A familiar face at Saratoga Museum

Carbon County is blessed with seven museums. They range in size and what they offer to the public. All of them share the goal of archiving and saving the culture of the area around them for future generations. Being a director of a museum is not an easy job. There is a lot of responsibility in receiving, cataloging and displaying items when they come in. It takes a special person to be a director and recently the Saratoga Museum had to go on a hunt to find one.

It took a little time, but on January 1, Dana Davis became the Saratoga Museum's new director.

Davis might have been born in Wisconsin, but at an early age, she found herself living in Saratoga. Her elementary school years were in Saratoga, but when her parents divorced she bounced between Saratoga and Wisconsin.

"I loved Saratoga and I found it interesting that they taught Wyoming history when I have been to other states that didn't teach their history," Davis said. "It gave me a great understanding of the area I lived in."

Davis graduated high school and went to college for graphic design. She got married, had kids and worked for Humana, the healthcare and medical company in Wisconsin. 

"I worked in their top rated team for customer service for the company," Davis said. "I became the lead of the team for one account that was a Fortune 500 company."

Eventually Davis left Humana and moved back to Saratoga with her husband Keith so they could be close to her father.

Davis and her husband love museums.

"He is more of a history buff type and I am more of an artifact person," Davis said. "I don't remember dates like he does unless it is attached to a piece of art or something I can look at."

Davis was working at the Saratoga Sun when she heard about the position at the museum. Although she enjoyed working for the paper, the museum job was a position she felt strongly drawn to apply for.

After her interview, she found herself hired in late December.

Davis has not been at the museum long but she has already formulated goals she would like to achieve in the near future.

"Membership growth to museum is important," Davis said. "There are some great benefits, but most important, it helps the museum so we can improve our facilities and displays. We have an excellent gift shop with very reasonably priced items that membership gives a 10 percent discount."

Davis said she would like to change the feeling when patrons first enter the museum.

"People sometimes think they are walking through an office and are not comfortable continuing through the museum," Davis said. "I want to address that."

She also wants to try something not done before.

"We are hoping to start next month, if I can get it arranged and set up, to start featuring an area artist of the month," Davis said. "I want to introduce people to artists that are painting, drawing , crafting; along those lines."

She even would like to see musicians across in the park when the weather gets warmer, again featuring local artists.

"I want to spark interest for locals to see what we are doing here not only with this idea of featuring artists from around here, but also doing different displays," Davis said. "We have been a bit static. I would like to do a different display each month."

She said there is a railroad car not open to the public that has a lot of storage in it. Davis would like to do a Youtube little show of opening the car and finding the mysteries that are inside.

"It could be really interesting to find out what is in there and do it in front of an audience," Davis said. "I would also like to get those railroad cars to be an intricate part of the museum that people could walk in and make them into displays themselves."

Davis also wants to get the schools to utilize the museum because she remembers as a kid how much she learned when she went to one.

"This museum is a fantastic place and I am proud to be a part of it," Davis said. "Saratoga residents should be proud of what is here and come and see it often, not just every once in a while. I am going to do my best to make this happen."