Butler Museum first of a kind
By DANA BURKE Citizen Staff
Jennifer Wycoff van der Wal
gives tour of museum
League City residents gathered at the former home of Walter and Helen Hall last Thursday to catch a glimpse of the beginning stages of construction for the Butler Longhorn Museum and Heritage Park. The museum will be the first of its kind, featuring artifacts related to the famous Butler breed, a longhorn bloodline that originated with the Butler family in League City.
The museum will document League City's heritage by focusing on the original ranching and farming families, curator Jennifer Wjcoff said in a recent presentation to the City Council. Once it opens, the museum will also hold the Guinness world record for the laiest horn collection, which will be displayed in the font hall of the Walter Hall borne.
Volunteers have worked to renovate what was once Walter Hall's garage for the museum office, creating arnorn dim conveys a distinctive Texas atmosphere and pethaps providing a preview of the finished product. The museum board recently sub-mitted a new master plan for the pro
ject to the City of League City, which is waiting for review by the City Council. "Friends" are also being recruited for a nonprofit organization supporting the museum, which has already received more than $1 million in donations of artifacts and loans, with promises of more to come. The museum has garnered support from individual breeders' associations, businesses and area associations from 37 states, l4Texas cities, Italy and Canada
Kaso Kety, a Butler longhorn breeder from Louisiana, has made numerous donations to the museum, including shoulder mounts of some of Why Butler's favorite animals. "It's amazing that a man died 30 to 40 years ago, and you can still fill a museum with the heads of cattle that he actually raised," Kety said.
Butler's longhorns, along with six other breeds, helped save the Texas longhorn from extinction and initiated an economic boom for the State of Texas at a time when the state's economy was struggling, he said 'The history is legendary about how longhorns helped save Texas," he said.
The Butler longhorns am the last viable breed that remains from the seven families that had such a tremendous impact on the cattle industry. Breeders am now actively raising Butler longhorns in 22 states..
The longhorn museum project has been promoted as not just an addition to League City, but as part of the city's planned regeneration of its historic district, Wycolif told the City Council her presentation. The museum's artifacts and live Butler longhorns are expected to bring in visitors from other Texas attractions such a the Johnson Space Center or the Alamo.
It's all about what visitors come to Texas to see, longhorns, cowboys, the Alamo and oil," Wycoff said
The museum will also serve as the headquarters for the Butler Longhorn Breeders Association, an organization that has members in 48 states and
Canada.
At this time the museum board has not set a specific date for the museurn's completion.
