Texas State Museum features ag history

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas

September 6, 2001 -- Even before you enter the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, you can tell you're in for something big! Just look at the size of the big, bronze star...33 feet tall and weighing 10 tons...it makes Texans proud. It's only a hint as to what lies inside the imposing, grey building.

The first floor lobby is a massive space surrounded by "Encounters on the Land" exhibits. The building is based on the Texas Capitol, with the same spacious rotunda rising three stories, with an unlimited view of the lobby. The terrazzo floor is covered with a campfire scene created by artist Robert T. Ritter.

The museum literature "suggests" visitors view the artwork from the third floor, because of the size of the scene. Titled "Born Around the Campfires of Our Past, The Story of Texas," the scene begins with a campfire in the center and includes Texas figures and icons from history.

Included in the scene are a Mexican vaquero family, a mesquite tree, a Texas Ranger, prickly pears and bluebonnets, longhorns, Buffalo Soldiers, cowboys and cowgirls, yucca, a Spanish conquistador, a "Rosie the Riveter," an oilfield roughneck and a Native American family.

Traveling to the third floor, the "Creating Opportunities" exhibits take visitors through the agricultural history of our state.

"We're a non-collecting museum, so they're (exhibits) all from museums here in Texas. Most of the things are on loan for different lengths of time. Some are here for quite a while.

"We'll be changing out exhibits every six months or so. It's good that way so we can keep it fresh and so nothing is stale and you won't come and see the same old thing. We'll have different equipment, too," said Cristy Waymer, Exhibit Technician.

The agricultural exhibits include early ranching tools, clothing, guns and pistols, among other things. They present the evolution of ranching and agriculture and the effect of mining and oil on the Texas economy.

"We've got some of the tools, some of the methods. We have 'touch screens' and pop quizzes that kids can take," said Waymer.

"There's some things that will stay the same, but some of the smaller artifacts will be changed out. Some of the museums want them back for their own shows."

One exhibit displays an old pair of well worn chaps, old guns and pistols, a saddle, whips and a pair of old boots. Another has artifacts from the King Ranch. (Those artifacts are a bit more on the "fancy" side.)

There's a "Cowboy Theatre" that presents a show on early ranching and a platform with replicas of long-horn cattle. Continuing around the floor, maps show where the various crops were/are grown, according to the land and weather conditions.

Areas of display include rice grown in the Gulf Coast Region, cotton in the prairies and Cross Timbers, timber in the Piney Woods of East Texas, citrus in the Rio Grande, mining of quicksilver in the Trans-Pecos area and sheep in the Edwards Plateau.

While these areas depict the normal production areas, several of the crops are scattered over Texas as well.

The cotton exhibit offers a view of the sharecropper's life. While the landowner furnished living quarters, clothing and food, the sharecroppers' "only" responsibility was the labor...to get the job done to please the landowner.

Back on the first floor, there is a replica of an early "dog-trot" house, complete with furnishings from the 1800's. Exhibits tell stories of documented facts from early Texans' lives. One was from Mary Rabb in 1825.

Apparently, her husband was away from home quite a bit, and her major companion was a large spinning wheel.

"I kept the spinning wheel whispering all the day and part of the night because while the wheel was rolling, it would keep me from hearing the Indians," Rabb was quoted as saying.

Another interesting bit of history came from a man, Jack Jasper, in 1854, in a letter to family members outside of Texas.

"I suppose you have been wondering what we've been doing since we got here. Well, we have bought and paid for 350 acres of land at $800...we had 84 head of cattle and 30 bred hogs...

"I do think it is the finest country I ever saw...I traveled 2000 miles in Texas and I'm so well pleased, I must say. Come see for yourself about Texas. If a man with 100 head of cattle don't get rich, it's his own fault."

We can't purchase 350 acres of land for $800 anymore, but Texas is still a great place to call home, and the museum is a great addition to Texas History.

Thank you, Bob Bullock.