Kevin Jones
Jacksonville Daily Progress
RUSK —
The Cherokee County Heritage Museum located in downtown Rusk is home to many interesting late 20th century artififacts which have been collected from around Cherokee County and the surrounding area.
From a machine gun which fired faithfully during the most recent 20th century battles, to telephone switchboards which were once operated by hand, anything history buffs would like to see, they can find in Rusk.
“We have many people who come through when we are open on Saturday and Sunday, as well as our group tours,” said Dr. Deborah Burkett with the Heritage Center.
“On a yearly average we see thousands of people come through the city of Rusk and into our museum.”
Burkett also said, not only is the museum important to the county, but the state of Texas itself.
She said that the museum administration works closely with the state keeping up to date on the latest restoration and preservation techniques as well as the electronic documentation of countless items into a computerized database.
“We have so many things to be viewed,” Burkett said. “We’ve got history that spans a century or more, from historical county school documents to war memorabelia and furniture from around the county, even an old fire truck!”
Burkett said, the museum stays current by attending state workshops and starting new exhibits frequently.
One of the new exhibits the museum is excited about is the new yearbook and county school preservation project.
The museum takes old yearbooks from those around the community and uses electronic scanning equipment to preserve those pages forever.
The museum is looking for new yearbooks all the time and anyone is encouraged to donate to the cause.
Since the yearbooks are only scanned, they will be returned to their owners unless they wish for the yearbooks to be donated permenantly.
“It’s an exciting place to visit,” Burkett said. “It’s not well known, but we look forward to more people coming to see it.”
For more information contact the Heritage Center at 903-683-5665.
