ROGERS -- History is well preserved in Rogers, with three museums downtown that help bring more people to the historic area of the city.
Two of the museums, the Rogers Historical Museum, 322 S. Second St., and the Rogers Fire Department Museum, 210 N. First St., are owned by the city. The Daisy Airgun Museum, 202 S. Second St., is a nonprofit organization, which is operated in connection with Daisy Outdoor Products.
At A Glance
Area Museums
There are a number of museums in the area, both large and small.
• Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville
• Rogers Historical Museum
• The Daisy Airgun Museum, Rogers
• The Shiloh Museum Of Ozark History, Springdale
• The Bella Vista Historical Museum
• The Lowell Historical Museum
Source: Staff Report
"We do have informal discussions concerning how to attract more people to the local museums, but we've never all gotten together to formulate a plan," said John Burroughs, Rogers Historical Museum director. "We've been very involved with Main Street Rogers over the years. We try to think about the downtown community, not just the museums."
Gateway Planning was hired by city officials to develop a revitalization and economic plan for downtown. The plan is scheduled to be released early next year, said Scott Polikov, Gateway president.
"We're as anxious as anyone else to see the final plan, and how we can be a part of the revitalization program," Burroughs said.
The museum staff is in the process of working on an expansion that will more than double the display area.
"If we had the public and private money to expand today, and have the expansion built next week, I think we would be a big contributor to the revitalization plan. Unfortunately, we are still a few years away from building the expansion," he said.
The estimated cost of the expansion is between $7 million and $8 million.
Tom Jenkins, Rogers fire chief, said the fire museum gets the least amount of traffic of the three museums.
"We don't get many visitors to the museum. A museum devoted to local fire history attracts a unique audience, mostly former firefighters," Jenkins said.
Jenkins said he and his command staff recently discussed what could be done to attract more visitors to the museum.
"We are thinking about establishing the days and hours the fire museum is open," Jenkins said. As it is now, visitors can enter the museum almost anytime.
"On weekends, when the administration side of the building is closed, only the firefighters are in the station. If there is a fire, then there may not be anybody at the station," Jenkins said.
Jenkins said establishing a program in which volunteers staff the museum might be an option.
"Our best bet for volunteers would be retired firefighters. Retired firefighters love to come back to the fire station and talk about the old days," Jenkins said.
The Daisy museum is well known because of the longevity of the Daisy BB gun, and the number of youngsters over the past 100 years who owned a Daisy, said Joe Murfin, vice president of public relations for the company. Although the museum and the manufacturing plant are separate entities, Murfin also serves as director of the museum.
"You would be surprised how many people come to Rogers just to go to the Daisy museum. We hear from people all the time that say they saw the Daisy museum sign out by the interstate and came downtown to the museum," Murfin said. Bus tours often stop at the Daisy museum after visiting Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, he said.
Blair Cromwell, with the Bentonville Convention and Tourist Bureau, confirmed the bureau directs tourist buses to Rogers.
"We often suggest tour buses visit the Daisy and the Rogers Historical museums," Cromwell said.
The staff at Crystal Bridges also refers visitors to the Rogers museums.
"We have a list of museums and other area attractions at the information desk, and we suggest our visitors might want to visit the Rogers museums," said Beth Bobbitt, Crystal Bridges media relations manager.
When a tour bus arrives at the Daisy museum, visitors are often split into two groups, Murfin said. The Daisy museum doesn't have a lot of space, and neither does the Rogers Historical Museum. One group will tour one museum while the second group is at the other.
Visit Rogers, formerly the city's convention and tourist bureau, markets the museums to convention-goers and visitors, said Frank Adase, sports marketing manager for Visit Rogers.
"When there are conventions in town, we work a table at the entrance to the John Q. Hammons Center. We hand out brochures outlining places to go and things to do while in the area. The Daisy museum and the historical museum are included in the brochures, but not the fire museum. We don't have any literature on that museum," Adase said.
Until recently, there was no brochure that mentioned the fire museum. The Downtown Merchant's Association, however, published a brochure on Historic Downtown Rogers, said Melanie Myers with the association. The brochure features all three downtown museums. The Rogers Fire Department Museum is listed as "One of Rogers best kept secrets."
"We created the brochure as a way to highlight the stores and attractions downtown. The three museums are prominently displayed in the brochure," Myers said.
All museum officials say they work together to support each other.
"We do our best to make people aware of what other area museums have to offer," Burroughs said.
"Right now we are working with the newly created Bentonville Historic Museum. It's not a competition, it's better for everyone if we work together," Burroughs said.
NW News on 12/08/2014