The Rockport Journal, May 4, 1951

Article was typed as it was worded in the newspaper.

Formal Opening Of Museum Is Planned

The Rockport Park Board, meeting Monday night, completed the preliminary plans for the formal opening of the museum in the local Pioneer Village.  The event will be an all-day picnic and outing on Sunday, June 3.

The $8,000 structure, built under the direction of the Park Improvement Association, Inc., in cooperation with the Park Board, is built of concrete and St. Meinrad stone and is a beautiful addition to the local park.

Completely fire-proof, it will house all the relics which were formerly in the court house relic room along with various items from the village and other heirlooms to be donated by county citizens.

The formal opening will include a basket dinner and a program at 2:30 in the afternoon.  Included in the program will be the unveiling of a placque in honor of George Honig who contributed so much time and labor to the construction of the famous Pioneer Village.

Built in 1935, the shrine has been visited by over 600,000 people from all states and many foreign countries.  This year is expected to be a record breaker as the number of daily visitors is running far ahead of last year’s pace which saw more than 5,000 touring the village.

Visitors from 16 states registered during April, this year.  These included 12 groups of Boy Scouts from Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky – sixty of them from Evansville last week-end.  Also in Rockport over the week-end were 59 students, parents and teachers from Elkhart.

The Elkhart youngsters came Saturday and remained overnight.  The Catholic students attended St. Bernard’s church Sunday morning while the others went to special services in the village under the direction of Rev. Robert DeLong.

Around 100 Evansville school children and an unknown number from Princeton had made reservations for this Thursday.

The village, widely publicized in the past by newsreel, magazine and newspaper articles and in historical data, received additional recognition last week when Merlin Stonepence, of Washington, D.C. was here to take pictures for use on television broadcasts.

To help with entertaining the many visitors expected at the formal opening of the museum will be representatives from the following local clubs – Woman’s, Garden, B&PW, Silverdale Home Ec, D.A.R., and American Legion Auxiliary.  The club members will be dressed in pioneer costumes and will assist visitors in village tours.

The board, at the Monday night meeting, voted to raise the admission price to 50c for the tour of the village and museum.

Members of the board are Mayor Howard Jackson, Thomas Fortune, Paul Vititoe, Miss Helen Posey, Mrs. Bess V. Ehrmann, Hilbert Bennett, and A. H. Horstman.