Garden County Museums are open from Memorial Day to Labor Day!
The Garden County Historical Society operates two museums in Oshkosh, Nebraska.
The Rock School Building, which was in operation from September of 1905 to 1914. It has also served the community for church services, literary meetings, and other social functions when needed.
After 1914, when a much larger school had been built on the next block, the Rock School was used as a dwelling. Nearly always more than one family was living there at the same time. Numerous changes were made in the interior. Sometime in the 1950's, the building was no longer rentable and stood idle except as a place for children to play.
In May 1969, when the building became the property of the Historical Society of Garden County, it was restored into a museum.
One room is historically accurate in it's representation of an old time school. The other room contains a fine collection of Indian artifacts and fossils representative of the Great Plains region of the United States.
In 1980, an annex was built in memory of Murray Lorenzen. This annex contains memorabilia from the rural pioneers of the area and has a large variety of displays, including an early 1900's buggy from the Hannah Ranch, a wooden threshing machine, an old fire truck and numerous farming and ranching tools and equipment from the Pioneer era.
Some of the featured exhibits include:
- A display of medical equipment and memorabilia used in early healthcare in Garden County.
- Pioneer era toys
- Arrowhead collection
- Early printing press
- Rock collection
- Country Store
- Primitive Cream Separators
- Fire chain drag
The Silver hill, built in 1906 as an Opera House, was constructed of large stone and cement. It served Oshkosh and the surrounding community for many in years in many capacities, including dances, graduations, boxing matches, traveling shows, talent shows, and many other community events.
Dates are not available as to when "movies" where first shown, but they became so popular that the stage was made smaller in order to give more seating capacity. Sound movies started about 1927 and were very popular until television became a popular past-time in peoples homes. In the 1960's the building was closed.
