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Ross Mason photo |
Evelyn
Johnson is now part of Cave Creek history as the new
executive director of Cave Creek Museum.
(Click
picture to see larger image) |
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Museum
under new leadership
Johnson now leads Cave Creek landmark
by
Jennifer Krahe
CAVE CREEK - After nine years as a volunteer in positions
ranging from docent to board president, Evelyn Johnson has
been elected executive director of the Cave Creek Museum.
Johnson's passion for the Cave Creek Museum is not without
a history of its own. She grew up in San Angelo, Texas, and
frequented Fort Concho, an historical settlement built on
the banks of the Concho River in 1867 to protect frontier
settlements of West Texas.
"One of my favorite things to do was go visit Fort Concho,"
she said. "Being able to go to the Fort and the dressing
up and playing the parts - living history is something that
has always interested me." |
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When
asked if she was passionate about history as a young girl, she replies
that she did study history, but it was from books.
"Reading it in a book," she said, "is probably the
first thing that would put me to sleep unless I could connect with
a character."
And, as she has observed from her time at the museum: "There
are so many (historical) characters here in Cave Creek that you
can identify with one or another."
Her aim as the new executive director, she says, is to "give
to Cave Creek a real life experience-a little insight into the characters
of our area."
She uses the term "true west" and clarifies, "I'm
not really into John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, that's glamour."
For Johnson, Cave Creek is better than fiction, different from most
places where history can only be experienced in a book. "Harold's
is a part of history and the original gas station is right here.
We were originally a stagecoach stop. Well, we all think of stage
coaches as being luxurious but they weren't - it's right before
our eyes."
"In the desert you see things that you don't see in other places,"
she says. "The food chain is right in front of you; you know
what it took to survive."
Johnson is passionate about what she calls "living history."
"I love being close to historical places and envisioning what
they were. It's like we're tomorrow's history; today is tomorrow's
history. It's alive."
Effective April 1, the new executive director of the museum is excited,
admittedly a bit nervous, and believes she is charged with a very
important task.
"I'd like to share the museum with more people. A treasure
like this shouldn't be a secret.
I really want to see us be a common conversation item."
The Cave Creek Museum islocated at 6140 Skyline Drive in Cave Creek.
Reach the reporter at jennifer@thedesertadvocate.com
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