Seguin to promote pecans with new educational museum

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

A collection of nutrackers, the mechanial ones as well as the statue kind, are owned by Pecan Promotion Committee Member Ken Pape. -Staff photo by Taylor

September 5, 2002 -- While some may argue the fact, citizens of Seguin believe Cabeza De Vaca, and the band of Indians he lived with, spent a lot of time on the banks of the Guadalupe River and they were some of the first to discover the tremendous pecan crop in this part of Texas.

Apparently, this group found numerous ways to eat and prepare the nuts, said Larry McCarty, a member of the International Pecan Museum committee.

With this idea of heritage, pecan promotions started in 1983 that has allowed Seguin citizens to enjoy a pecan festival in the Oak Park Mall.

Since 1988, the Pecan Promotion Committee, with a membership of near 30, has participated in the Texas Folklife Festival in San Antonio - an outdoor festival celebrating earlier life in South Central Texas. Pecan committee members from Seguin have annually taken their pecan products to the festival, and have won numerous awards.

By 1990, the committee decided to "change the focus," and decided to build a pecan museum right in Seguin.

Utilizing the old "if you build it, they will come" attitude, members of the committee started looking for a location which would be convenient to Interstate 10, which runs through Seguin.

Without any funding, land, or even a collection, the idea of an international pecan museum was born.

"My wife and I, one summer, went down to the coast ... to Rockport, and they have the Texas maritime museum. We went in and talked to those people," said Jim Crump, chairman of the committee.

The committee, including members Larry McCarty and Jim Smith (below) want to build a museum in the town where the 'largest pecan' resides on the town square. -Staff photo by Taylor

After visiting that museum, Crump decided that if a town that size could have a museum, so could the citizens of Seguin, and the project was started.

In 1995, the Pecan Museum board of directors agreed to purchase a little over six acres, with frontage on Interstate 10. The agreement was to pay $15,000 down, but they only had $5,000 in the bank. The community came through with the other $10,000, and monthly payments were made through the years.

"Many, many years of ideas and (now) the land is paid for.... A few people went out on a long limb and signed a note," said member Jim Smith.

The committee is celebrating the fact that the note is paid off, and is planning a gala to raise funds for a building, which will house a pecan museum that "traces the pecan's route from its earliest recorded history to present day," and will include information on planting, pruning, watering and harvesting pecans. Another section of the museum will house a pecan shop with a wide variety of products for tasting, a pecan

kitchen that will allow visitors to "test" the products, a bakery, and a pecan learning center, complete with audio/visual aids and printed material concerning pecans.

"With it's central location in the pecan-producing belt, and the historical significance of the pecan since the early explorers," Seguin residents are looking forward to a museum that will attract locals as well as tourists, Crump detailed.

"We've always worked better under pressure, when we have to go do something," he added.

At this point, the fund raising will assist with the cost of erecting the first part of the building, and the gala being planned (in the near future) is expected to include food, entertainment, an auction and, possibly, a golf tournament.

"I think if we can get something, physically, in place, that they (citizens) could see that people in the area would have a real feel for the museum," explained Smith.

At this point, the museum has received a permanent 501(C)(3) tax exempt status, under the IRS rules. By 1999, about $220,000 had been committed to the museum, and plans to look for grants are being pursued. The museum enjoys an agricultural exemption because of the pecan trees growing on the property, as well as the hay that is made on the remaining grounds.

The main idea behind the museum is to be a resource center, and to teach children about the heritage of the pecan industry in the area. After all, it's a part of Seguin history.