Great Bend Museum Receives a 10k Grant Award

On 22 November, the Great Bend Museum received a $10,000 grant from the Fund for Ravenswood, for the preservation of two historic maps in our collection. The first map dates to 1796 and was one of a series drawn up by the North American Land Company to chart colonial landholdings and property ownership in eastern North America. This map is of the Jackson and Meigs County area, and the plot that will eventually be Ravenswood is labeled "George Washington." The other map dates to 1877 and is the first known map of the town of Ravenswood. It is a snapshot of town during a peak in its history, and shows the buildings and families that made up Ravenswood at that time. Both maps are in poor condition after 150-250 years, so this grant will pay for their restoration and preservation so that they can live another 100+years. The Fund for Ravenswood was extremely generous in the money awarded, funds are left over for other improvements at the museum!

The Fund for Ravenswood is a charitable fund of the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation, a nationally certified community foundation founded in 1963. Jackson County is among the eleven counties in PACF's regional service area. Created in 2019, the Fund for Ravenswood's mission is "to work together to make Ravenswood better by supporting programs, projects, and initiatives that lead toward the vision of a better future for all residents." We are extremely grateful to PACF's Executive Director Judy Sjostedt Ritchie and the rest of the board for their generosity in supporting the preservation of our community's history!