PRINEVILLE, OR -- The Bowman Museum unveils a new exhibit Saturday, highlighting Crook County’s early days. “Really celebrating the early history of Crook County is really celebrating a lot of what we still see today with the Pioneer Queens Association. We still celebrate the Pioneer Queens today. And that started back then and then also just the medical evolution of the area,” Museum Executive Director Sean Briscoe says the Crook County Historical Society has big plans for the Belknap Exhibit Center, “It opens up the opportunity for us to get a lot more of our artifacts out on display. So, we can show more of what we have in our collection. But also, it allows us to open up for traveling exhibits.”

Saturday’s grand opening shows off the newly renovated house. “Downstairs will be Dr. Belknap Crook County Doctor. So, it's really going to give a highlight of what kind of medicine was used in early Crook County. And then upstairs is going to be focused on our Pioneer Queens,” Briscoe tells KBND News the project has been in the works for years, “The Belknap Exhibit Center features not only one of Prineville’s first doctors, but also his influential wife, “Wilda Belknap was prominent in starting the Pioneer Queens association, which later would evolve into the Crook County Historic Society.”

Tomorrow’s grand opening is from 11 to 4. “We will have historical reenactors floating around. We'll have Mrs. Belknap who will be here and she will be kind of in character,” he says. There will also be historical artifacts on display and guest lectures. The Belknap Exhibit Center is next to the Bowman Museum.