Eight Phillips County Legends on Display this Sunday

The annual Historic Walk at the H.G. Robinson House and Gardens will be this Sunday, September 10, in Malta and this year, audience members will be treated to a new, young, twist.

"We have people being portrayed and the new venue we have this year is we have added one station that will house three, young students, seventh graders, who were involved in that Wax Museum last year," Kay Hould, member of the Phillips County Historical Society said.

Last year, 42 then sixth-grade students from Mr. Delmer Henry's Malta Middle School history class dressed up as people from Phillips County's past - many of them family members - and recounted parts of their history. This Sunday during the Historical Walk at the H.G. Robinson House, four of those 42 students will portray their elders as Kelly Koss will be portrayed by his granddaughter, Kennedy Koss; Noble Meisdalen will be portrayed by his granddaughter, Kirsta Meisdalen; Swede Hammond will be portrayed by his great granddaughter, Addy Anderson and Gary Baden will be portrayed by his grandson, Reece Brown.

"We are excited to have students from the Wax Museum because it is really a take off on the Historical Walk," Hould said. "They dress for their parts and they do their research that is necessary and I think it is a wonderful experience for them and it is great for the audience."

In the adult portion of the event, Walt Coburn, a cowboy writer, will be portrayed by Orvin Solberg; B.D. Phillips, pioneer multi-millionaire sheep-man, will be portrayed by Doc. Jim Curtis; civic-minded pioneering woman Sarah Garland will be portrayed by Dolly Ann Willcutt and Dixie Stordahl will portray dedicated pioneering ranch woman Jeannette Bradley.

"She was a close family friend while I grew up," Stordahl told the PCN. "We are not related, but we spent many days together!"

Stordahl, a teacher at Whitewater Schools and weekly PCN Correspondent, said she is relying on memory and personal conversations with her daughter for much of her research on Bradley and admitted she has wanted to play the part for a long time.

"So last year I volunteered," she said. "I know that Jeannette's family will be in attendance with scrapbooks of her life and Bud's life too! I just hope I can do her justice!"

Each of the actors will give four performances during the day with intermissions in-between sets to answer questions and expound on the people they are portraying. Guests will walk around the H.G. Robinson House and Gardens to listen to each of the lectures (which will last about 15-minutes each.) There will be seating available at each of the four speaker's stations, but guests are welcome to bring lawn chairs to ensure they have a place to sit. If the weather should prove bad for the day, the event will be moved indoors to the Phillips County Museum as it was last year when temperatures dipped into the 40's and it rained heavily.

"We would happily move the event indoors if it rained because we all know how badly we need the rain," Hould added.

Tickets for the event are $10 per person and are available at the H.G. Robinson House and Gardens or before the event at the Phillips County Museum. Light refreshments will be served throughout the afternoon and drawings for door prizes will be held. All proceeds raised from the event will benefit the Phillips County Historical Society's many historical preservation projects. The event starts at 1 p.m. and will run until approximately 3:30 p.m.