Post by Okwes on Jul 15, 2007 16:41:58 GMT -5
Museum Offers Native Glimpse
This article was published on Friday, March 9, 2007 8:35 PM CST in News
By Richard Dean Prudenti
The Morning News
Email this story Print this story Comment on this story Related Photos BENTONVILLE -- Call his collection of Indian artifacts an obsession, and David Bogle chuckles.
The owner of Bogle's Garden City in Bentonville bought his first collection of American Indian artifacts four years ago from John Fryer of Bentonville, who is now deceased. Bogle got what he calls "the bug."
"It was a huge bug," Bogle said while touring a private house he owns on North Main Street filled with thousands of artifacts.
Across Main Street, at the corner of Fifth Street, Bogle turned an early 20th Century home into the Museum of Native American Artifacts, where he shares his obsession with the public free of charge.
"This is not a money-making endeavor. It's an educational tour," said Bogle, 54.
He bought the property specifically for the museum, a few blocks from the Bentonville Square.
Several hundred people have visited since it opened Feb. 15, including about 60 third-grade students from Purdy School District in Missouri -- about an hour and 15 minutes by bus.
The children are studying American Indian civilizations, so seeing the artifacts at the museum really drove home what they were reading about and seeing on the Web sites, said Linda Patton, one of district's third-grade teachers.
It was possible only because Bogle's museum is free, Patton said.
Some children referenced their museum experience while giving oral reports about American Indian regions to their classes. The ancient pottery they saw at the museum inspired their own designs during a pottery-making activity Wednesday.
"We got some of the best pottery that we've ever seen them make" as part of the American Indian unit, Patton said.
"Some had lids, some had spouts. Some kids drew turtles and birds. One did a sculpture of an eagle. Some did little designs," she said.
Bentonville resident Rex Hickox, 74, recently toured the museum. He said the museum offers quality pieces, which are well categorized and labeled with the period and where they came from. Each room in the museum represents a period within the 14,000-year American Indian history.
"The main purpose of the museum is to teach people about the way ancient Americans lived thousands of years before the Native Americans that we identify with in the movies," Bogle said.
Not all American Indians wore eagle-feathered headdresses or dressed the way they are portrayed in movies. Many different tribes speaking more than 100 different languages were scattered across what is now the United States, he said.
The bow and arrow became the main weapon for hunting food around 1500 B.C., and took the place of the atl-atl, which was used to throw a spear during archaic times.
An audio-guided tour allows visitors to walk through the museum at their own pace. The rooms are arranged in chronological order, starting with the Paleo Period (12,000 B.C. to 8500 B.C.) and moving clockwise through the building, progressing to the Archaic Period (ending 1000 B.C.), the Woodland period (ending 900 A.D.), the Mississippian Period (ending 1650 A.D.) and, finally, the Historic Period (ending 1900 A.D.).
Bogle's interest in educating people, especially children, gives him the freedom to do what he thinks is best to provide the historical perspective, said Jim Von Gremp, a member of the museum Board of Directors.
Without a financial motivation or a desire to make a name for himself, Bogle did it all for the right reasons, Von Gremp said. "He didn't start out to build a museum, but to learn about the history where he lives, and the heritage -- blood lines that came through in his own family," he added.
Bogle, a registered Cherokee, has always been interested in history.
"This collection could be in New York or Chicago, but the fact that he is doing it right here is one of the great stories in America," Von Gremp said.
Bogle created the museum at his own expense, but prefers not talk about its costs.
He anticipates changing out displays every few months so people always have reasons to come back.
"The museum houses the best of the best of my private collection," Bogle said.
He said his is likely one of the largest arrowhead collections in the country.
"It's a good investment. They don't make them anymore," he joked.
The Museum of Native American Artifacts
Hours: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday-Saturday
Location: 501 N. Main St., Bentonville
Admission: Free
"Whether the first Americans originally entered the continent by land or by sea, evidence of their existence on the continent is found in the tools, weapons and ornaments they left behind."
-- Museum of Native American Artifacts brochur
This article was published on Friday, March 9, 2007 8:35 PM CST in News
By Richard Dean Prudenti
The Morning News
Email this story Print this story Comment on this story Related Photos BENTONVILLE -- Call his collection of Indian artifacts an obsession, and David Bogle chuckles.
The owner of Bogle's Garden City in Bentonville bought his first collection of American Indian artifacts four years ago from John Fryer of Bentonville, who is now deceased. Bogle got what he calls "the bug."
"It was a huge bug," Bogle said while touring a private house he owns on North Main Street filled with thousands of artifacts.
Across Main Street, at the corner of Fifth Street, Bogle turned an early 20th Century home into the Museum of Native American Artifacts, where he shares his obsession with the public free of charge.
"This is not a money-making endeavor. It's an educational tour," said Bogle, 54.
He bought the property specifically for the museum, a few blocks from the Bentonville Square.
Several hundred people have visited since it opened Feb. 15, including about 60 third-grade students from Purdy School District in Missouri -- about an hour and 15 minutes by bus.
The children are studying American Indian civilizations, so seeing the artifacts at the museum really drove home what they were reading about and seeing on the Web sites, said Linda Patton, one of district's third-grade teachers.
It was possible only because Bogle's museum is free, Patton said.
Some children referenced their museum experience while giving oral reports about American Indian regions to their classes. The ancient pottery they saw at the museum inspired their own designs during a pottery-making activity Wednesday.
"We got some of the best pottery that we've ever seen them make" as part of the American Indian unit, Patton said.
"Some had lids, some had spouts. Some kids drew turtles and birds. One did a sculpture of an eagle. Some did little designs," she said.
Bentonville resident Rex Hickox, 74, recently toured the museum. He said the museum offers quality pieces, which are well categorized and labeled with the period and where they came from. Each room in the museum represents a period within the 14,000-year American Indian history.
"The main purpose of the museum is to teach people about the way ancient Americans lived thousands of years before the Native Americans that we identify with in the movies," Bogle said.
Not all American Indians wore eagle-feathered headdresses or dressed the way they are portrayed in movies. Many different tribes speaking more than 100 different languages were scattered across what is now the United States, he said.
The bow and arrow became the main weapon for hunting food around 1500 B.C., and took the place of the atl-atl, which was used to throw a spear during archaic times.
An audio-guided tour allows visitors to walk through the museum at their own pace. The rooms are arranged in chronological order, starting with the Paleo Period (12,000 B.C. to 8500 B.C.) and moving clockwise through the building, progressing to the Archaic Period (ending 1000 B.C.), the Woodland period (ending 900 A.D.), the Mississippian Period (ending 1650 A.D.) and, finally, the Historic Period (ending 1900 A.D.).
Bogle's interest in educating people, especially children, gives him the freedom to do what he thinks is best to provide the historical perspective, said Jim Von Gremp, a member of the museum Board of Directors.
Without a financial motivation or a desire to make a name for himself, Bogle did it all for the right reasons, Von Gremp said. "He didn't start out to build a museum, but to learn about the history where he lives, and the heritage -- blood lines that came through in his own family," he added.
Bogle, a registered Cherokee, has always been interested in history.
"This collection could be in New York or Chicago, but the fact that he is doing it right here is one of the great stories in America," Von Gremp said.
Bogle created the museum at his own expense, but prefers not talk about its costs.
He anticipates changing out displays every few months so people always have reasons to come back.
"The museum houses the best of the best of my private collection," Bogle said.
He said his is likely one of the largest arrowhead collections in the country.
"It's a good investment. They don't make them anymore," he joked.
The Museum of Native American Artifacts
Hours: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday-Saturday
Location: 501 N. Main St., Bentonville
Admission: Free
"Whether the first Americans originally entered the continent by land or by sea, evidence of their existence on the continent is found in the tools, weapons and ornaments they left behind."
-- Museum of Native American Artifacts brochur