Exhibits and their Stories

Many years of experience by a master carpenter helped create a replica of an early 1920's family home, a major display in Window on the Plains. We call it "the blue house" because it has a blue roof and the trim is painted blue. 
The museum has an artifact that not many museums have -- an aquatic weed cutter. The cutter was a donation from Rex and Susan McCloy of Blue Ranch.
One of the many unusual items at Window on the Plains is a beautiful ornate organ which was donated by a family from Dalhart. The organ was the man's grandmother's when she was a child. The organ is part of the entertainment display on our Family Life Room.
In the early 1900's, camp meetings were held by traveling preachers. Sometimes they were held under a grove of trees, sometimes just in the open, and occasionally, they would be in a large tent, if the preacher had one. An exhibit at Window on the Plains is a display of a camp meeting.
In days past, buffalo roamed this area by the thousands. Today, Window on the Plains Museum has its own buffalo who stands as a sentinel watching a plains area that has no resemblance of the past. 
A flagpole flying a Texas flag has been erected near the playground at Window on the Plains Museum. It is not just an ordinary flagpole, but one that carries a history unique to Moore County and possibly the entire country. It was made by Prisoners of War from World War II.
Video games have gone from small hand-held games to big gaming systems on big screen televisions.
The first mercantile store was opened in Moore County in 1892. Other similar stores have served Moore County and made their mark on our history.
Exhibited in the Family Life Room at Window on the Plains Museum, this bed was gifted by Ken and Diane Schmidtman. 
In one of the showcases at Window on the Plains Museum, a special little creature, a horny toad, horned lizard or Phrynosoma Cornutum, sits on a pile of rocks just waiting to attract the attention of visitors. Many visitors pass the showcase not even seeing him, thinking it is a showcase filled with rocks.
A milestone was reached for Window on the Plains on March 26, 2020, the twentieth anniversary of a groundbreaking held to start a building that would be the new home for the museum.
The ranch house kitchen features a beautiful Majestic wood-burning range -- "top of the line" for the early 1910's.
The Sneed Ranch was one of the largest ranches in the 1900's. Several items from that ranch were donated to the museum by Elizabeth Sneed Robinette Pool and are on display in the ranch house office.
A collection of beautiful cut glass, a gift from Mary Wiseman Simms, sparkles in a showcase at Window on the Plains Museum.
One corner of the Family Life Center at Window on the Plains has a display of tack and branding irons that were used in early Moore County. Walls of the area are made from barn wood from the W. J. Morton farm, east of Dumas. 
A lot of "firsts" happened in the telephone industry. Alexander Graham Bell is credited with inventing the first telephone, although six other inventors were working on inventions at the same time.
Windmills are disappearing across the Panhandle and with it the history that changed a dry land to one that could be used for ranching and agriculture. Wind turbines and solar energy have replaced the picturesque windmills that dotted the Panhandle.