A moment of blogspiration...

Hello dear blog readers...it's been entirely too long!

Please know that, with regards to our absence, "it's not you...it's me." The good news? The reason there are so few blog entries lately is because we are BUSY! We are grateful for the work that makes it difficult to stop, breathe, and write.

That said, we miss you! We are much better at "micro-blogging" via Facebook and Twitter, so please check us out there for more frequent updates.

So what's new? We've just come through a very successful fall, full of music, candle dipping, and even an early visit from St. Nicholas (if you missed him, don't worry. He'll be back at our Dec. 17th holiday event). The weather provided reprieve from a brutally hot summer, and now the leaves are falling steadily, blanketing the museum grounds.

Winter is coming quickly. We're preparing firewood for the cast iron stoves and capes/shawls for the interpreters. And we're busily readying items for our upcoming Holidays at the Hearth event (details below).

But mostly we're coming off a time of being thankful to look ahead with hope at what the coming year may bring. And it looks pretty darned good.

Incidentally, are you wondering why there's a photo of a leaf and twig hut at the top of this post? Blogspiration, my friends...provided by one of our wee visitors who took the time to artfully craft this small "dwelling" behind the Howard Cabin during her visit out here this past weekend. Proof that stopping, breathing, and appreciating the little things can be not only blogspirational, but also cathartic. Thanks for the reminder, dear one.

Happy holidays to you and yours...


Holidays at the Hearth
December 17, 2011

1-4 p.m.
Enjoy holiday music, string popcorn and cranberries, spin the dreidel, help make pomander balls, tamales, paper chains, embossed cards, ornaments, and more! You can even have your photo taken with our historic St. Nick ($5 fee for photo and folder). No reservations required. Cost is regular Village admission plus a $2 craft fee to make a punched tin ornament.

Great photos from Frontier Fall Fest!

Check out our great photos from Frontier Fall Fest on Saturday!

How does your garden grow?

Did you know that raised bed gardening was the method of choice for most kitchen gardeners in the mid-19th century? Neither did I until our newest historical interpreter, Pat, pointed it out. Like all of our interpreters, Pat brought with her a unique skill set dynamically suited to educating and inspiring our visitors. And as we do with all our interpreters, we set about figuring out how best to utilize (exploit) these skills to our advantage.

Pat is a Master Gardener and has devoted much of her life and time to educating children and adults about gardening. She researched 19th century gardens and developed the plan you currently see in progress. And so the Log Cabin Village raised bed garden is currently underway. Want to see our experiment unfold? Stay tuned...

Please click on the slideshow to start and to control the speed...

The legend of the corn husk doll...

Very soon we'll be featuring our Frontier Fall Fest event here at Log Cabin Village. We're very excited because in addition to a number of activities included with regular Village admission, visitors will have the chance to make copper bracelets with a Silversmyth for $5 (while supplies last) and corn husk dolls for $3.

Corn husk dolls are an interesting craft because they have roots in many different cultures. This is more than likely due to the common nature of people using available materials to create useful and/or delightful things. Although most commonly associated with Native American culture, corn husk dolls appear in the history of many of our white, black, and Latino ancestors as well. They are truly a cross-cultural historical toy!

Perhaps most famous is the Legend of the Corn Husk Doll cited frequently as deriving from Native American culture. While I haven't yet discovered a specific origin (or determined whether it is, indeed, a true Native American legend), it is a great story that reminds us all of the dangers of being vain and self-centered. Most sources indicate that the legend stems from the Iroquois Confederacy, of which Oneida and Seneca were parts. Here are a few different sources for the legend, with only slight variations in each. Enjoy!

The Legend of the Corn Husk Doll (from Illinois)

Legend of the Corn Husk Doll (from the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin)

Story of the Corn Husk Doll (Iroquois Tale from a Seneca woman)

Legend of the Corn Husk Doll (Iroquois Tale from Sister Sky)

Legend of the No Face Doll (Iroquois Museum)

Vlog Cabin Village!

Thanks to our friends over at Anchor Marketing and Design for this great vlog about the Village!

When something is right, but not right for us.

Our Mission
The purpose of Log Cabin Village is to educate the public through the collection, preservation and interpretation of artifacts, representative structures, and other items of social and cultural significance to Texas’ pioneer era (1840-1890).

Our Vision
Log Cabin Village aspires to build connections to 19th century Texas by providing educational opportunities and sensory experiences that are engaging, accurate, and as authentic as possible.

A mission statement is a tricky thing. Museums, non-profit agencies, and even corporations hire consultants, sponsor retreats, and read tea leaves to try and figure out their mission. How can you condense your life's work and purpose into one brief, often catchy, statement?

Why is it even important to do so?

Quite simply, mission statements provide a focus for your organization. Many well-intentioned efforts have failed because there was no clear direction behind which to rally. Museum staff members in particular utilize their mission statements as a driving force behind every operation they are involved in. From educational programming, collections (and collections policy), and exhibits to museum store merchandise, mission should be kept in mind at all times. And if it's not mission-related, then it shouldn't be part of your museum.

But what if the item's really cool? And rare? And historically relevant to your local community? What if you know a program's going to make a LOT of sorely needed revenue for your museum, even though it's not mission-related? What if the exhibit will attract record numbers of visitors in a time of economic turmoil?

These are poignant questions that each museum struggles with on a regular basis. Here at the Village, we tend to take a fairly traditional stance: if it ain't related to our mission, it ain't happening here.

But it's so sad when we have something like this...

Or this...

And we want to share it with the world.

But we're not a 20th century museum. We don't deal exclusively with Fort Worth history. In fact, we only have one structure from Fort Worth (originally North Fort Worth): the Marine School house. So unfortunately, these items should not be part of our collection (and shouldn't have been accepted as donations in the first place).

So now what? We will work to find a place for them, preferably (and ethically) in another local museum whose mission they DO fit.

And they will be home.

UPDATE: We are very excited to announce that the awesome fan will be going to the Leonard's Department Store Museum right here in Fort Worth! Yay!

Frontier Fall Fest...

Frontier Fall Fest will be here before you know it!


Frontier Fall Festival Flyer_LCV