Country Pride
I was able to visit the Comanche Crossing Museum this last week and enjoyed learning about the beginnings of Strasburg but also the homesteading lifestyle surrounding Strasburg. I was surprised to learn that an early settlement around Living Springs Stage Station would eventually become the beginnings of the city of Strasburg. The Station was a stop on the Overland Stage Trail and was operating around 1850. A telegraph office was established in 1863 and by 1865 there was a post office to service the area.
The first school was built in 1886 and was a small cabin. As more people came to the area a traditional school, Living Springs School was built and began operation in 1891. In 1904 another school was built near Wolf Creek two and a half miles northwest of present-day Strasburg. Both of these schools are located at the Museum.
There was a lot of old farm equipment, some of which were horse driven and some with engines. I was shocked to find out that some of the machinery for harvesting wheat took 20 to 30 head of horses to pull them. It was awesome to know that families shared their horses, time and labor to harvest each other’s crops.
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There was an original homestead home of the first black family to settle near Strasburg. The Pritchette home had only two rooms. One was for sleeping and socializing and the other for cooking, bathing, eating, ironing and any other household work. With five young ones, it is amazing that they managed. |
The old depot was relocated to the Museum as well. It was a fine building for that time and the depot manager’s personal rooms were quite nice. Information there showed that the spike that signaled the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad was driven in Strasburg. A politically motivated misinformation error assigned the historical completion in Utah. (Things haven’t changed much.) |
There is an enormous barn at the Museum. Photos show the hard work and difficult process of relocating. Credit has to be given to those who made the original houses and barns so well that they could be jacked up and moved intact. The barn contained many interesting items but most fascinating to me was the barbed wire. I didn’t know that men made their own barbed wire, and that they made the barbs different so that you could tell whose fence was whose!
There is so much more that I could describe but I would encourage people to go visit the Museum. It truly shows you how industrious, creative and hardworking the homestead families were. Country living can be difficult and challenging; only those who are determined, diligent and have faith can survive. The Museum is able to show you the character of the people who helped build our prairie communities. This is the Conservative base for our country. —KLN