From Lane Co Oregon

Current revision as of 19:49, 26 September 2007

• March 25, 1973, First meeting held at Crow Grange Hall to set into motion the starting of a museum.

Led by Bob Mikkelson, the owner of the Crow Market. Several West Lane people that were interested in starting a museum to preserve the history of the West Lane Domain met on that day.

Bob Mikkelson and his brother Gary donated the site behind the Crow Mercantile for the museum to be located. The land had originally housed the Crow High School.

The Spencer Creek Lutheran Church donated the one-room Pine Grove School, alrready a peice of Spencer Creek history, a building that was no longer in use as a school.

It was just the beginning. The gift was accepted and plans were made to get the building moved to the Crow site.

Our scrapbooks tell about the benefit dances, baked food sales, acutions and all kinds of fund raisers to move the building. It was moved in July, 1973, but never under estimate the work that was put into the project. The porch and roof were removed in order to move it, so a whole lot more work was in order before it could be used as a museum.

[edit] Naming the Museum

A plea was put out to anyone over the age of 65 and living in the area to come up with a name.

A combination between Crow Applegate Museum and the Applegate Trail Museum became the "Applegate Pioneer Museum."

By October of 1973, the museum was set in place, but due to the weather it was not until August of 1974 that the roof was started. In December, Zelda Harwood, the first Chairman of the board announced with enthusiasm, "We just got the roof on!"

Many hours of hard work by five or six volunteers and the Marine Corp Reserves company B, 10th Engineers Battalion would lend a hand one weekend a month.

The Grand opening of the Applegate Pioneer Museum at Crow, Oregon began with a Fall Festival held on September 11th and 12th of 1976.

A very large turn of the century threshing maching from the Flem Henderer farm, just south of Crow was donated and needed to be housed. With dues at $2.00 and about 90 paying members and the museum was only open one Sunday a month, more fund raising had to be put in motion. The shed was built in 1987.