Overton County Heritage Museum
Overton County Heritage
Museum
The Overton County Historical Museum is open Thursday
and Saturday from 10 am - 2 pm, Friday from 2pm-6pm and is also
available for both large and small tour groups upon request. Admission
is free, however, donations are gladly accepted. For more information,
call (931) 823-7636 or (931) 498-2551
If
you drive through Livingston, the county seat of Overton County,
be sure to drive through town on West Broad Street and see what
was once the Sheriff's office and county jail, currently home
to the Overton County Historical Museum. The modest, formerly
red brick two-story building is now painted a light gray, and
has undergone a complete facelift including landscaping and shutters
and interior re-modeling.
The museum was the long-time dream of the Overton County Historical
Society, and the dream came true when the county completed a new
justice center and agreed to lease the old jail to be used as
a museum. The museum finally opened in March, 2002 with only a
few exhibits assembled by a handful of volunteers, and has since
expanded to fill the entire upper floor. Generous donations and
increased numbers of volunteers have helped the museum to grow,
and the development of permanent exhibits on the lower floors
are now being planned.
On Thursday, Friday
and Saturday of each week, the museum hosts current and former
county residents, school groups and those with ties to Overton
County. They come to view the county artifacts and exhibits that
include military items from the Civil War, World War I and World
War II, as well as old medical instruments and equipment, early
farm implements and home life items from the depression era.
One exhibit on temporary loan from Clyde York 4-H Camp is an interesting
display of artifacts from Camp Crossville, a former POW camp that
housed German and Italian prisoners of war during WWII. Included
among the items are 2 large canvases painted by Nazi prisoners,
original photos of the camp and its personnel, as well as everyday
articles used by prisoners in the camp.
Another exhibit includes items donated by Mike McCulley, pilot
of the space shuttle Atlantis, spacecraft for the 1988 Columbia
space mission. Mike, who grew up and graduated from high school
in Livingston, is one of Overton County's favorite sons and welcomes
him home as often as possible.
