Marion museum is open Saturday
Marion Historical Museum, located adjacent to Central Park, will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
One attraction will be a refurbished display of a collection of barbed wire donated to the museum years ago by Harold Bowers.
According to curator Cynthia Blount, the collection was put in storage in the museum basement when museum items were rotated.
The collection caught the attention of Marty Fredrickson, director of the museum board. It was on three display boards when he spotted it in the basement.
He had no idea who had donated the collection but he was fascinated by it and decided to put the pieces of barbed wire on one display board with redone labels. It is much bigger than the original display, and each piece has a new label.
"It turned out to be a bigger project than I thought, but it was fun to do," he said. "It's definitely more visible now than it was in the basement."
Bowers recently visited the museum and was delighted to see the new display.
The 94-year-old man was a heavy-equipment operator for years and worked in several states. Every railroad company (there were many at the time) used a different kind of barbed wire, and many companies manufactured it.
While at work, Bowers kept an eye out for barbed wire, finding it in ditches or rolled-up along new fence lines. Using a wire cutter, he took snippets of the wire wherever he found it.
He collected pieces from Kansas, Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Idaho. A barbed wire "Bible" helped him identify each piece.
Bowers also attended barbed wire conventions from time to time, where he traded for pieces he did not have.
When he retired, there were 70 pieces in his collection. He said a man once offered to pay him $3,500 for it.
Fortunately, he declined, and it will remain on display in the museum for years to come.
Another attraction is a miniature lay-out of the town of Aulne at around 1915, complete with a 1/87th scale model of the railroad train which passed through the town.
Also on display are many pictures, Indian artifacts, and antique clothes and equipment used by Marion County pioneers. The Canada Band Hall curtain covers almost one whole wall.
A "school" room contains memorabilia from the many town and country schools that once existed in the county. It also contains composites of graduation classes at Marion High School.
Old Settlers' Day visitors are encouraged to stop in and see for themselves the many interesting things on display.
