Since opening the museum five years later, the group has added five log cabins and a frame school house and the old frame Cain Church. Blackman said the new name is designed to help pull together under one unifying theme what had been a ragtag collection of buildings. Over the next year the society will move at least four more log buildings onto the grounds as it redevelops its 19th Century village. Now, the society just has to raise the money to dismantle, move and rebuild the buildings from their Pope County site onto the museum grounds. Another landowner is willing to give the society a log corn crib from a farm near Stonefort and another member is working on getting an old log barn.
Future plans call for a reconstructed blockhouse for one corner of the property.
Blackman knows the museum needs public restrooms if more tourists are to be attracted to the site. If built, Blackman just wants them to be inside a log cabin rather an ugly concrete block house. Typically, historical societies have been slow to realize their role in tourism and how tourists can help finance their museums. The Saline County group has been better than most by hiring a caretaker who lives on site who can keep the museum open six days a week. Many museums are only open one day week or just one day a month.