The Finney County Historical Society’s History at High Noon and Evening at the Museum lecture series will continue in November with a pair of free programs about the history of the Garden City Fire Department, including one session planned at an alternate location.
The programs will be presented by Erin Stillwagon at noon Nov. 12 and repeated at 7 p.m. Nov. 18. The speaker is the GCFD public safety administrative assistant, and she’s planning to also focus in part on the recently opened GCFD Station Number Three.
The department was organized in 1887, after a major downtown fire in 1886 that threatened Main Street.
The new station includes a comprehensive historical display that covers the GCFD’s development since that time.
Eventually, a wooden 1887 GCFD ladder wagon owned by the Finney County Historical Museum will also go on long-term display there.
The space already includes a wide array of vintage photographs and firefighting artifacts, as well as a borrowed 1920s-era fire truck that once served in Garden City.
Stillwagon’s noon session Nov. 12 will take place as usual in the museum’s Mary Regan Conference Room, but the evening session Nov. 18 is scheduled at the new station on Schulman Avenue at Jennie Barker Road.
Those who wish may bring their own lunch or dinner, if desired, and the FCHS will provide cookies and beverages.
Those attending at the museum, located at 403 S. Fourth Street in Finnup Park, should use the north entrance. Anyone attending the session at the new station may enter from Schulman, park to the west and use the west-facing door marked “Training Entrance.”
Previous fall lectures have featured mysteries along the Cimarron Cut-Off of the Santa Fe Trail in September, by Howard Koehn of Montezuma, entitled “The Jornada Triangle,” and Valley View Cemetery history in October by Museum Education Coordinator Johnetta Hebrlee. The October segments were designed to enlighten those unable to attend the museum’s annual Valley View Cemetery Walking Tour series, as well as anyone else interested in attending.
The fall history programs are supported by the Bill Stephens Memorial Fund. Sponsorship opportunities are still open for the spring series next January-April.
