Well, the Dayton Museum is taking a rest. We will be closed (except by an appointment) until it gets warmer. We open in February if the weather permits or may wait until March when everyone is getting out more.
The grass is not going to grow under our feet, because we are going to use the down time to revamp the displays. We want to make it easier for you to gain information about early Dayton history.
Updating a museum is a monumental job. It's important to keep information in chronological order. It lets the viewer see a clearer picture of the events as they unfolded. Hopefully that's what we will end up with.
It's a good way for our new flock of museum docents to touch and see the displays up close. When you can handle an article to see how it worked or what the contents are of a book, it opens up a new perspective of the artifact.
It's important to keep our displays clean and dust free. It is difficult to move displays when the cases are permanently attached to the floor. It would take a major remodeling to do more than what we intend to do. We have neither the time nor money to do any remodeling. We will, however, be able to move a lot of artifacts and clean during our display updating.
We wish we could be open more during the week as well as the weekends. As our community has grown so has our historic society membership and I've found a great bunch of people to step up and volunteer but we need a lot more before we can open daily.
The more docents we have, the better chance we have of staying open. The docent program is an ongoing teaching process. We will be having classes every Saturday morning when the museum opens next year. Learning about our history is never ending.
As any historian can tell you, there is always something more to learn. Dayton has more history than most areas because this is where it all started in Nevada. It is important for everyone to become familiar with our history or it will be lost forever.
The Dayton Museum is located on Shady Lane and Logan in Old Town Dayton. The web site is daytonnvhistory.org. Group tours are available. Call 246-5543, 246-0462 or 246-0441
• Ruby McFarland has lived in Dayton since October 1987, she serves as a board member of the Dayton historical society and a docent at the museum.