Ellis County Historical Society

Museum:admissions totaled about 2,000. Permanent exhibits in the museum total around 30. There are also a couple of new and temporary exhibits each year. The estimated value of the collection is in excess of $1,000,000 not including archival documents. The museum houses more than 100,000 artifacts.

Special projectseventsactivitiesprojectse... during the year were as follows. Pioneer day was held again to present history for area school children. In connection with fort hays state univeristy, there was a heritage harvest. Continue to put on various activities in and around the annual oktoberfest, with the Society offering various Historical programming. There is also the annual christmas open house, "a volga german christmas".

Archives/research/education:the archives has nearly 18,000 indexed obituaries, around 10,000 non-indexed obituaries, and over 100,000 photographs and negatives. The archives also holds over 1,500 books. There are more than 98,000 lines indexed on the archive index plus around 25,000 photos indexed. As in the past, they received numerous requests for information, through contact by telephone, regular mail, e-mail and in person. Responses were provided by staff to all interested parties.