Ruben on the Road: Tulia museum keeping Swisher County history alive

TULIA, Texas (KFDA) - Ruben heads south on I-27 where he visits the museum in Tulia and learns how they are keeping the county’s history alive.

Frank Reeves, former director of Swisher County Archives and Museum, says back in 1961, the state and governor at the time had every county collect local history so those stories wouldn’t be lost.

“Because if you don’t talk about them and if you don’t see them, they kind of get slipped by and get lost in time,” said Reeves. “And we were so thankful that the state of Texas did that at that time.”

The museum was in the courthouse first before it moved to a warehouse behind the VFW, Reeves says. In the 1980s, they built a memorial building for the library and museum.

“Some of the first Red River wars were here, just in the canyons just to the east of us, and we have some of those exhibits here in our museum,” said Reeves.

Reeves says following the wars, Charles Goodnight came to the Texas Panhandle and his JA Ranch encompassed the biggest part of Swisher County at that time.

“Then later as cowboys came along, specialized blacksmiths came along and a famous spur maker, J.O. Bass, was right here in Tulia, Texas,” said Reeves.

One of the museum’s newer exhibits is Kenneth White, a Western artist, who really put Tulia on the map, Reeves says.

He says they have many people that made Swisher County what they are today.

“A lot of our exhibits are the same, but the people that lived through those exhibits are what the good story is, about those people and some of the great pioneers of our county,” said Reeves.