Photo By Master Sgt. Brad Staggs | Maj. Gen R. Martin Umbarger, Indiana National Guard adjutant general; North Vernon,...... read more read more
BUTLERVILLE, Ind. – Old friends who hadn’t seen each other for years hugged as they met again in front of the new Muscatatuck Museum at Muscatatuck Urban Training Complex to attend the museum’s grand opening, April 7.
From 1920 until 2005, Muscatatuck was a mental health facility -- starting as the Indiana Farm colony for Feeble-Minded Youth and ending as the Muscatatuck State Developmental Center. Many of the attendees still call the facility the Muscatatuck State School, a name that most worked under and stuck the longest.
When the Indiana National Guard was given the facility in 2005, a promise was made that the history of the facility would be preserved. Opening the Muscatatuck Museum keeps that promise, as Indiana National Guard Adjutant General Brig. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger told the gathered audience.
“Muscatatuck has become the Army’s premier urban training facility in just five short years,” Umbarger said. “But we could not have done it without the support of the local community and this amazing facility we were given. This museum is dedicated to the folks who were here before us.”
Dr. William Culley worked as a researcher at the Muscatatuck hospital from 1959 until his retirement in 1991. Culley had not been to Muscatatuck since 2005 and was happy with the decision to open the museum.
“I think this is a great thing,” Culley said as he pointed to items in the museum he had used in his research work. “The hospital meant so much to the community that it’s wonderful to see it remembered in this way.”
Several items which had been used at the former Muscatatuck State School’s hospital were saved by the Jennings County Historical Society and stored at their location in Vernon, Ind., until the museum could be stood up at MUTC. Now the Muscatatuck Museum and Historical Society could work together to preserve the history of the facility.
“Five years ago, we sat around the table with these people [Indiana National Guard] and they invited us in,” explained Chris Asher, vice president of the Society. “They said, ‘We may have some things you’d like to keep.’ For the next year, we were out here digging though everything. Now we can bring some of it back and we can all share.”
The Muscatatuck Museum will be open each Thursday from 2 – 8 p.m. For talks to school groups at the Museum outside of that time, contact MUTC Public Affairs at (317) 247-3300, ext. 41610. Admission is free and all are welcome.
| Date Taken: | 04.07.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 04.08.2011 13:48 |
| Story ID: | 68457 |
| Location: | BUTLERVILLE, IN, US |
| Web Views: | 997 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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