Musings from the Director of the Porter County Museum

What a day. Over two feet of snow and it is still falling. I have honestly not seen this much snow at once in my entire lifetime. I actually stayed overnight at the Museum last night because the roads (and the wind) were so bad. My car looks like a tiny igloo with a side mirror sticking out of it.

And no, my stay last night was nothing like the movie. I think the ghosts were even too preoccupied with the weather to notice my sleepover. Speak of sleep, I bet everyone from Fitzgerald Enterprises is lacking in it. Undoubtedly they were all out shoveling and plowing the walkways and parking lots of the county. If it was not for their hard work, we would surely have to make a tunnel system under the snow by now.

Please get here soon, warm weather!

 
Sometimes I get too caught up in my own work to realize there is quite a bit going on around me. Regardless of Mother Nature, there is still quite a bit going on at the Porter County Museum (PCM) this month. If you have the opportunity, maybe you will join us soon…

This Friday (February 6) is going to be very, very busy. Gregg Hertzlieb, Director of the Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University, is coming at 10a to make a few minor repairs to the “fish-man” painting. Gregg—and his docents Phillip Brockington and Howard Reeve—have been a tremendous help to the Museum.

 
For those of you unaware of the work, the “fish-man” painting features one-time Valparaiso resident Murray Beach standing next to a now-endangered Goliath Grouper. The work was commissioned by Elias “Lucky” Baldwin and painted by Henry H. Cross. Most all of the artist’s other paintings were commissioned by Buffalo Bill Cody and now hang in Cody’s Museum in Wyoming.

(Pazour Point—Buffalo Bill was longtime friends with “Broncho John” Harrington Sullivan, a true-life cowboy and former resident of Valparaiso, Indiana. Mr. Sullivan’s correspondence with Buffalo Bill now resides in the Museum. Helen Arvidson, a terrific Museum volunteer, will be blogging about “Broncho John” soon. After all, this year is Mr. Sullivan’s 150th birthday. The candles are on back-order)

  
The story gets better. About a week and a half ago Valparaiso resident Don Beach and his wife visited the Museum after hearing about the restoration work in the newspaper. On a whim, I asked Don if he was related to a Murray Beach. To my dismay he said yes—his father was Murray Beach. I asked him if there were any older Murrays in his family. Once again, his response astounded me. His great-grandfather was Murray as well. We had a match. I showed Don and his wife the painting and told him the story. Both were stunned to learn of the painting—but very appreciative that it was hanging in the Porter County Museum. I hope to see Don, Nancy, and more of his family visit the Museum soon.

Later in the afternoon on Friday volunteers from the Historical Society will be journeying to the county garage on Route 2 to rescue old historical records from the basement of the building. There are literally hundreds of small tins full of old envelopes packed with county records going back well into the 1880’s.

Our opportunity to save these historic records was presented to me by Gwenn Rinkenberger, the Porter County Attorney. Gwenn informed me of the records a day before the last time we had a decent sized snow (it seems to be a good way to mark time, right?). She and I traveled to the county garage one morning to preview the records so I could assemble a plan.

Talk about amazing! The records, aside from a little bit of dust, are in pristine shape. The lack of sunlight in the basement has quite a bit to do with their condition. There are literally hundreds of tins all holding envelopes of historical information from Porter County. Gwenn and I sampled three tins to bring back to the Administration building–one from 1882 (the year the courthouse was built), criminal records from 1891, and one from the May term of the Superior Court from 1897. Melissa Hartig, Vi Wagner, and Commissioner Carole Knoblock were all very intrigued with our find. It will be great to have all these other records preserved at the Museum for posterity’s sake.

Volunteers are going to meet at Noon on Friday at the Museum and then drive over to the county garage. We are going to pack the tins into boxes and transfer them back over to the Museum. Once the records arrive in their new home they will be numerically re-organized within the storage boxes and catalogued. The contents will then be examined and accessioned to the Historical Society’s collection.

If you would like to help peruse the tins and assist us in cataloguing the records, please feel free to call me at (219) 465-3595 or send me an e-mail at info@portercountymuseum.org. It is a great time to get involved at the Museum—especially if you have a bit of free time on your hands.

 
Look for more blogging from me later today. What else am I going to do with all this snow? Maybe I will go sledding. Nah. I will blog instead. Stay warm, everyone!

Best,

KMP
Executive Director
Porter County Museum

P.S.- “Pazour Points” are my personal comments and stories as Executive Director. Most of the “Pazour Points” you read will be my way of connecting related things together. A majority of the time “Pazour Points” will be completely random, but still somehow make sense–just like me.