EP. 155: (Live from Young County) Starting a History Museum with Shannon Potts & Tony Widner

<p>Episode 155: Young County Museum of History and Culture, Graham, Texas<br />

Ken Wise records live at the Young County Museum of History and Culture in Graham, Texas, during its first-anniversary celebration. Curator and board president Tony Widner and founder Shannon Potts explain how they turned a 1937 Piggly Wiggly into a museum, why Young County holds so much Texas history, and the stories behind their most prized artifacts, from a Marlow brothers pistol to a James Monroe peace medal from the Elm Creek Raid.<br />

In This Episode<br />

• [00:47] Meet Shannon Potts and Tony Widner<br />

• [01:11] How the Warren Wagon Train Raid site and a retired police chief started a museum<br />

• [03:31] Building a museum with no museum experience<br />

• [05:04] The building's history: Piggly Wiggly, Goodyear and church storage<br />

• [07:02] Choosing which Young County stories to tell<br />

• [09:43] Why Young County is a center of Texas frontier history<br />

• [11:16] The first artifacts: a cavalry spur from Cox Mountain and a Marlow brothers pistol<br />

• [12:23] The Marlow brothers story, from horse-theft arrest to the U.S. Supreme Court<br />

• [16:14] The 1817 James Monroe peace medal from the 1864 Elm Creek Raid<br />