Sedona Heritage Museum

Sedona AZ (October 14, 2013) – The Sedona Heritage Museum is hosting a free community party to celebrate its fifteenth anniversary on Saturday, October 19, 2013. The Museum Open House will welcome locals and city visitors from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. to experience Sedona’s own museum. A light lunch will be available at noon, for free, until it’s all gone.

Sedona Mayor Rob Adams and other dignitaries will be on-hand for a brief opening program that will recognize museum volunteers and the unveiling of a new art sculpture, a gift from the Red Rock Arts Council, for the museum grounds. After the opening program, the day’s activities will begin with a demonstration of the 1940’s era mechanized apple sorting machine in the Jordan Fruit Packing Shed – sorter demonstrations will be held at various times throughout the day.

Museum volunteers will offer a variety of behind-the-scenes activities:  Members of the public will be able to assist with a project in the Restoration Workshop or experience the proper way to archive clothing and textiles in a safe Museum-like manner. Join the museum guided tours inside the Archives and Collections Room and or search the museum’s digital catalog database to view almost 20,000 cataloged items and photos. Docents will be around to answer questions and a schedule of the day’s events and tour times will be posted for easy reference.

Cowboy biscuits

For “kids of all ages” the museum volunteers will be leading a “make & take” old fashioned corn husk doll project in the Kids Korral.  A corn husk doll is a Native American toy, a doll made out of the dried leaves or “husk” of a corn cob. Making corn husk dolls was adopted by early settlers and is now practiced as a link to the arts and crafts of our founders.

The Sedona Heritage Museum Gift Shop will be offering a 15% discount during the day. The gift shop specializes in items made by local artists and crafters including local history books. It also features a section of old movies made during the heyday of film-making in Sedona.

As an extra special event during the day, the Friends of the Museum will be firing up open campfires to bake cowboy biscuits in Dutch ovens. Cowboy biscuits were a staple of the trail and home life, so come enjoy yours served plain or with a little honey or butter. Nothing like it!

Crafting corn husk dolls

Special guests for the anniversary celebration will be members of Sedona pioneer families. Representatives from the Jordan family, the family who built the buildings where the Museum is housed, will be present including two of the children who grew up in the home. A large contingent of members of the area’s fourth permanent family, the Schuerman and Owenby families, are also planning to attend. This will be your opportunity to meet and greet and ask questions about local history, and receive answers directly from some of those who lived it.

The Sedona Heritage Museum is located in Jordan Historical Park at 735 Jordan Road, uptown Sedona. For more information, call 928-282-7038 or visit www.sedonamuseum.org.

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