County Museum Finishes Moving Items To New Location

The Antelope County Museum may resemble a wedding by the time it opens later this year with some things old and some things new. And like the historic wedding gowns on display, the museum will be breathtaking.

"We're getting there, but it's still a long road," said George Strassler, president of the Antelope County Historical Society.

Nearly all items have been moved from the old facility to the new museum, but there's still a lot of work to be done before the doors open. Strassler said Andrews Van Lines finished moving the displays and heavy items on Tuesday. 

Strassler said the museum will also feature nine new displays built by Bryce Darling, an employee of the Nebraska State Historical Society. The museum will also have new hightop glass displays that will showcase and protect various artifacts.

Measurements were taken earlier Tuesday for glass shelves in some of the displays. Strassler said not all of the old displays will be used in the new location. Some displays were so deteriorated that they fell apart in the move.

Strassler said he's spent a great deal of time researching museum displays, and the Antelope County Museum has a lot of potential for showcasing the artifacts.

The three major displays, Strassler said, will be the White Buffalo Girl, A.J. Leach and Capt. Hatfield. 

One of the most important, and time consuming, aspects of the move is archiving the items. As expected, employees are still stumbling across "new" items, too. 

One of the most recent finds that they didn't know existed was an iron crib (show in the photo gallery). Strassler said he's not sure of its age or where it came from.