Historical Museum Update

I posted a couple of years ago about Gilbert's Historical Museum, which is located on the corner of Elliot and Gilbert.

The East Valley Tribune has an update on the happenings at the museum:

Two years after hiring its first executive director, the Gilbert Historical Museum is preparing new exhibits that will tell the story of the town and honor a fallen police officer.

Director Kayla Kolar said in one year the museum’s attendance has grown by 1,000 guests to 5,000 total. For the privately operated museum to survive, the new exhibits must bring in more visitors, she said.

More volunteers could also help preserve the town’s history by helping to run the museum or quilt to raise money.

“I hope we’ll be here forever,” she said. “But we won’t without the public’s support.”

The new exhibits include a firefighter and police officer display that was envisioned after Brigitte Targosz, wife of Rob Targosz, the town’s first officer to be killed while on duty, asked whether the museum could educate children about their heroes.

Firefighter uniforms and history has already begun to be displayed, but the full exhibit will open in September with real police car lights children can turn on and a police motorcycle and firetruck seats they can sit in. They can also get an understanding of all the equipment that firefighters wear.

Also under construction with plans to open during November’s Gilbert Days is a miniature train town portraying where the trains came from when Gilbert first appeared as a rail depot. During World War I, the town hailed itself as the hay capital of the world, sending hay all the way to Europe.

A new occupations room is also under way, which will highlight Gilbert’s original jobs, including farming of cotton and alfalfa. It also is expected to open in November.

And the museum is also organizing a historical library that visitors could visit by appointment, to research old newspapers on CDs and view a variety of books about the town’s history.

A pictorial history book about the town from the 1800s will also go on sale soon, and orders are being taken now for the $40 book, which is $100 leatherbound. The book is written by Dale Hallock, Gilbert’s mayor in the 1970s, when the town strip annexed 57 miles to expand what was then a tiny community of only two miles.

The museum was awarded a $6,000 grant to match $6,000 of raised funds, to help put together the new exhibits. An additional donation helped fund the new research library.

June Morrison, whose family has a long history in town, spends much of her time volunteering at the library.

“This little town had a lot of good character,” she said. Future exhibits will include the story of her family, which is now developing Morrison Ranch.

Margaret Frazier and Iva Ruth, two of the museum’s volunteer quilters who worked Thursday on a quilt made from blue flowery and white feedbacks, said it’s important to them that history be preserved for future generations. Children today are often surprised and intrigued as the women tell stories of their dramatically different youth, when chamber pots and butter churns were the norm, Frazier said.

“When history is gone, it’s gone,” she said.

Tickets to the museum, at 10 S. Gilbert Road, at Gilbert and Elliot roads, are $3 for adults, $1.50 for children, and memberships start at $20. For more information or to volunteer call (480) 926-1577 or visit www.gilbertmuseum.com.

Check it out.