The Dorcheat Historical Association Museum is a preservation of 19th and 20th century north Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 and culture located off U.S. Highway 80 in Minden

Minden, Louisiana

Minden is a city in the American state of Louisiana. It serves as the parish seat of Webster Parish and is located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish. The population, which has been stable since 1960, was 13,027 at the 2000 census...

, the seat of Webster Parish

Webster Parish, Louisiana

Webster Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The seat of the parish is Minden. In 2010, its population was 41,207....

 in northwestern Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

. Highway 80, an early road linking the American South with the Pacific Coast

Pacific Coast

A country's Pacific coast is the part of its coast bordering the Pacific Ocean.-The Americas:Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western border.* Geography of Canada* Geography of Chile* Geography of Colombia...

, was established in 1914 as the Dixie Overland Highway. The historical association and the museum are named for nearby Dorcheat Bayou

Dorcheat Bayou

Dorcheat Bayou, also known as Bayou Dorcheat, is a stream in the USA that extends from Nevada County in southwestern Arkansas through Columbia County and into Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana before emptying into Lake Bistineau east of the village of Doyline. To its south, Lake Bistineau...

, a 122-mile stream that runs from southwestern Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

 into Lake Bistineau

Lake Bistineau

250px|right|thumb|Lake Bistineau south of [[Doyline, Louisiana|Doyline]], [[Louisiana]]Lake Bistineau is a long, narrow waterway of , wide and long located in Webster, Bossier, and Bienville parishes in northwestern Louisiana. The lake is fed by Dorcheat Bayou, Clark’s Bayou, and other smaller...

 and is sometimes called "the heart of Webster Parish".

The museum is located at 116 Pearl Street a block north of Highway 80, which runs parallel to Main Street in Minden. The site was formerly occupied by Major Office Supply, owned by the Minden businessman and former journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 Major Louis dePingre (1928–2007).

In the 1920s, the museum site was occupied by the defunct Rex Theater, owned by Edgar Beach Hands (1905–1972). The Rex later moved to Main Street until it was razed in the early 1970s to provide additional parking for Minden Medical Center. During the 1950s, the former Joy Theater was next door to what is now the museum.

The museum, which opened in June 2008, uses the motto "Preserving Our Past for Our Future". It features pioneer artifacts, including a model steamboat

Steamboat

A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...

 on Dorcheat Bayou, a log cabin

Log cabin

A log cabin is a house built from logs. It is a fairly simple type of log house. A distinction should be drawn between the traditional meanings of "log cabin" and "log house." Historically most "Log cabins" were a simple one- or 1½-story structures, somewhat impermanent, and less finished or less...

, furniture

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

, and clothing as well as material from the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 era. There are exhibits on local theaters, none of which still exist, and the Coca-Cola Bottling Company outlet on Pine Street owned by the family of Larry Hunter (1896–1971). The facility no longer manufactures drinks in Minden but serves as a company distribution point. Another exhibit is dedicated to the year 1933, when Minden was struck during the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 with a bank

Bank

A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...

 failure, a fire, and a major tornado

Tornado

A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...

. Businessman Thad Andress, descendant of a prominent family which formerly held the Ford

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

 dealership in Minden, and Schelley M. Brown, the museum director, have been seeking to add new exhibits in the remaining available space.

The Dorcheat Historical Association holds meetings on the second Monday of each month, with area speakers invited to discuss various aspects of local history. The gatherings, called "Night for the Museum", are free to the public, but donations are encouraged. In the spring of 2008, Webster Nation spoke on local railroad history. On August 10, 2009, Carleton H. Prothro, a retired colonel

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 and former social studies teacher and administrator at Minden High School

Minden High School (Minden, Louisiana)

Minden High School is the public secondary educational institution in Minden, a small city of 13,000 and the seat of Webster Parish located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport in northwestern Louisiana...

, delivered a well-received monologue on humorous experiences from his educational career. On October 12, 2009, Lonnie Milton Simpson, former principal of the defunct William G. Stewart Elementary School

William G. Stewart Elementary School

William G. Stewart Elementary School is a defunct elementary school, which formerly served the western portion of the small city of Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, with public school pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The institution was located at 215 North Middle...

 in Minden, discussed the history of his native Cotton Valley

Cotton Valley, Louisiana

Cotton Valley is a town in central Webster Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,189 at the 2000 census. It is located some twenty miles northwest of the parish seat of Minden.-Overview:-Municipal matters:...

. On the weekend of November 6, 2009, the museum held a 1930's-style dance marathon

Dance marathon

A dance marathon is an event in which people stay on their feet for a given length of time. It started as a popular fad in the 1920s and 1930s, when organized dance endurance contests attracted people to compete to achieve fame or win monetary prizes...

 at the Minden Civic Center on Broadway Street as part of fund-raising activities.

Minden also has an Historic Residential District in a section of East and West Street near Academy Park and the Webster Parish Library and the eastern parts of Main and Broadway streets. The Dorcheat Museum is distinct from another area facility, the Germantown Colony and Museum

Germantown Colony and Museum

Germantown Colony and Museum is an historical preservation project north of Minden in Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, USA. It was among three sites in Louisiana founded by former members of the Utopian Movement called the Harmony Society in the early 19th century...

, which focuses only on a Utopia

Utopia

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...

n settlement that flourished northeast of Minden from 1835-1871.

The museum is also active in the annual "Ghost Walk" held the second Saturday of November at the historic Minden Cemetery

Minden Cemetery

The Minden Cemetery, located in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, United States, has graves dating from 1843, seven years after the founding of the city in 1836...

.

The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 2 to 4 p.m. on Tuesday-Friday and 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday. Admission. Group appointments are available.The museum director is Schelley Brown Francis, who lives in the Minden Historic District.