Wabash

June 18, 2010 Updated Jun 12, 2007 at 5:00 AM EDT

You know the old adage 'everything in its place'?
Well, some folks in 21Country are taking it to heart.

There's a lot to take in in downtown Wabash...a town as full of history as it is historic structures.

And very soon, one of those historic structures will be telling the stories of all the others.

Beth Stein, with the Wabash County Historical Society says, "I think it builds pride. I really hope that's what we're giving our community. People will come in here and leave feeling good about where they are and why they're here."

They're putting finishing touches on the new Wabash County Historical Museum.

And when it opens in November, Wabash will have one of the finest educational museums in the Midwest.

And not a moment too soon.

Over the years, county historians have amassed an immense collection of artifacts that chronicle Wabash history from the glacial age to the present.

But there's never been a place to display them all, so most have remained locked away out of sight.

They wait now in stacks, on shelves and on the floor for completion of their new home, which will truly be a state-of-the-art history center.

This extensive model gives you an idea of what's to come.

This is the Native American area, a recreated woodland in the middle of the museum's first floor.

Stein says, "And it's interactive. It's going to be where you're going to get to interact with the exhibit to see how the goods were traded. So the Indians traded with the French and there'll be animal skins to touch and feel, and hopefully when kids come in to see it, they'll leave with a better feeling of what it was like in Wabash County."

The early transportation systems that helped build the county, the railroads and the canals, will each have their own interactive displays.

Historic events, too, like the electric lighting of the City of Wabash, the first of its kind in the country, will be explained in state-of-the-art interactive fashion.

Stein says, "You're going to look at it. It's going to be dark and as you flip the switch, it's going to light up as it would have been that night and you'll hear audio, ooh, aah and pop of the crowd."

Business, industry, sports, the arts, crime and punishment...it will all be here.

The history center will also provide an extensive archive of books, newspapers and other printed material, suitable for historic research.

This museum is a community effort.

All 4.5 million dollars to pay for it were raised locally.

And when it is done and all those artifacts hidden away all those years are brought out into the light, the people of Wabash County will get the very first good look at themselves for the first time in history.