The Helper Western & Railroad Museum is getting ready to host an exhibit entitled Moniker-Mark of the Tramp by Charlie Wray. This exhibit was originally scheduled to take place at the beginning of the year but due to the COVID-19 pandemic it was canceled. Castle Country Radio was able to speak with Museum Director, Jason Huntzinger and Artist, Charley Wray about the exhibit.

“As you say we’ve been working on this for some time to get this here, it will be open next week. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to have a big event or anything for it but that exhibit will be in the WPA Art Room here on the first floor of the museum and its called the Moniker-Mark of the Tramp its all about hobos and how they communicated,” said Huntzinger. This is a unique exhibit and to finally have it open here in the area is a wonderful thing.

Artist, Charley Wray was able to join Castle Country Radio over the telephone to share details of his workings. “So it intros with a hobo history, kind of an overview how hobos got started you know in the wake of the American Civil War, and a bit about riding freight trains, how they rode freight trains, the dangers of that, a lot of examples of hobo graffiti,” stated Wray.  He hopes that guests will enjoy his work and gain some understanding of hobo history.

Guests who wish to visit the museum to see the exhibit can do so during regular business hours as Huntzinger explains, “So we’re open regular hours right now which is Monday through Saturday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. So the exhibit will be up and ready to view when we open on Monday.” Masks are required when you visit the museum and they are only allowing 20 people in at a time.

The museum hoped that they could host several events around the exhibit but because of COVID they have to put them on the back burner for now. “So we are a little disappointed that we couldn’t do some of the events that we had planned in correlation with this but we’ll hopefully get back to doing some of that fun stuff as soon as possible. But we are still open and wear your masks, we have plenty of hand sanitizer and we hope to see you,” stated Huntzinger.

If you have any questions about the museum or the Moniker-Mark of the Tramp exhibit please contact the museum at (435) 472-3009.