By P.A. Geddie
Is it just me or have you too noticed a surge of interest in area history? Not just from the “old” folks, but from millennials and other generations.
Tourists have long looked to towns and regions for quirky historical markers and other signs of interesting history, but over the last couple of decades I haven’t heard about that same level of interest from those who live within the region.
People will come from all over the world, for instance, to check out the Salt Palace in Grand Saline — a museum of local history — while residents living right down the street have never set foot in the door or even tried to lick the building made of pure rock salt.
It looks like the level of interest is changing now, at least for some.
Many of the most popular pages on Facebook and other social media operated by people in the Upper East Side of Texas are about history. Some historians may be rolling their eyes at some of it as perhaps being a bit embellished, but telling history in more colorful exchanges is getting people’s attention, while educating them at the same time.
Hamilton, and other historically-based musicals and films surely were an inspiration to some.
A recently-released short film called Mystery at the Museum is a virtual visit to the Gregg County Historical Museum in Longview. Local actors depict characters within different exhibits at the museum and bring to life the stories in a way that is getting the attention of all ages to come see the collections in person and learn more.
Jennifer Bryant runs Van Zandt County, Texas History page on Facebook that has quickly gained 6,000 followers with heavy engagement from all ages on her daily posts about people of the county and incidents that people are enthusiastically talking about. Bryant gets a lot of her material from old school annuals as well as from libraries. She also wrote and self-published a book recently from history she’s learned. Murder in Small Town Texas: A Collection of Van Zandt County Murders is available in paperback and on Kindle on Amazon.
Unlike Bryant’s book on scandals in Van Zandt County, author Julie Parker recently released a more celebratory book of the history of Sulphur Springs in Hopkins County. Sulphur Springs, Texas: A Pictorial History was written by Parker with assistance from the Hopkins County Genealogical and Historical Societies.
The book is filled with about 200 photos depicting the earliest days of the area, churches, schools, community gatherings, businesses, trains, military veterans, and includes a few pages of Sulphur Springs today. Throughout the book are the faces of hundreds of people on whose shoulders the community was built. The book is available for purchase on Amazon.
Museums are often good places to deep dive into family and town history. I’m finding many of my ancestors at the Van Oil & Historical Museum. I recently discovered a meaningful photo of my father in one. My dad built his first piece of furniture in a shop class at Van High School around 1937. He built it so well that it’s still in use by my family and admired for its craftsmanship, almost 90 years later.
One Saturday morning while flipping through a Van High School annual at the oil museum, there was a photo of my dad in the shop class where he built that shelf. It is full-circle moments like this that keep us all looking to connect our present to the meaningful past.
