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Name:
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Granville Museum
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Subject:
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Ag heritage on display
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Date:
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8/8/2010 12:11:57 PM
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Grants from the state of Tennessee help fund Granville's new agricultural museum
Story and photos by Mark E. Johnson
The tiny, historic, southern Jackson County
hamlet of Granville came alive with bluegrass music, homemade ice
cream, arts and crafts, classic cars, and thousands of curious visitors
Saturday, May 29, as the town staged its 12th annual Heritage Day
festival.
Among the events drawing attention to this year’s festival
was the dedication of a new agricultural wing of the town’s museum.
Tennessee Commissioner of Agriculture Ken Givens, Sen. Charlotte Burks
of Monterey, and Representatives Henry Fincher of Cookeville and Les
Winningham of Huntsville were on hand to officially open the facility
to the public during the morning ceremony that kicked off the day’s
festivities.
Randall Clemons, president of the Granville Museum,
credited a 2009 grant from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture with
proceeds derived from the Ag Tag Program and funds from the 2010
Tennessee Agricultural Enhancement Program for making the museum a
reality. Construction on the project began in August 2009 and was
mostly completed in time for the festival.
“When Cordell Hull Lake
was created, a lot of our fertile river bottoms were taken, and
agriculture took a step back,” said Clemons during the dedication. “By
developing the museum, we’ve tried to preserve the agricultural history
that is so important here. We are so fortunate to be able to take that
to a different level as a result of the state of Tennessee and what
they have been able to help us do. We can’t say ‘thanks’ enough.”
The
impressive facility is packed with an assortment of antique farm
implements and tools and exhibits on subjects ranging from tobacco to
blacksmithing. There is a 1950s-era photo essay on tobacco production,
a collection of photos of area farmers, and a partial scale
reproduction of a historic barn in nearby Chestnut Mound using actual
wood from the original structure. There is even a children’s “Farmer of
the Day” interactive exhibit where kids can gather farm products to be
bartered for candy inside the nearby Sutton General Store.
After
spending several minutes touring the museum, Givens called the facility
“incredible” and said he hoped it would become a model for other
communities in Tennessee.
“Children can come in here and see how
things used to be,” he said. “I just think it’s great that a community
would do this, and my head is already spinning on what other places
might be able to do. It’s exciting that our Ag Enhancement program can
be involved in projects like this. We have a category that helps fund
farmers markets, county fairs, and so on, and this project fits right
in. These enhancement dollars are so important to rural communities in
a variety of ways.”
Givens said next year’s Ag Enhancement Program
will include a category to help fund community and school garden
projects in both rural and urban areas. Burks, a longtime farmer in
Monterey, said projects like the museum bring much-needed attention to
the ag industry.
“This is what all rural communities are built on;
it’s what our nation is built on,” she said. “On a national level, we
keep getting away from that. It used to be that in the [state] Senate,
everybody was either raised on a farm or had parents that were, but
that’s not the case anymore. It gets harder in Nashville to tell the
rural story, and things like this museum really help.”
In his thanks to the lawmakers, Clemons acknowledged the significance of the donated funds.
“We
are going to try to do our part in our museum and make sure the tax
dollars you have given us are used in a wise way,” he said.
“Granville’s just a wide place in the road. Sometimes it takes somebody
like these people to have faith in you to accomplish a project like
this museum, and we greatly appreciate that.”
Granville Museum will host The Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit “Journey Stories” from
Oct. 2 through Nov. 14. For more information, visit the exhibit website at www.museumonmainstreet.org/journey
stories. Normal business hours of the museum are noon to
3 p.m., and admission is free. For more information about the museum, visit online at www.granvillemuseum.com.
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7/9/2010
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URL: Ag heritage on display
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