Pawnee City Historical Society Museum

Come and experience our common heritage at the Pawnee City Historical site. From doctor, dentist, and beauty shop tools to clothing, farm and household items, quilts and furniture, you can view America’s history first hand.

Four of the 22 buildings at the site contain mechanical and horse drawn equipment, such as sleighs, cars, buggies and farm implements. There is also an Experimental Tailwind Airplane here as well as many smaller machines from washboards to an example of an early wooden washing machine to an old cream separator. One building contains about 800 varieties of barbwire, all collected, mounted and identified by one man.

Many of the buildings here tell a story of their own. The home of our state’s first governor, David Butler, is here with furnishings of that era. There is also a log cabin furnished much as a log home would have been 150 years ago. The country mercantile store contains a post office, and there is also an old church.

There are two schools located on the site. One is the tiniest in Pawnee County, which is still furnished as a school and the other is the oldest. Later in its life the older school building became a wagon and harness shop and then a blacksmith shop. It now houses many old tools and blacksmith equipment.

The newest site building contains 1600 salt and pepper sets along with other household items. Another newer building contains an air-conditioned kitchen/dining/meeting room complete with rest rooms. Some families have held family reunions here.

Genealogical research is available at the Historical Site. Photographs, newspaper clippings and other written materials are available along with a lot of other family memorabilia collected from local area residents.