November 2010

The Museum features historic battalion flags, parade uniforms, honors and decorations dating back to the American Revolution. Realistic tableaus set up throughout the museum give visitors an intimate look at what life was really like for America's soldiers.

In addition, a unique collection of war letters, diaries and personal mementos helps round out the battlefield experience. In addition to the 4,200-square-foot powder magazine and 6,500-square-foot annex, JBMM includes a new, high-tech hexagonal theater, completed in 1991. Capable of seating 183 visitors, the theater presents films, award ceremonies, concerts, and historic society meetings, as well as other official functions. The air park, completed in 1996, displays and pays tribute to America's newest military branch. It features seven aircraft from World War II to Desert Storm. Reconditioning of an A-26 was accomplished by a veterans group who maintained and flew the bomber during World War II.

The Historic Exhibit is a permanent exhibit with rotating artifacts depicting life from pre-1850 through the early 1900's through to the present. This includes period rooms such as a turn-of-the-century kitchen, barbershop, pharmacy and parlor, to a room dedicated to our Nation's war history, as well as features dedicated to our regions waterways. The Gibson Library houses important historical documentation as well as an extensive collection of John James Audubon prints. (The Museum's permanent art collection also consists of works by Boyd Cruise and Charlotte Hatchette prints.)

The Gibson Library is also used for small exhibitions and is the current home for our annual 2008 Summer Film Series. The Gibson-Barham Gallery plays host to more than 6 temporary art exhibits each year. These exhibits represent local, regional, and nationally known artists. The Sallier Oak and Lynda Benglis Sculpture Garden features the contemporary sculpture's of Louisiana's own Lynda Benglis and the famous 400 year old live oak.

Evergreen Plantation is the most intact plantation complex in the South with 37 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, including 22 slave cabins. Evergreen has its country's highest historic designation and joins Mount Vernon and Gettysburg in being granted landmark status for its agricultural acreage.

The Evergreen Plantation tour is an outstanding representation of the plantation culture in Louisiana. Based on 500 pages of documentation, a public archeology project funded by a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and ongoing research in oral history and cultural landscape, Evergreen sets new standards in cultural tourism. Plantations were complicated agricultural enterprises encompassing many facets of existence. At Evergreen, the tour highlights 250 years of family ownership, the architectural significance of the buildings, and its reliance on agriculture. Emphasis is placed on the plantation’s dependence on slave labor and later the labor of freed African-Americans that was necessary to operate such an enterprise.

Built during the original development of the Esplanade Ridge Neighborhood, the Degas House dates from the early 1850s. During these years, directly prior to the Civil War, the South experienced a boom in both wealth and population. New Orleans, in particular, thrived in this climate of affluence and became the fourth largest city in the United States. The city responded to the pressures of its increasing population by expanding its borders. Enterprising developers purchased plantations surrounding the city that soon became neighborhoods filled with large houses and spacious grounds. As the largely residential French Quarter filled with growing families, wealthy Creoles like the Musson Family began to occupy this newly available housing, and the Esplanade Ridge Neighborhood was born.

Erected in 1787 by Charles Paquet, Destrehan Plantation was purchased by indigo planter Robert Antointe Robin DeLogny and his family. Besides his profitable indigo cash crop, DeLogny's local claim to fame was his famous son-in-law, Jean Noel Destrehan, who married his daughter Marie-Claude in 1786. Destrehan was the son of Jean Baptiste Destrehan de Tours, royal treasurer of the French colony of Louisiana, and it is from him that both the name of the plantation and the name of the town are derived. After DeLogny's death in 1792, the Destrehans inherited the plantation and house. While under the ownership of the Destrehan family, both the house and grounds went through considerable periods of change. In the 19th century the major cash crop at Destrehan became sugarcane rather than indigo and the house went through two further phases of construction. The original gallery columns were replaced in the 1830s or 40s with massive Greek Revival Doric columns of plastered brick and the cornice was altered accordingly. Its original colonial appearance was altered with the post-colonial addition of semi-detached wings.

More than two years earlier the United States government had withdrawn its small peace-keeping forces from the forts of Indian Territory for what it considered more urgent military needs in the East. Soon afterward, authorities of the Confederate States signed treaties of alliance with the Five Civilized Tribes, and for a year Confederate control of Indian Territory remained unchallenged. Then, as part of an overall plan for conquering the Confederacy, Federal forces invaded Indian Territory.

After a year of unsuccessful efforts to reestablish Federal authority, Colonel William A. Phillips of Kansas occupied Fort Gibson in April of 1863, and Confederate authority in Indian Territory was successfully challenged for the first time.

The museum exhibits document life in Stillwater, highlighting the important historical events as well as everyday life of people in the community.

The History of the Harn Homestead spans over 100 years. Visitors can share in the abundance of a territorial farm, the brilliance of a one-room school house, the grace of a Victorian home, and the waste-not want-not ethic of a territorial farm family.

Old Wilkes, Inc. was established in 1968 with the intent of restoring the Old Wilkes County Jail to its original 1860 appearance and operating it as an educational center for the community. Since then, the Old Wilkes County Jail has indeed been restored, as well as the 1779 home of Captain Robert Cleveland, the late 19th century Finley Law Office, and the 1902 Wilkes County Courthouse.

Old Wilkes’ newest project, the Wilkes Heritage Museum, finds it home in the Old Courthouse. Opened in November of 2005, the museum celebrates the unique heritage of Wilkes County. The Wilkes Heritage Museum consists of a self-guided tour featuring exhibits including early settlement, medicine, military history, moonshine, and early stock-car racing.

As it seeks to preserve the past of Wilkes County, the museum will undoubtedly contribute to the education and culture of the county’s present and future.