The lobby of the Museum of South Texas History.

EDINBURG, July 17 - This Sunday’s edition of Olé TV features the Museum of South Texas History in Edinburg.

Host Sandra Reyes visited the museum, located on North Closner Boulevard in Edinburg, during Pioneer and Ranching Craft Day. She donned a Spanish conquistador outfit, befriended a milk snake on loan from Brownsville’s Gladys Porter Zoo, learned how to shoe a horse, make pan de elote, churn milk to make butter, and carve an arrowhead out of flint, among other things.

On a tour with second graders, Reyes also visited the old county jail, complete with hangman’s noose and trapdoor. The museum is partly housed in the old jail, which was used for a public execution in 1913.

“There is so much to see and do in this museum,” Reyes said.

Click here to go to the Olé TV Web site and watch the show.

The Museum of South Texas History covers everything from prehistoric tribes through Spanish exploration and colonization, the Mexican War, Rio Grande steamboat era, Civil War, early ranching and farming, border wars and more.

Shan Rankin is executive director of the museum. She told Reyes that the museum’s mission statement is preserve and present the heritage of South Texas and northeastern Mexico.

“We feel like we are very special in this area because we’ve got these two cultures that have come together,” Rankin said. “What we really hope is that when people come to the museum they will be so enchanted that they want to keep coming back.”

As with any museum, only a small fraction of the artifacts are on display to the public at any one time. Reyes went into an archive room and found a very heavy club made from Cypress Knee that Native American Indians may have used as a weapon. This was found during excavations near the San Juan River.

Barbara Stokes, senior curator of archives, said the Museum of South Texas History is well-known for preserving over 110,000 images. She said it houses about 700 different artifacts, including posters and still photos, from Mexican films from the 1940s to the 1970s.

“That’s what we are doing here, we’re brining history back to life,” the museum’s public relations officer, Jay Garza, told Reyes.

Olé TV airs every Sunday at 9.30 a.m. on KVEO-TV News Center 23. It immediately follows Ron Whitlock Reports.

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