Joseph Warren Museum or the Yawn Factory?
I’ll be submitting a proposal for a Yawn Factory, low price of $1 million
Two thirds, or 66%, of all respondents to a recent online poll chose the Yawn Factory over the Joseph Warren Museum.
That does not bode well for the concept of $1 million in Warren County, NY tourism money funding a museum dedicated to a Founding Father who died at Bunker Hill over a year before the Declaration of Independence.
Supporters of the museum note there are 14 counties in the US named for Dr Warren, the first of those was North Carolina in 1779, followed by Georgia 1793, Kentucky 1796, Pennsylvania 1800, Ohio 1803, Tennessee 1807, Mississippi 1809, New York 1813, and six others afterward, none of which were Massachusetts where Dr Warren had lived and was so profoundly influential.
Sadly Dr Warren did not live to visit Warren County, NY, as did his contemporaries George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. If he had, the depth of our history from pre-Colombian indigenous people, to Father Isaac Jogues, French & Indian War battles, the many actions during the Revolutionary War in or near Warren County would surely have been fascinating to him. In life he was familiar with Ft William Henry, Ft George, Ft Ticonderoga and Crown Point, Rogers Island and Robert Rogers. In fact he drew orders sending Benedict Arnold to capture cannon from Ft Ticonderoga which Henry Knox brought by ox sledge to Boston. Surely if he lived he would have enjoyed visiting the battlefield of Saratoga which doomed the advance of General Burgoyne.
Perhaps our connections to Solomon Northup, Matthew Brady, Floyd Bennett, Marcella Sembrich, Georgia O’keefe, and David Smith might have interested him. Or maybe our history of logging, mining, and tourism. Who knows? Maybe he would extend his stay, lay his head in a bed and tithe a little toward the Warren County Bed Tax named in his honor.
Would Dr Warren find it odd that there would be a museum in this place, so far removed from his old haunts, which touted so little of its own rich history and culture yet dedicated a whole museum to him even as the denizens of Boston gave him such short shrift?
It’s impossible to know.
Would he wonder why our county historical society would seem to ignore so many rich stories of our own to be told with the added benefit of being able to send interested visitors to the very sites to which they had just been exposed? Would he find it odd that we would spark the curiosity of tourists to various locales of Boston 200 miles from any tourist accommodation charging a bed tax in Warren County, NY?
Maybe.
Personally, I find Dr Warren to be a fascinating character worthy of a museum, somewhere, but spending $1 million in Warren County Occupancy Tax money to build a dedicated museum seems ill-considered. I suspect Dr Warren would feel the same.
Likely he would blush at the lengthy biography proponents of the museum included in their proposal which surely was included because, well, because they probably suspected the Supervisors of Warren County know hardly anything about himself, Dr Warren.
Worse, I get the sense Dr Warren would be somewhat offended by the whole project on 2 fronts. One, that they had missed the whole point of his character. He didn’t make stuff all about himself. He was shot in the face because he refused a commission as an officer, choosing instead to stand shoulder to shoulder with ordinary patriots in battle. Second, he was a planner and strategic thinker. He would understand the strategic location of Warren and surrounding counties. And he would understand that if the battle were for more heads in beds the historical society named for the county that was named for him should have a better plan which detailed the physical map of the grounds, the passages in and out, the plan for the structure, estimates of the numbers of visitors it could accommodate are one time and costs of construction, strategies for dispersing visitors to other sites of historical relevance, cultural edification, simple amusement, and ready victuals to be had.
Do not get me wrong! I support the concept of using bed tax funds to create projects of lasting value within our county over temporary spectacles that fade quickly from memory. I believe there is vast opportunity to expand history and cultural tourism within our county and the greater region. I think a thoughtfully designed regional welcome center pointing to that history is a great idea worthy of $1 million and more, maybe much more.
I don’t have confidence that the proposed Joseph Warren museum is that concept.