Fort's new exhibit officially open

Loretta George/Tribune photo Craig Campbell looks at the Fort Scott National Historic Site's new exhibit at entitled "The Fight Over Freedom" prior to the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce weekly coffee Thursday morning.

The new exhibit at Fort Scott National Historic Site was celebrated at the Chamber of Commerce weekly coffee Thursday morning.

Chamber members were invited to tour the exhibit and learn about the project. A ribbon cutting was also held to mark the official opening.

The exhibit includes technology to interest youth, Betty Boyko, fort superintendent, said. It highlights six perspectives during the mid-1880s, using different characters in their own voices: a slave, a native American, a slaveholder, a farmer, abolitionist and a soldier.

Loretta George/Tribune photo Fort Scott National Historic Site staff and Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce members laugh after a slight struggle with the ribbon cutting scissors Thursday. The event celebrated the opening of a new exhibit entitled "The Fight Over Freedom." Pictured are, front row from left, Chamber Board President Reta Baker, former Fort Ranger Kelley Collins, Fort Superintendent Betty Boyko, Fort Historian Bill Fischer, Chief of Interpretation Holly Baker, Fort Scott City Manager Dave Martin and Chamber Executive Director Lindsay Madison.

"It's easiest to follow one character through the years," Bill Fischer, fort historian said. "It's not a one-time-through exhibit."

"Every time you come back, you'll see something new," Kelley Collins, former chief ranger who worked on the project, said.

Two local citizens, Matthew and Katie Wells, are featured characters in the exhibit. They portray a slaveholder and a farmer, Boyko said.

"They had to audition for the part," Boyko said. "Which speaks well of their acting."

RBH Multimedia Inc., of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., developed the vignette scripts and recorded them with actors who applied when a call was put out by the production company.

Other actors selected for roles in the production were a Kansas University student, a Kansas history teacher and two actors from the East Coast, Fischer said.

Collins and Fischer were given recognition and a certificate from Boyko for their work on the exhibit.

The exhibit was many years in the making.

"I wrote the first project statement 10 years ago," Collins told the Tribune. "In four of five years it was recognized by the National Park Service. Funding was through the National Park Service using Civil War Sesquicentennial funding.