This project began one day as I was sitting at my desk, looking around the museum. It suddenly struck me—there wasn’t a single mention of women lumber jills in our collection. That moment sparked a deep curiosity and led me to begin researching the role of women in the timber industry. Fittingly, my lumber jill display came together just in time for the 60th anniversary of the woodchopping festival in my town Webster Springs. The display will be featured in the upcoming Lumber jill documentary set to be released next year.

Each summer the Upshur County Historical Society cordially opens the doors of its History Center & Museum inviting the public to a new rendition of its annual summer exhibit. This year’s exhibit, Stories Told and Retold, highlights a selection of the county's key photographers, woven and quilted handicrafts, memorabilia, and industry, with stories drawn from UCHS’s vast and diverse artifacts collection.

Spring has arrived at the historic Sites Homestead, and our Heritage Garden is off to a great start. Everything we grow in the Heritage Garden connects back to our mission: to keep the history of this land and the people who lived here alive. We hope you’ll come by, take a walk through the garden, and see how it’s growing. There’s always something new to discover!

Madeline Ricks is an AmeriCorps member with AFNHA, serving as the Collections Preservation Coordinator for The Augusta Heritage center in Elkins, WV. She has begun writing a new blog series for the Augusta website. Beginning with the African origins of the banjo, Madeline will take readers on a journey through the histories and cultural impacts of the instruments played in West Virginia’s musical traditions.

There are many interesting and unique materials housed in the Upshur County Historical Society Document Repository that have never been displayed in an exhibit. Some materials have been overlooked because, while interesting, they relate to a topic that is too narrow to warrant an entire exhibit. This year’s exhibit gives space for these materials to shine.

This term in 2023-2024, my involvement with the 4-H History Round-Up project and my participation at 4-H Camp evolved together as the theme of this year’s camp was “A Journey Through 4-H”. The theme took campers through the past and into what may be the future of 4-H in 2115. That faraway date marked the 200-year anniversary of the world’s first 4-H Camp in 1915, “Camp Good Luck”, which took place in Randolph County! This theme gave me the role of putting all the Randolph County 4-H history I’ve learned in my service to direct use.

The Upshur County Historical Society: An Occasional Newsletter was just published mid-April. The annual journal is dedicated to providing educational articles on historical topics related to Upshur County. As the AFNHA member serving with the UCHS this year, I had the opportunity to contribute an article on Bush’s Fort, the primary frontier fort in the region that would become Upshur County. Readers have requested an article on this topic for years, and so I was glad to help see that request fulfilled.