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County Historical Society keeps going

FAIRMONT — The Martin County Historical Society is up and moving again now that the recent pandemic is coming under control. While it was not shut down entirely, the Society had to adjust to the times as did many other organizations. Lenny Tvedten, director of the Martin County Historical Society, recently provided a brief update to the Martin County commissioners, noting that he was thankful for all the support the Society has seen over the years.

“We derive our funding from a number of different sources and every bit is very helpful for us and is appreciated,” he said. He then went on to detail what is happening lately.

“We opened completely on June 1,” he said of the museum in Fairmont. “During the pandemic we were closed, but we were open by appointment if individuals did need to come in or have some specific needs. We were able to conduct all of our business, including research requests, remotely.

“That was a positive because we could not have the school tours, but we did create a virtual tour for the schools. It was better than nothing, but not like being on site. We also worked on some programs with Jeff Rouse that are on YouTube and also on our site giving information on the Historical Society.”

Tvedten shared that the Historical Society is currently working on a couple of projects, including a book that he is in the process of writing.

“I’m putting together a book entitled “Martin County Veterans, Their Sacrifices: Our Freedom.” I have 78 veterans that have agreed to be participants in the book, and it involves their experiences. It’s been a really inspiring project, I didn’t know what to expect but it’s been very interesting and makes you appreciate what these people have done over the years in their military service, whether it’s been two years or whether it was a career.”

Tvedten shared that another project involves an update to the museum itself that has been a long time coming.

“We’re also working on what we call the interactive room, and that would be a room that got totally put on pause during the pandemic,” he said. “We’re getting back into trying to get it organized now.

“It’ll be a room where people can actually touch and manipulate things. Usually you go in a museum and it’s “Don’t handle this” or Don’t touch that.” For instance, we have a 1983 IBM computer that works and is functional, so that’s something that would be interesting for people to work with.”

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