Work will have life after it comes down Saturday

By DAVID COLBURN

News editor

It was hard to tell Friday, between Marion High School teacher Grant Thierolf and his students, who was more interested in the nuggets of local history on display in the Water/Ways exhibit at Marion City Library, but the edge might have gone to Thierolf.

“It’s been a great thing just to see the history of Marion,” Thierolf said. “I brought a sociology class down yesterday and they really enjoyed it. Janet (Marler) and the volunteers who put everything together have done a fantastic job. It’s very enlightening.”

Friday’s excursion was with students enrolled in a dual-credit Butler Community College history class. They studied the exhibits closely, jotting down notes on paper.

“This is actually something that the library put together, a scavenger hunt going through the different information there is available in the three different areas,” Thierolf said.

The exhibit showcases the history of Chingawasa Springs and the building of Marion Reservoir, but students gravitated toward the flood section most.

“I think the kids were especially taken with the flood of ’51, trying to identify all the different places in the photographs and seeing how much the town has changed over almost 70 years,” Thierolf said.

The exhibit in the library’s Santa Fe Room will be open through Saturday, and then it will be packed away, library director Janet Marler said.

“We are going to label it well and mark it how we had it set up and store it so we can set up it up again or display part of it if we want to,” she said.

Some elements could be displayed at Marion City Museum at times of corresponding interest, such as Chingawasa history during Chingawassa Days.

Two items from the display that garnered a lot of interest will continue to be available, Marler said.

A video created to illustrate the development of Marion Reservoir is on CD and available at the library.

A video created by Gene Winkler featuring interviews with people talking about the 1951 flood also is on CD and can be purchased for $10. The library also will have a copy for patrons to view, Marler said.

As for information from all of the newspaper clippings and documents that are major elements of the display, Marler said she is still exploring possibilities for making some of it available through the library.

Bound and microfilm editions of the Marion County Record dating back to the late 1800s were primary sources used for the display and are part of the library’s permanent collection.