O'Donnell, Texas
This was the last museum on our tour of the museums along the Texas Plains Trail. The trail includes 50 museums but we decided to hit 21 of them. Although, we spent many hours on the road, spent money on gas and eating out for lunch, had a flat tire on a busy highway, and had one or two meltdowns by the little ones this experience took us to a lot of towns we would have never visited, allowed us to meet some very interesting people, taught us more about the areas history and gave us a summer memory that we will never forget.
The town of O'Donnell is about 800 people made up of mostly cotton gin workers, the town is small but the museum was full of fun exhibits. In the main entrance we were greeted by two locals who we enjoyed talking to and learning more about the area. The town is also part of the Quannah Parker trail and there is a large arrow outside the museum. On the first floor, the area is overwhelmed with collections from everything from Dr. Pepper bottles to typewriters to arrowheads. The room adjacent is dedicated to the late Dan Blocker, an actor from the show Bonanza. Clothes, posters, and artifacts from the mans life as well as career are displayed in an enclosed area with viewing only through glass windows. A lot of things around the town are named after Dan Blocker and a large bust of him is outside the museum. Ranch and farming equipment can also be viewed int he same area. Upstairs were other exhibits from the early 1900's to 1950's. The areas are enclosed either by glass or wood bars. Every exhibit had mannequins dressed and posed in various scenes which made viewing interesting. There was a church scene filled with mannequin people, a school room scene with teacher and children, doctors office scene, a woman's dress shop and a military scene. The enclosed areas made it easy to keep little hands from touching everything in sight. This was a fun museum to visit because of the uniqueness of the displays.
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