Grant funds museum project

West Texas Trail Museum Director Cindy Mosteller, through the Moorcroft Historical Society, has been awarded a grant for $8340 to complete a uniquely local project: telling the story of the actual founding of Moorcroft as an important waylay for the West Texas Trail.

With fellow collaborators Andrea Wood, Lona Tracy and the Moorcroft High School students, who will assist in research in the coming fall, Mosteller will be installing multi-swing panels “to inform visitors of our story and the people who have influenced our community” as a part of a massive overhaul to the interior displays at the museum. This story starts in 1866 with the first herd to come through to the present.

Mosteller, though, has wasted no time implementing the first step of this plan with placement of the first attraction, a comprehensive composite of life on the trail and journal excerpts from several of the cowboys who rode and lived on the trail with the cattle including Teddy Blue, Bob Fudge, Jess Driskill and Pinnacle Jake.

“There are tons of written stories; it’s just a matter of putting them in our own words and putting them on display,” she says.

Some of these men continued on with the cattle while others stopped and made their homes here.

“I’m tying actual trail history to the Texas Trail,” she says.

An interactive video describing displays as well as a webpage with further explanations will be available for this part when the project is complete next summer.

When Mosteller first approached the Historical Society board with her desire to pursue the funding for this project, she asked the question, “We call ourselves the West Texas Trail Museum, but why? We don’t have anything really related to the trail. We have a map on the wall and some cowboy stuff, but we don’t have any stories from people who were actually on the trail.”

The museum director wants to tell these stories.

Moorcroft’s history is only the first part of the museums renovation to be more interactive. Mosteller is planning an area for the living history of the people who make their lives in Moorcroft.

Another series of multi-swing panels will be installed to be sold to those who would like to make a living history to be enjoyed by family and others.

“Today’s people: why are you here, what was Moorcroft your stop?” explains Mosteller.

Mosteller hopes to see the completion of the entire project “this time next year, that’s my goal”.

This Wyoming Crossroads Grant is made available by the Wyoming legislature through the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources and is awarded by Wyoming Humanities.