Reconnecting with the past

Bob Moore’s office is packed with documents and artifacts. A treasure trove that includes genealogies, historic maps, and local and regional records fills floor-to-ceiling shelves behind his desk. More artifacts clutter another room just up the hall. Downstairs, the town hall showcases a small slice of the collection, ranging from black-and-white photographs of landmarks to a full-size wooden carousel horse.

Centuries of unique local history, unorganized, uncategorized—and unseen by most residents of Sand Lake, the small upstate New York community where Moore has been the historian since 2013.

Moore and his colleagues want to change that. Along with Doug Kelley, president of the Sand Lake Historical Society, and David C. Post, chair of Veterans of Sand Lake and the Sand Lake Historical Society Partnership Team, Moore is working to organize the vast collection of material into a museum on the ground floor of the nearby Sand Lake Veteran’s building.

By preserving Sand Lake’s history in a public forum, the men hope to raise awareness of the town’s rich past and its connection to some of the most well-known people and events in America’s history. But for Sand Lake and towns like it, generating interest is a challenge in an age when community involvement has dwindled, particularly among young people.

John Dichtl, president and CEO of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), has seen this generational shift across the country. The association provides resources and professional development to help organizations like museums preserve and present history to their communities. Young people aren’t stepping up to volunteer in these organizations nearly as much as their parents and grandparents once did, Dichtl says.

Martin Bright, professor of psychology and sociology at Grove City College, believes the drop in local participation is partly due to digital technologies making the wider world more accessible.

“We’re so richly connected to things outside of our community,” he points out. “As we become more connected, we become less concerned with what’s in our own backyard.” A recent poll by The Wall Street Journal and the National Opinion Resource Center (NORC) illustrates the increasing disconnect: The number of people who say community involvement is “very important” to them plummeted from around 60% in 2019 to around 27% in 2023.

A decline in involvement can strain a small museum’s limited budget—which for most is $200,000 a year or less, according to the 2022 AASLH National Census of History Organi­zations. Dichtl says this “tiny amount” sometimes isn’t enough to sustain even part-time staff, leaving many small museums to rely on volunteers.

Funding is currently the “biggest hurdle” for Moore, Kelley, and Post as they seek to secure finances to restore the space in the veteran’s building to its original condition. The group has some support from the government of Rensselaer County, where the town is located, but the historical society doesn’t have a consistent source of income to sustain the museum once it’s up and running.

The team hopes the project could prompt Sand Lake residents to reconnect with the area and discover opportunities to get involved.

“We want to have a venue where we can show the next generation: ‘Look at the things that have gone on in this town. There’s so many things out there that you may or may not know about,’” Post says. “You may live in a town for many years and never know what really happened until you start exploring it or get exposed to the things—that history—that were here.”

Sand Lake has plenty to explore. The town’s roots reach back to the 17th century, giving it a history that spans the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the Underground Railroad, and the Industrial Revolution. Many homes that once belonged to 18th- and 19th-century soldiers and veterans are still standing, and dozens of war heroes are buried in the town’s Union Cemetery. Even Theodore Roosevelt spent summers in the area when he served as New York’s governor from 1899 to 1900. According to Moore, Roosevelt and his family would take up an entire floor at what was then Brown’s Crooked Lake House, an inn that still operates today as Daly’s on Crooked Lake.

Wilfred McClay, a professor of History at Hillsdale College, says discovering and experiencing such historical connections in a physical setting like a museum brings our attention back to the “places where we find ourselves” and opens our eyes to what’s extraordinary about our communities.

“I call it a burning bush experience,” he says. “Where something calls you and says, ‘Take off your sandals, buddy. This little [town] is a special place, a place of magic, a blessing.’”

Museums have the opportunity to foster that experience. Dichtl of AASLH advises small museums to use their collections as an invitation for the community to come in, explore, and have conversations. He says historical exhibits can guide discussions about current issues affecting the community. Learning how locals handled similar problems in the past helps residents evaluate potential effects and work together to meet new challenges.

He also notes the importance of appealing to families with children, a demographic that makes up a big part of the audience for museums.

“You want to think of family groups learning together. That’s really key,” he says. “Even on a sign—like a question that causes a young mother to turn to her 5-year-old and engage that child.”

For his part, Moore is excited about how the museum project could light the “burning bush” fire in Sand Lake’s residents and revitalize their interest in the town. Discovering the background they share with their neighbors could prompt young people to reconnect with the community and build relationships that bring them back to what’s happening in their own backyards.

“I think that’s why I enjoy history so much. Once you understand and value the relationship that we all have and that common past that we all share, we have a better sense of who we are,” he says.

—Theresa Houghton is a freelance writer and journalist in upstate New York and a World Journalism Institute graduate