’s favorite buildings at the village is a Lustron Home, a prefabricated steel house built sometime between 1948 and 1950.
“It is the most requested exhibit that we have,” she said. Only 2,500 of these houses were built, but many are still in use, including several in Great Bend. Komarek said the Museum of Modern Art in New York exhibited a piece of one, but at this time the Barton County Historical Society may have the only Lustron museum that people can walk through.
Another building at the village is the former St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, moved to the village grounds from south of Albert in 1967. Built in 1898, with a limestone foundation quarried 2½ miles away in Rush County, the church features a 700-pound bell originally hung in the steeple in 1905.
For more information about the Barton County Historical Museum and Village, call the office, 620-793-5125. For more information about becoming a volunteer call Naylor, 793-6394
