O'Donnell (TX) Heritage Museum

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The O'Donnell Heritage Museum is a local history repository in O'Donnell[1][2] in Lynn County, Texas. Located south of Lubbock, a part of the museum includes a room of exhibits on the actor Dan Blocker (1928-1972), who portrayed the popular "Eric "Hoss" Cartwright character for thirteen years on NBC's western series, Bonanza. Blocker was reared in O'Donnell though born in DeKalb in East Texas. Because of the Blocker room and memorabilia, the facility is sometimes called "The Dan Blocker Museum."[3]
About the museum
O'Donnell began in 1910 as a stop on the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railroad, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. The community is named for rail promoter Tom J. O'Donnell. Numerous western communities are named for railroad men, including Gallup, New Mexico and Denver, Colorado. The population is under one thousand residents.
In 1911, Leander Gray Phillips (1856-1939) opened the first business in O'Donnell, the first fully automatic cotton gin in North America. The gin was owned by the Farmers Cooperative.[3] The museum hence contains mostly early 20th century exhibits, but some items from the late 19th century found in old homes and attics were donated to the collection.
Located at Doak and Eighth Street, the museum is across from the old Blocker family store. Plywood covers the entrance to the Blocker store. There is a hand-painted "Hoss" hat on the side of the building. The nearby lot contains sculptor Glenna Goodacre's bust of Blocker, which was dedicated on July 4, 1973, a year after his death. The museum has a brochure entirely dedicated to Blocker. The museum has a pair of Blocker's boxing gloves, a Bonanza lunch box, a photograph of his fourth-grade class, and Blocker's over-sized Boy Scouts pants.[4]
The museum is housed in a 1925 two-story bank building that remains in its original condition. The regular exhibits include a telephone system, organ, bedroom furniture, kitchen equipment, blacksmith shop, schoolroom, post office, legal and doctor offices, formal parlor, and restored church congregation at worship.[5]
Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to noon and 2 to 4 p.m., and Sunday, 2 to 5 p.m.[5]
References
- â Bigley, J., Permenter, P., Kelso, J. (2018). Texas Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Offbeat Fun. United States: Globe Pequot. p.151
- â O'Donnell | TX Almanac
- â 3.0 3.1 O'Donnell, Texas. texasescapes.com. Retrieved on December 26, 2021.
- â John Kelso. Texas Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities and Other Offbeat Stuff. Globe Pequot, 2011, ISBN 0-7627-6070-2. Retrieved on Dec 26, 2021.Â
- â 5.0 5.1 Texas State Travel Guide 2011, p. 129.