Museum of North Texas History

     It's really neat how many towns have a museum chock-full of local history. Even more amazing is how admission is often donation based. This has quickly become one of our favorite things to check out wherever we are. So one cold and windy day, we went into town and visited the Museum of North Texas History. 

     The Heritage Hall featured the cowboy/rancher life and held one of our favorite exhibits. It is home for an amazing collection of western hats known as "Nat’s Hats." Clay County native Nat Fleming was owner and operator for more than 50 years of a western wear store called The Cow Lot. When a customer bought a new hat, Nat kept the old one and then put it on display in the store. When he finally closed the store he donated those 500+ hats to the Museum. Each hat is identified with the owner's name and each certainly had character! All were stained and most were filthy, but we sure do wish they could talk!

Nat's Hats

A scale model of the town -many, many years ago!

The Native American Collection was huge.

    The medical displays are always of particular interest to Eldon. This is the first time we'd seen an "iron lung" the machine that breathed for those who had Polio. Several stories were on display of patients who lived for years like this - 1 lady for 60 years! We're thankful for advancements in medicine that have put the iron lung out of work.

Imagine your child having to live in here?!

Emily loves to check out all things girly!

It makes one feel old when a museum has toys on display that they've played with!

     Wichita Falls has a large air force base so several rooms were dedicated to local war hero's and many items they donated. Most impressive to us were the Navy vessels on display. The detail was stunning!

So many tiny pieces!

     We will have to go back since the model train exhibit was closed for Christmas decorating. We did see a glimpse as we walk past and I'm positive it will be well worth the wait!