By Mary Owen
Susan Schanno started her quest to add more volunteers to the Santiam Historical Society when she began volunteering three years ago.
“We need members and volunteers desperately,” said Schanno, who is interested in history and genealogy. She has taught genealogy classes and has published several articles related to the subject.
“We want to move the museum and society into the computer age,” she added. “We want the society to be a part of the community and to help preserve the history of Stayton, the Santiam Valley and its people.”
When Schanno started at the museum, she said, “It was a mess. It was dirty, and you couldn’t even get around due to boxes and stacks of papers.”
So Schanno rolled up her sleeves and began to clean, organize and rearrange items, making the tiny house at 260 N. Second St. more appealing and easier to navigate.
“We originally started cataloging our collections on index cards, which was tedious work,” she said. “We were then donated a computer and obtained a museum program that allows us to enter our collection into the computer. Through the winter, we had an intern through the ERN program who worked at entering data into the museum program. Unfortunately, she had to leave us a couple of months early due to health problems. I personally put in 20 hours a week during the summer.”
Sorting through the collection might have proven tedious, but the task has unearthed what Schanno said were “many interesting things, including a Civil War Base Relief Card and a Gibbs Manufacturing Company toy that originally sold for 10 cents and is valued at about $200 now.”
Some of the other artifacts at the museum include an old incubator once used at the old Stayton Hospital. According to SHS member Fredine Cole in an earlier Our Town interview, the incubator was also used by a local doctor to hatch wood duck eggs. The collection also stretches to include lanterns, old saws, machinery, typewriters, class photos and kitchen paraphernalia as well as a wood stove dating back several decades.
The Santiam Historical Society was started in 1984 by Mabel Overholtz and her husband, Marvin, joined by Pat Moore, Bernice Fair, Rita and Eldon Tietze and Glen Taylor, among others. Eleven members in all met at Marian Estates in Sublimity, then at the First Interstate Bank and the Stayton Public Library in pre-museum days.
The Society’s first charter was established on Dec. 20, 1984, according to Cole, and the first board meeting took place on Dec. 29, 1987.
SHS leases its building at 260 N. Second Ave. for $2 a month from the city of Stayton, and was given a donation last year to cover the next six years.
But the organization pays its own utilities, and even though costs are low, a poor economy has led to lack of donations, making it hard to keep the museum going, members agree.
“Without funding and help, we will be forced to close our doors, and I think that would be a great loss to the community,” Schanno said.
Museum hours are 1-4 p.m. Saturdays through Veterans Day. Doors are also open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays in July and August. Researchers and browsers are welcome to e-mail for an appointment at any other time.
For more information, call 503-769-1406.
