Southern Musings By Gary Lloyd: Advancing the significance of local history
I sometimes wonder if the local history content I produce goes anywhere but into the void.
Sure, the same handful or so of people like, share and comment. I’m appreciative of that, of course, but I often wish the reach was greater. Anyone who runs a website or social media account yearns for more followers.
In a single week in December, the reach grew. It started on Dec. 4, when students from Cahaba Elementary School visited the Trussville History Museum at Heritage Hall to learn about city founder Warren Truss, other notable Trussville natives, the Cahaba Project, the Trussville furnace and the schools.
About 20 students came through the museum that day, visiting each of five Trussville Historical Society members who discussed these topics. My subject was the furnace, and it was a blast to talk about it. I’ll never miss an opportunity to make that awful joke.
A few days after their visit, one student’s father sent me a text message saying that his son had not stopped talking about the things he learned in the museum that day. The father told me that his son was giving him a “Trussville history lesson.” That was as humbling as it was exciting.
On Dec. 7, I boarded a school bus at Heritage Hall with the Hewitt-Trussville High School students in Leadership Hewitt-Trussville, and we made a Trussville-shaped loop over the course of two hours. We drove past historical landmarks and talked about them on the bus. We talked about other locations that we didn’t have time to reach in-person. We got off the bus at the former site of a Jefferson County convict camp, the Trussville Memorial Cemetery, the site where Hewitt Elementary School burned in 1973, the Mall and Heritage Hall.
I designed the route and prepared the content for the two-hour trip, and despite my nervousness, it was the most history-themed fun I’ve had in a while. The students asked and answered questions, took a few selfies and planned to tell their classmates that they “went to prison in Trussville” after the convict camp visit. We talked about the grand plans for Mason-Dixon City, how Camp Coleman has yet to cease operations after nearly 100 years, what happened at Queenstown Lake in the last century and much more.
In the Trussville History Museum after the tour, students saw photos of the places, people, buildings, schools and artifacts we discussed during the day. They continued to ask questions and seek what Trussville once was. And, of course, they dug through old yearbooks in search of embarrassing photos of their parents.
Two days later, the museum was open to the public for four hours before the Trussville Christmas Parade. We welcomed a modest crowd, but it was also raining. We served cookies and hot chocolate, and in the downtime I had, I created a handful of videos promoting the artifacts and various histories inside the museum. We’re putting in the work to grow interest in Trussville’s history and its museum.
I believe it’s paying off, and I can’t wait to see what we come up with next to promote this city’s rich history.
Gary Lloyd is the author of six books and a contributing writer to the Cahaba Sun.