1st Quarter Newsletter: July-September

Our 11th Great Museum Treasure Hunt successfully concluded the last week of July with 100

K-12 student participants who made 280 visits. 32 visitors received Persistent Pursuer

Certificates by attending 4 or more weekends. Weekly drawing winners of $10 Cash (City

Bank Sponsor) and Cookies (Avi’s Bakery Sponsor) were: Charleigh Koch, Ruby Berry, Levi

Coffey, Harper Silvey, Laurel Corbin, Draden Silvey, Peyton Thomas and Jeremiah Silvey. The

$250 Grand Prize Winner for the 2025 Hunt was Samuel Mueller, Westside student. A special

thanks to the Junior History Club Members (Brynlee Batson, Adalyn Gaunce, Brock Scott,

Lance Phillips, Delaney Koch, Brinlea Cockrell, & John Kevin Blackburn) for selecting the

artifacts to be found this summer and developing the questions that were asked.

The Museum’s 31 st Anniversary was July 22 nd . This coincided with the launch of the “Jones

Letters” on the Museum’s website (www.harricynmuseum.org ). This new addition to the

website allows people to view over 100 original Civil War letters written between William

Jones and his wife, Mary Phillips Jones. The letters may be viewed in the original cursive, as

well as a translated version. One may click on an icon and hear the letters being read and

view on a map the location of the writer when the letter was written. If you are interested in

knowing how the Civil War affected those who were living during the time, especially, those

folks in our area, this is a “must see” feature that we now offer to the public. We, at the

Museum, are extremely grateful to have been given this unique treasure to share with

visitors to our website. Plans include updating the website in phases, however, getting what

has been finished up to this point was an important goal for our 31 st Anniversary. Thanks to

our volunteers, Karen Bear, Will Lucky, Larry Benson and Bill Penn for working on this project

with the various other people involved.

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Chautauqua Speaker

Also, scheduled for our 31 st Anniversary is a Chautauqua Speaker Event provided by the

Kentucky Humanities Council and the Cynthiana/Harrison County Trust, Inc. Mark your

calendar for Thursday, August 21 st at 7:00 p.m. at the Cynthiana Christian Church (See insert).

Betsy Smith will portray Jemima Boone, Daniel Boone’s daughter. If one has never attended

a Chautauqua presentation, expect to be transported to another time and place. Jemima

Boone’s life and experiences will take one back to the beginning of our area’s history and give insight into how our early pioneer settlers persevered. If well received, plans are for another

Chautauqua Event with Daniel Boone later in the fall.

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Museum Visitors

As an interesting fact, the following information is presented with regard to our 2024-2025

visitors data, based on those visitors who actually signed our guest book. We had

• 841 in county visitors (excluding our Treasure Hunters);

• 321 out of county;

• 146 out of state and

• 5 out of the USA

for a total of 1,313 visitors. It is interesting to note that 27 states were represented this past fiscal year. Upcoming events that will impact our visitor list will be the Annual Rod Run which will be

held on August 23rd. Hundreds of antique and vintage cars are expected to show up for the

event. If readers are in town that day, make plans to stop by the Museum to view our

displays of automotive artifacts. Plans are underway to have the Museum represented at the Honey Festival that will be going on September 13th. Samples of the books that may be purchased at the Museum will be on display downtown. Also, we anticipate a lot of visitors to the Museum that Saturday.

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Museum security and sensors

Many readers may have heard a few months ago that our front door glass was shattered. Our

camera and alarm system allowed us to view the persons that were responsible. Although no

one has been arrested, having our system in place allowed for a quick response and gave the

police valuable information.

Recently, one of our alarm sensors in the basement stopped working. The system has been in

place for 16 years. We have been informed that the sensors we have are now obsolete and

are no longer available for purchase. The sensors we have are still functional, but we

anticipate that once one goes bad, the rest are on borrowed time. Therefore, the decision

was made to upgrade our alarm system. Terry McMichael with Maximum Security will be

doing the upgrade. The amount needed to install a new system will be a little over $3,500.

Any contributions toward this needed purchase would be greatly appreciated.