I know you are wondering if Gary has fallen off the wagon. Yesterday rum and today gin. Well today I am talking about a gin as in engine. Gin as in cotton gin. A contraction from Eli Whitney’s original invention, “The Little Cotton Engine.”
Judy and I have often found the most obscure museum and a small out of the way town to be fascinating. Today was one of those serendipitous days. We were trucking down US 290 heading for Austin Texas. A small brown sign beside the road advertised the Burton Cotton Gin and Museum. We wheeled off the highway and found ourselves in a town with a population of about three hundred. We quickly spotted the small factory building and pulled into the parking lot. We met Linda Russell, the Museum Administrator. Her welcome was warm and sincere. She gave us a personal tour of the cotton gin. At first we had only a vague idea of what a cotton gin really was. Oh we knew it separated the cotton fiber from the cocklebur like seeds, but we had no concept of how the gin figured into the culture of the community.
In Burton Texas in 1914 a small group of farmers formed a community company and sold stocks and built the Burton Farmers Gin. This gin ran continuously until 1974. That year the amount of cotton to be ginned dropped to just seven bales for the whole season. That is just about one hour of processing time. The workers closed the doors and went home never to return. Some fifteen years later a visitor to town discovered the idle gin, totally unlocked and in the same condition as the day the workers went home. He called the Smithsonian and the gin was recognized as a unique piece of our heritage. It has been fully restored by the volunteers of Burton and is actually run to gin some cotton each year for their annual Burton Cotton Gin Festival. This festival has featured the Burton Farmers Gin in April every year since 1990.
Now seeing a historical site like this is impressive by itself. When you meet someone like Linda, who is so excited about the treasure she is representing, then the whole experience becomes fantastic. How wonderful that a small community like Burton was able to restore this cotton gin. Even more wonderful that their volunteers run this museum and host the annual festival that preserves this heritage for us to visit.
Back to the point I made in the second paragraph. Don’t judge the worth of a museum by its outward appearance and its advertising budget. Keep an open mind and walk right in and you might just find a diamond.
I am not going to write about all of the details, but instead I direct you to the museum’s website. It is well done and will help you share our enthusiasm over this treasure.
Some day when you are driving down the road of life; you will see a small sign and perhaps you will take a few moments to explore. Perhaps you too will find a treasure.
From Austin Texas we send our love to all, Gary and Judy Dinsmore.
