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.
The museum is one of the capstones of our tourism effort. The new village won't be a re-creation of any particular community, but a composite of what one may have looked liked in the early 1810s or 1820s. By using or readapting the existing structures and artifacts, Blackman hopes to build on what the museum already has. He hopes to use one of the recently donated log cabins as a large blacksmith shop as might have been operated by S. F. Mitchell, a turn of the century blacksmith. Blackman noted that the museum already has his license and tools from this century.