Carterville Heritage Museum, IL.

http://www.cartervilleheritage.com/

While exploring various parts of Illinois lately, we noticed the very cozy little town of Carterville.  You could tell that some of the buildings there had been around for a long time, and they still maintained their charm.

As we drove down the street, we spotted a small local history museum!

I love this kind of thing!  I wish more small towns were motivated to do something like this.

We walked in and were enthusiastically greeted by the volunteer there that day.

This was another one room museum where they have really utilized their space well.  I don't you could plan on spending a day here, but an hour or two would be rewarding.

There are a lot of local relics here- we were told that the doors on the display cabinet came from the old school building!  How cool is that?

Another GREAT feature of this museum was that they were selling very unique local items.

For example, they were selling hand made greeting cards using vintage photos from local places and events.  They also sold some very classy and well done silk screened t-shirts relating to businesses that were in town.  These are quality shirts done in a very artsy way (they remind me of the shirts with fake businesses or teams on them at Old Navy).  I bought two myself.  One has an ad for the old theater in town showing an Elvis movie.  The other one referenced an old cafe in Carterville.  I assume this cool items are only available here, and at $20 a pop I thought the price was reasonable.

The lady running the place while we were there (she was great) told us that they are working on a putting a bakery in next door!  This museum has such a warm and friendly feel, I will have to check it out once the bakery is up and running!

As most people know, I love a good, weird story.  I asked to hear the weirdest local story I could be told.

Our new friend thought for a moment- surely thinking over the many options she could tell us.

She finally told us about the very dark incident that happened just up the road in Herrin Illinois.  The story involved striking miners clashing with their replacements.  Deaths occur ed.

We agreed that finding this great little museum was a real find!  Its not far from Marion and Carbondale.
http://thesouthern.com/news/local/carterville-heritage-museum-opens-its-doors/article_73e31afa-ac72-11e1-9118-001a4bcf887a.html
Western Kentucky road trippers can make an easy day trip out of visiting these areas!  Make sure you stop at this great little museum in Carterville!

Check out this nice article from "The Southern" about the museum's opening!