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Museum seeks link with NPS

By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer

The Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum on Thursday took a first step toward re-establishing its former relationship with the National Parks Service.

About 30 years ago, the museum became a National Parks Service affiliate, said museum director Heather Ferguson. But the agreement forming that affiliation was somehow allowed to lapse.

Representatives of both entities met Thursday and agreed that a cooperative agreement between them needs to be renewed, Ferguson said.

"Obviously, the affiliation will be advantageous in helping make the museum more visible and will help bring more tourists and money to Arkansas City," Ferguson said. "It will also aid in the museum's growth into a first-class museum."

Three officials of the parks service's Mid-West Region present at the meeting were Al Hutchings, program manager; Gary J. Candeleria, associate regional director for the cultural resources division, and Donald L. Stevens, Jr., senior historian for the cultural resources division.

Museum officials included Ferguson and advisory board member Terry Eaton. Also present were Connie Kimsey, director of the Arkansas City Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Mayor Dotty Smith.

"I am very excited about the possibility of our museum being affiliated with the National Parks Service," Smith said Friday. "We would have a link to our Web site from theirs and from theirs to ours."

Smith noted that the museum's previous affiliation was legislated.

According to museum records, the U.S. Congress passed Public Law 94-539 in January 1976, giving the secretary of the interior permission to enter into a cooperative agreement with the then Cherokee Strip Living History Museum.

On June 1, 1978, the cooperative agreement was signed and a relationship between the two entities began, according to the records.

"What did this mean?" Ferguson asked. "It means that the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum is a National Park Service Affiliated Site and has been since 1978. However, somewhere along the line, it was forgotten."

Smith said the parks service officials at the meeting were "very interested that (Arkansas City) was where the biggest land rush in the whole world occurred" -- the Cherokee Strip Run of 1893.

"They are really excited about the historical value of this (museum)," she said.

Foss Farrar is a member of the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum advisory board.