PHOTOS: Fort Sidney Museum and Post Commander’s Home
Mary Brumage, president of the Cheyenne County Historical Association, talks about the Sioux Army Depot photographs on Oct. 8 at the Fort Sidney Museum.
The Fort Sidney Museum stands in Sidney on Oct. 8. The Cheyenne County Historical Association won a $200,000 federal grant to help repair this building and the Post Commander’s Home.
A display at the Fort Sidney Museum holds uniforms, flags and photographs from the Spanish-American War and World War I. Mary Brumage, president of the Cheyenne County Historical Association, said everything in the museum was donated by county residents.
A typewriter, telephone switchboard and officers’ mess sign fill a desk display in the museum’s Sioux Army Depot room. The World War II-era depot northwest of Sidney operated until 1967, according to a museum display.
A steep staircase leads down inside the museum building. Brumage said legend holds that an officer’s wife fell down a staircase in the building, and that the stairs were later covered up and found again during renovations.
Peeling paint shows on the upper floor of the Fort Sidney Museum, a former officers’ duplex built in 1884. The building was last refurbished in the 1990s, Brumage said.
Chipped paint and weathered trim show at the base of a corner on the museum building, beside a sign pointing to the wheelchair entrance.
Bent shutters on the museum building show pale foam board behind them. Brumage said the museum does not know what is behind the foam, which is starting to fall apart.
Paint peels around a dormer and a roof valley on a side of the museum building.
Crossed sabers hang above a desk in the Post Commander’s Home. Brumage said officers would have discussed the 1876 campaigns in this room, and that one of the swords is from the Battle of the Rosebud.
The front parlor of the Post Commander’s Home is furnished with period settees, chairs and a floral rug. Brumage said the room would have been used to host dignitaries.
Water stains and missing plaster expose the wood strips beneath the ceiling at the Post Commander’s Home. Brumage said recent patching has stopped water from leaking in, but leaks had damaged the building.
Mary Brumage, president of the Cheyenne County Historical Association, points to peeling siding and a boarded-over window at the Post Commander’s Home.
A stucco-covered chimney rises beside peeling siding at the back of the Post Commander’s Home. Brumage said moisture has damaged the home’s mud walls.
A ladder lies on the back porch of the Post Commander’s Home, where a window is boarded over and the siding is peeling.
It was a “Hail Mary” application. Then came the tears. Fort Sidney volunteers won $200,000 to save historic buildings at the museum, but now they need another $200,000.
