Overland Trail Museum: Learning Through Entertainment
By Cynthia Swanson

“The Overland Trail Museum’s mission is ‘preservation with education,’” says Kay Brigham Rich, Curator of the museum, which is located in Sterling, Colorado. “Our Heritage Festival, an event that the museum sponsors each year on Fourth of July, focuses on bringing the past alive for people. When a group watches a blacksmith or a spinner create a usable good from raw materials, it makes so much more sense to them. All of our Heritage Festival crafters have projects that kids and adults can try.” She goes on, “Because this event focuses on education, we wanted the entertainment to tie into that. We wanted a variety of acts. We wanted to help people gain an appreciation for music and performance art that may have been unfamiliar to them before the festival.”

The Overland Trail Museum used a grant from the Colorado Council for the Arts (CCA) to fund the expanded entertainment component of the festival. “Because of the grant, we were able to bring in more entertainment than in previous years, as well as some acts from outside the community,” Brigham Rich explains. “We don’t charge for this event, which means we have to be creative with our resources. The extra funding gave us a lot more flexibility.”

In 2007, the festival drew its largest crowd ever – over 3,000 attendees. “We had locals from here in Logan County, as well as vacationers and passers-through,” says Brigham Rich. “In addition, many people traveled east from the Front Range specifically to attend our Heritage Festival.”

According to Brigham Rich, the increased attendance was largely due to the variety and quality of entertainment at the event. “We had the Greeley Rodarte Dancers, who were a huge draw,” says Brigham Rich. “We also had a polka band and a historical re-enactment band, which were both very popular.”

Festival-goers were impressed with the diversity of entertainment offerings. “They enjoyed the entertainment more than ever before,” Brigham Rich noted. “We love to use local talent – and people love to see it -- but it’s also great for attendees to experience talent from outside the area. Many people told me how much they enjoyed seeing acts that they haven’t seen before.”

Without the grant from CCA, the entertainment component would not have been the highlight that it was. “Everyone had such a memorable time at the 2007 Heritage Festival,” says Brigham Rich. “When we realized the caliber of entertainment we were able to attract, we had high hopes that we could put on an event that was unprecedented here in Sterling. And as I watched the enthusiasm sweeping through the crowd while they took it all in, I knew we had achieved our goal.”