Sunday, June 8, 2008

Temple Museum Seeks Grant


The Temple Museum Association is seeking a grant to help fix up its building and future home. The Cotton Electric Cooperative offers grants to start museums in the communities it serves.

Cotton Electric Cooperative provides electric service to over 20,000 meters in eight counties of Southwest Oklahoma. Cotton Electric was organized in 1938 to provide electric services to rural areas at a time when other utilities did not consider it economically feasible. The cooperative gets involved in communities it serves by contributing money and volunteers to youth activities like 4-H and with programs like the museum grant.

The Temple Museum Association owns the old blacksmith shop as well as the stone building next to City Hall. We’ve been working hard to fix up the building for museum operations, and this grant would provide a big boost.

The Museum will feature the history of Temple, Oklahoma, and surrounding communities. Temple's history includes the B&O Cash Story, which put temple on the map in the early 1900s. People came from 80 miles around by wagon and horse and buggy to shap at the "world's largest country store" started by Temple brothers Bob and Otho Mooney. The museum will include photographs, catalogs and artifacts to bring to life the booming times that the store brought to Cotton County.