Durant Three Valley Museum opened at its current location in 2004 and a 20th anniversary celebration was held last week.
The Durant Historical Society was founded in 1976 with the goal to preserve the history of southeast Oklahoma.
For many years, the museum had been housed in the basement of the former Choctaw Nation Headquarters on 16th Avenue until a grant was obtained to fund the move into the old Carpenter’s Machine Shop and other adjoining buildings at 401 W. Main St.
The buildings required extensive renovation and Paul Buntz, former city manager and also former museum board member, recalled the challenges the museum faced 20 years ago.
Buntz recalled that the Choctaw Nation’s employment levels were increasing and the museum, that had been operating there rentfree, was informed it should start planning for a new location.
“While being extremely grateful for the space in the basement, the Three Valley Museum board recognized that it needed a much larger space than what was available in the basement, and it also needed facilities that were ADA-compliant,” Buntz said.
In about 2002, Buntz, who was Durant city manager at the time, was asked to join the museum board and look for grants that would help fund moving to a new location.
The board had already acquired three adjacent buildings at South Fourth Avenue and West Main Street that is the current location of the museum.
“It was a considerable leap of faith to visualize these three buildings, an old Sinclair filling station, the Carpenter’s Machine Shop and the business in between were in very poor condition at the time, especially the old Carpenter’s Machine Shop,” Buntz recalled. “It was missing doors and windows, the entire second floor decking was rotten wood, and the roof was virtually non-existent.”
Buntz said the old buildings were an eyesore, but the museum board had the vision that the buildings could be renovated and combined into the present museum. The machine shop had once been an aircraft manufacturing facility and that played a part in eventually obtaining a transportationthemed grant.
Marcine Fritz and Laura Barker were among the driving forces behind the project, Buntz said.
Buntz said the Oklahoma Department of Transportation was required by Congress at the time to set aside 10 percent of highway funds for enhancement programs.
“This could be a downtown streetscape, a transportation museum, sidewalks, landscaping and similar projects,” Buntz said. “It was decided to proceed with an application when the next funding cycle opened, and in the meantime, we needed to engage a historic preservation architect.”
Several firms were chosen to assist on the ODOT grant application in the amount of $615,000.
The museum board voted to provide $400,000 in matching funds and the total project cost about $1 million, according to Buntz.
The application was then submitted and State Sen. Billy Mickle and State Rep. Jim Dunegan were informed, as well as David Burrage, the commissioner for ODOT District No. 2. Burrage is the uncle of David Burrage of Burrage Law Firm in Durant, Buntz said.
“A couple of months later, Mr. Burrage contacted me and said he was sorry, but he has just received a list of approved projects and The Three Valley Museum project was not on the list of approved projects,” Buntz said.
Rep. Dunegan was serving on the House Transportation Committee and he requested a meeting with Neal McCaleb, the director of ODOT, Buntz recalled.
“A short time later, Neal Mc-Caleb informed me that ODOT had found funding for one more project and it was our project,” Buntz said. “I still remember what he told me. He said that the were able to expand the tent and let one more project in. That was a day of celebration.”
The museum was opened during a ceremony on June 13, 2004.
“It is a dream come true,” Buntz said during the 2004 ceremony. “For many years, it has seemed like a dream because of the many challenges along the way.”
Durant Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Janet Reed presented Nancy Ferris, director of the museum, a certificate to celebrate the museum’s 20 years on Main Street.
“I remember the very first time I came into Durant and I saw the museum,” Reed said. “I thought that is really neat to have a museum on Main Street of any city but for it to display the history was something else. I was totally surprised when I took time to come in and finally go through the museum. It was amazing. From the outside, it appears small but on the inside, it opens up a world of history that only Durant and Bryan County can have.”
She said that when people call the chamber of commerce to see what Durant has, they are directed to the museum.
“Main Street is the heartbeat of any community and this museum has definitely played a vital part in making it the heartbeat of the community that we live in,” Reed said.
Ferris has been director for 13 years.
“During that time, I’ve learned an awful lot about Durant and all of the people here,” Ferris said. “In looking back at our history, I don’t think that we can move forward at all without doing that and I think that we have a lot of colorful history here and it always comes out in our Journey Stories every January when we have presenters come and talk about an event that happened that made us who we are today.”
She said everything in the museum has been donated by local families.
“It feels like home,” Ferris said. “It feels like we’re solid, our feet are on the ground.”
She said museum board members work hard.
“They started out with nothing and they made this beautiful place where people from all over the world come that want to know our story and they can’t come to Durant, Oklahoma, and walk away and say they’ve been here until they’ve been here and then they learn about who we are and what we’re all about,” Ferris said.
The museum has two new exhibits on pop culture and music from Welborn Music in Durant and Master Works Dulcimers in Bennington.
