Get Involved

Beyond visiting and enjoying our collections and history, there are many ways to get involved with the High Plains Museum. Consider volunteering, serving on our Advisory Board, donating to our collections, or making cash contributions to our endowment.

Volunteering

If you love history, we’d love to work with you. We have a variety of activities and projects you can work on as a volunteer in a variety of areas: visitor relations, exhibits, collections, and field curator.

Advisory Board

The High Plains Museum is assisted in its governance by a seven member advisory board. The advisory board members serve three year terms during which they promote the museum and advise the Director in the museum’s development. Currently serving on the museum board are the following individuals:

Greg Shores

Judy Siruta

Cindy Bowman

David Branda

Jerry Fairbanks

Bill Wright

Larry Keirns

Donating to the Collections

The High Plains Museum has relied on the kindness of donors since it was founded in 1959 to help preserve Sherman County history. If you have something you'd like to donate, we ask you to take a minute to read our mission statement to help understand our collecting focus:

The mission of the High Plains Museum is to promote, educate, and instill an appreciation of our Western Kansas High Plains heritage through the collection, preservation, exhibition, and educational interpretation of the objects, culture, and ideas representative of Goodland and Sherman County history.

It is the policy of the High Plains Museum to collect objects that are representative of life in Sherman County. Due to space and funding restrictions, the High Plains Museum is selective in what it accessions into its permanent collection.We are primarily interested in items associated with the history of Goodland and Sherman County, Kansas. There are some exceptions to this rule, including genealogies and vital records from other states. We urge you to contact us because your generous gift may fill a gap in our collections.

Here are some of the things we collect:

• Archeological materials*

• Books and periodicals

• Man-made objects of all kinds

• Personal papers (unpublished letters, diaries, etc.)

• Maps and architectural drawings

• Photographs and audiovisual materials

* Archeological materials must come from a recorded site in Sherman County, or be unusual or unique items from Sherman County.

Have something really special, but want to keep it for yourself? We can copy photographs, maps, and manuscripts to make their content available to researchers (subject to possible copyright restrictions). You get to keep the original.

In 2000, the High Plains Museum Endowment Trust was created to accept gifts or bequests from the public. The Advisory Board members serve as trustees of the Endowment Trust, maintaining and releasing funds at their discretion. The Endowment Trust funds are used to support the mission of the High Plains Museum.