Doak Walker's Heisman Trophy

[Cheesesteak]

Old Red Museum gets a boost

Thursday, June 29, 2006
By DAVID FLICK / The Dallas Morning News

Trini Lopez's guitar will be there. So will Doak Walker's Heisman Trophy and (allegedly) one of Clyde Barrow's guns.

Though plans have been in the works since 2001, many details of the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History & Culture were publicly introduced for the first time Wednesday.

Museum officials also announced that a $1 million donation from philanthropists Nancy and Ray Hunt will allow them to finish the $16 million project and, for the first time, schedule a firm opening date: sometime in May.

The museum was set to open this summer but was delayed in part by restoration of the Old Red Courthouse clock tower, now scheduled for completion this fall. Re-creation of the clock tower is part of a $35.6 million restoration of the 1890s-era courthouse.

"We've finally got the money, and we're ready to move forward on construction. It's a big step," said Thomas H. Smith, the museum's executive director. "This is going to be a gorgeous, gorgeous place."

The exhibits will be presented in four extensively renovated former courtrooms on Old Red's second floor.

Each room will feature a different era in the county's history – the Early Years leading up until just before the coming of the railroads; the Trading Center years before World War I; the Big "D" room featuring the colorful decades before World War II ; and the World Crossroads exhibit chronicling the area's explosive postwar growth.

The stories will be told with a combination of artifacts and interactive exhibits.

A touch-screen exhibit might tell the story of an early settler or recount the origins of a billion-dollar corporation – but will do so in less than two minutes, which museum consultants advise is the outer limit of most visitors' attention spans.

"In today's world, if you don't entertain while you educate, you won't educate," said David Biegler, chairman of the Old Red Foundation.

The museum will have explanatory theaters and a host of artifacts – a mock-up of the first bridge across the Trinity River, a log cabin and a bowl used by Caddo Indians. A donor gave museum officials a Harrington & Richards .45-caliber gun traced to a Bowie County sheriff who claimed it was used by Mr. Barrow.

The gun is a rare make known to be used by Clyde, and the sheriff was among the lawmen who hunted down the famed bank robber.

"But we have no direct proof, so that's why we're saying 'attributed to Clyde,' " Dr. Smith said.

For much of the restoration of Old Red, in fact, educated guesswork help bridge the journey to historical fact.

Dan Savage, the county official in charge of courthouse reconstruction, said a 1960s renovation stripped the building's interior of nearly all its original detail. Officials used pieces of wood trim found in closets or ironwork from fragments of the staircase to re-create a century-old look.

The paint colors will be original, however. They were found by stripping down a century of redecorating, with a result that may surprise visitors.

Mr. Biegler, speaking in a 20-foot-high salmon-color room that will be the postwar history wing, noted that the vivid colors, though sometimes jarring, are nonetheless authentic.

"It always surprises people who see the old black-and-white photographs and think that the colors back then were all dim and drab," he said.

"One color, in fact, we had to tone down because nobody could stand it. You couldn't accuse these people of being drab."

[50's PONY]

When a player wins the Heisman there are always two -- one for the individual and one for the school. So, the other one is in possession of SMU and Heritage Hall and now on display in Heritage Hall.