Museum

Overview

The Marion County Museum was dedicated and opened to the public during the Old Settlers Celebration in August, 1961. Leslie A. Powell, society president and Al Riffel, Vice President were in Charge of the ceremony. The Centennial Time Capsule was sealed and dedicated. In this reinforced concrete child’s burial vault they put a copy of the speaker’s (Omer Shields of Lost Springs) talk, pictures of the ceremony, the Guild Centennial cook book, photographs of buildings and other landmarks plus many other items.

The Historical museum is in the old Baptist church building built in 1887, and located at the northeast corner of Central Park on 601 East Main Street. Inside the framed structure are displays of 19th century dresses, quilts and other needlework, dolls, toys and wooden washing machines. The (first) Marion Telephone switchboard, the old wooden Canada post office cabinet with letter cubicles, farm tools, early church record books, and a large display of photographs of families and Marion buildings. Although it was a County Museum the major portion of items are from and about Marion.

The Museum is operated today by the City of Marion with the assistance of the Marion Historical Museum Board which consists of seven members. The Museum Curator is Aubrey Wheeler.

The Marion City Museum, as it is known today, is open from the 1st of April until October 31st. During this period the Museum opens its doors to the public Thursday through Saturday from 10:00AM to 4:00PM. Appointments may be made for other times (with 24 hours notice) by calling the Marion City Hall at (620) 382-3703. For more information regarding the Museum call (620) 382-9134. If there is no answer, please call City Hall at (620) 382-3703.

The Museum has many photographs of unknown people and places in it's collections. If you would like to view these photographs and see if you can identify the people in them or the places they were taken, please go to the Museum's Photo Gallery page.