Museum Newsletter - 3 Sep 2005

Friends of the Bullitt County History Museum
E-Newsletter
September 3, 2005

Activity. There's a lot going on!

>> $200 Conservation Support Grant approved. I am glad to announce that our another application for conservation funds to help preserve our items was approved by the Kentucky Historical Society recently. That is 3 out of 4 grant applications approved so far. Though all are fairly small, they certainly help our small museum a lot. many thanks to the Kentucky Historical Society for their support of local history.

>> Louisville Genealogical Society Book Fair. We did a "double whammy" at this fair August 27. Betty Darnell hosted a booth representing the Bullitt County Genealogical Society, selling books and gaining a couple of new members to the society. The history museum also had its booth at another location at the fair, informing people about Bullitt County history and about the museum. It was a good day.

>> Remember me writing about a story that remains of a prehistoric sabre-toothed tiger were once found in Bullitt County? Well, I found the facts and the story was close. Phil Diblasi, an archeologist who has worked with University of Louisville for many years was involved with that project. He said it was actually an extinct jaguar, Felis onca augusta, to be exact. Only paws and some other bones were found, but he still has them and may lend them to us for a display. Mr. DiBlasi also sent a list to me that details some 1600 critters that were found in the many local digs that were done in the 1970's, including such animals as mastodon, grey and red wolves, bear, wolverine, and armadillos. Some animals were extinct over 11,000 year ago. Others simply left or were hunted out of our region long ago. Mr. DiBlasi has promised to work with me on some future projects. Friend Scott Wantland is working to obtain some other artifacts for the museum.

Donations:

>> Salt Kettles! Boys and girls, brothers and sisters, I am so happy!! I have found my holy grail! From the start of the museum, I have been trying to obtain an original 22 gallon pioneer salt kettle. Laverne Coakley not only gave the museum one fine 22 gallon (by the way, that is huge) kettle, she also gave us a smaller 11 gallon one as well. We'll be making up a proper display for it over the next couple of weeks. Friend Danny Fackler picked them up for us and is cleaning them.

New to the Museum:

>> A re-enactment DVD titled "The Attack of Salt River & the Taking of Prisoners from Kincheloe's Station" is now part of our collection. It was made by "The Painted Stone Setters", a very fine pioneer-days re-enactment group.

>> "Kentucky Abstracts of Pensions for Bullitt County for the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and the Indian Wars". I saw this at the Louisville Genealogical Society and picked it up for our library.

>> A book on how to preserve your historic items.

Needed:

>> Mannequin. The museum needs a male mannequin for displaying a World War I uniform (with gas mask and helmet) next month for a special veterans exhibit. I really prefer a mannequin with little detail (I.e. no face, just a blank head), so that the attention will be on the uniform, but I will be happy to consider any. If you can get a nice mannequin for us, please let me know.

>> Someone to restore and update a salt making model to go along with the salt kettle display. We have a model (made by "Hogg" Mattingly) showing a pioneer salt making facility, but it is showing its age. Damage to the model needs repairing and a couple of changes need to be made to correct it to what we know now about the process. If you are any good at such things, we could use you to fix this up for display.

Another Great Resource:

Randy Matlow does great work at the Bullitt County Public Library. Among many duties, he maintains a very useful web site there. Try www.bcplib.org sometime. It offers lots of information about the county and genealogy. It is very useful and well laid out.

This newsletter was produced sooner than usual for you because I wanted to let you know some of the new things happening at the museum.

As always, thank you all for being a Friend of Bullitt County History!

David Strange
Bullitt County History Museum
Executive Director
Museum Phone: 502-921-0161
E-Mail address: David.Strange@BullittCountyHistory.org