Sandy Garrison, Director of the Marshall County Museum, and Mike Miley President of the Historical Society presented to the County Council last week and the Commissioners on Monday their quarterly report.
Board members were presented with the most recent newsletter plus documents from the Society’s board meeting and flyers from recent programs. Garrison was excited to share “good news” with both groups.
She said they had a very busy summer with 4,631 visitors as of August 31st which is an increase from last year of over 25%. There were also 3,671.5 volunteer hours which was an increase of 467 hours from a year ago. The director also said they are in the final stages of prep work for two fall exhibits, Marshall County on Fire and the other on Marshall County Railroads.
As part of their collaboration outreach, the museum participated in the Bremen Firemen’s Festival by sharing a booth with Historic Bremen and they also had a booth at Saturday’s Latino Festival. They are also working on a 5-year plan.
This summer the museum opened the reimagined Historic Crossroads Center. Garrison said, “This new permanent exhibit features 7 story stations from origins through settlement to agriculture, tourism, and industry.”
The Indiana Historical Society is so pleased with the project that they have asked the museum to nominate the project for three separate awards, one for the state, a regional one, and a national award.
Garrison said, “Receiving that kind of attention really helps to draw visitors and visitors mean dollars for the county in terms of tourism.”
The museum director was also pleased to tell the commissioners the final report on the new Crossroads Center has been forwarded to the Lilly Foundation for use as a model and the museum has also been invited to become an IHS (Indiana Historical Society) mentor museum.
