By Beth Exley

From the outside, The Little Museum appears to be an old schoolhouse, which is exactly what it was from 1931 until 1962. The building is a prefabricated two-room school building from Sears Roebuck & Company at a cost of $3,600. It reopened 1971 as The Little Museum on September 16. When you enter the museum, you can still see how it was a schoolhouse but the conversion to a museum has allowed the history center to display over 15,000 items and to be named one of “Pennsylvania’s Top 10 Seasonal Museums”.

When you enter The Little Museum, you have the option to go left or right. To the left is the Ira Collins room and to the right is the Mamie Bowser room. These two people were instrumental in the opening of the museum. The Ira Collins room is packed full of interesting history items related to the surrounding area. Visitors can browse and explore everything from the Sylvania story, to the original Sterling Run post office, various tools for lumbering and shoe cobbling, photos, wildlife taxidermy, and so much more to explore.

Heading to the Mamie Bowser room, you will find a small vignettes set up as a small school room, local silver screen cowboy legend Tom Mix posters and displays, antique furniture, a therapy sun lamp, and an early home permanent machine that looks like something from a science fiction movie!

In 1976, a third room was added. This room is completely dedicated to the military. General Joseph T. McNarney, U.S.A.A.F. is honored in this room. He was an Emporium native who became a four-star general in the US Army Air Force, holding a top post during World War II. The room also contains displays on the Pennsylvania Bucktails legendary for their marksmanship from the Civil War as well as many uniforms from different branches of the military and from different time periods in history. There is a flagstone display proudly noting that Emporium provided the flagstone used to build the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C.

There are so many things to that visitors can learn while touring The Little Museum that I don’t want to share everything and spoil the surprises. You will just need to go and see it for yourself. I will leave with you with on final interesting fact: 85% of the dynamite used to build the Panama Canal came from Cameron County.

For information including location and hours of operation of the Little Museum, go to VisitPAGO.com.