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September 11

Here at Cowtown we have many volunteers interpreting specific sites. These include the dress shop, bank, carpenter shop, and the various houses. Sometimes the volunteers write down how their interpretation went that specific day.

One such place is our DeVore farmhouse. After going through old records, we noticed a specific entry from the farmhouse log dated Sept 11, 2001. As most of us know, this is the date of the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. The following were entries made from that day and the next as felt here at Old Cowtown Museum…

9/11/01: CNN shoot called of an account of planes flying into New York office buildings. Finished jelly-making process but got a quart and a half of apple flavored syrup instead. Am thinking of apple-flavored cakes, etc…sewed in the afternoon, after walking Sadie into town and back. Not many visitors; one lady stayed quite awhile to take photos…4 eggs and 14 chickens.

9/12/01: Rather warm compared to what it has been, but cooler than August. Not a lot of breeze, which would have helped. Lots of visitors out today, probably because of the free admission for all of the stranded tourists. I knitted some in the morning and spent the afternoon reading, writing, and talking with visitors. A lot of people, myself included, are very shaken up about what happened yesterday​, and much of the talk was about that…2 eggs, 14 chickens

We can understand through these two passages how the museum was affected by that tragic day. Visitors and workers discussed its implications. Cowtown was even free admission the next day. First-hand accounts can be valuable to understand the energy and feeling of a specific day in history.