History touches people, things and places. As the years recede into the past our memories also fade-- but can be pleasantly aroused by those things that can be preserved. The heart of the preservation mission of the Historical Society is centered in The Baxter County Heritage Center.

    In the summer of 2012, the Society purchased the property at 808 South Baker Street in Mountain Home, which now serves the dual function of perserving pieces of the past and presenting them in a way that we all can enjoy and from which we can learn.

     The Lobby on the ground floor is the first area that the public sees when they enter the Heritage Center from Baker Street.

   At present the lobby area includes a large gallery of significant historical photographs of our area, and a portion of our museum collection in exhibited on the floor, on every wall and in glass display cases. 

    One of the museum pieces is the original soda fountain which stood at the south side of the current lobby in the 1950’s, when the Heritage Center space was used by the original occupants, The Sweet Shop. The Heritage Center is a contributing structure in the Mountain Home Historic Business District on the National Register of Historic places.

     Expansion of the museum is anticipated for the future by utilizing some of the space on the upper level of the Heritage Center, but that's a project which will require additional funding.

   Archival holdings consist of documents of many types, photographs, and historical artifacts. The Society has an agreement with County Government that our Archive Rooms

     Patrons of the Heritage Center may not work or search in the Archives directly, but if they provide the goals of their research Heritage Center volunteers will bring appropriate resources from the Archives Rooms to the Research Library were thay can be used by the patron.

serve as an offiial repository of many inactive county public records. The Archives spaces are temperature and humidity controlled to help preserve the historic material.

     Along with county records there are collections of articles, research notes, and correspondence of a number of local historians such as Mary Ann Messick, Bill Woodiel, and Vera Reeves.

     The Archives also house family histories of families who are important to the development of the county and its various communities, histories collected and compiled by members of those families over many years.

     We work regularly to store these materials and preserve them for research. Volunteers index the collections to help researchers find what they need.