Museum receives donation of the
Warren Oil & Gas Building
At a "handover ceremony on the morning of June 12, the museum accepted the donation of the historic building at 7 South Elm Street in Three Oaks, and agreed to turn the building into a display space.
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Donor Jim Barkhurst signed the building over to the museum on the condition that displays about the Warren family and its many businesses--- mainstays of the area's economy for decades--- would be housed in the building, which was built in 1932-33.
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Barkhurst is the current president of the Warren Oil & Gas Company, which operated in the building for about 30 years after its formation in the 1950s. From the 1930s to the 1950s, 7 S. Elm was the headquarters of E. K. Warren & Son, which ran large farming operations in our area, as well as in the American Southwest and Mexico.
The Warrens made their initial fortune from Featherbone, a substance made from shredded turkey feather spines and used as a shaping material for corsets and other fashions of the late 19th century. Featherbone was patented by Edward K. Warren in 1883. The company was headquartered in Three Oaks and was a principal employer in the area for decades.​​
But E. K. Warren's son Charles (pictured on horseback at left) was captivated by the "Wild West", and persuaded his father to buy up vast ranching lands in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Mexico. Charles was president of E. K. Warren and Son until his death in 1932, just a few months before the building at 7 South Elm was completed. The company owned large farms in this area, and close to a million acres of Southwest ranch lands.​​
In the 1950s, the Warrens sold off most of their ranch holdings, but retained mineral rights to the lands. The Warren Oil & Gas Company was formed to receive royalty payments from oil companies and distribute the proceeds to stockholders, mostly members of the Warren family.​​​​​​​
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The new display space will be named in honor of Josephine Warren Hoffman, Charles Warren's daughter and one of several Warren descendants who served as President of the Oil & Gas Company.
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The museum is currently studying original building blueprints to determine how best to restore 7 South Elm, which hasn't been occupied for more than 40 years. TROTOM's intention is to restore some original features of the building and open it to the public as a second TROTOM campus.
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On the evening of May 1st, a great crowd of our members and volunteers gathered at the museum to get a "sneak peek" at what's new for 2025...and enjoy snack and drinks.
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The next day at noon, the museum opened its doors for this year. We'll welcome visitors from now through the end of October-- 12-5 PM, Friday through Sunday. There's no admission charge, though a donation of $3 is appreciated. We look forward to seeing you!
The museum's 2025 season is underway!
PrancerPalooza provides holiday cheer
and a nostalgic return of movie cast and crew
35 years after the Three Oaks area provided the charming setting for the filming of Prancer, some of the film's stars came back to town on December 14 for a celebration dubbed PrancerPalooza. Rebecca Harrell, who played Jessica Riggs, the little girl at the heart of the movie, attended, as did Rutanya Alda (Aunt Sarah) and Belinda Bremner (Miss Bedelia).
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The film's director, John Hancock (still an area resident) and film editor Dennis O'Connor and other crew members were also on hand. A. J. Workman, who helped control the robotic reindeer used in the movie, came all the way from
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Oklahoma, bringing with him some fantastic print illustrations of movie scenes and of Prancer done by his fellow reindeer operator John Brunner during delays that are a part of every filmmaking experience. He gave the first print of the illustration at right to Prancer's producer, Raffaella De Laurentis.
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Sam Elliott (John Riggs) had planned to attend but is no longer able to come, due to an unexpected professional commitment. Mark Rolston (Herb Drier) also planned to attend, but had to drop out after a hiking injury that required surgery.
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Cast members who have passed away-- Cloris Leachman, Abe Vigoda, and Michael Constantine among them-- were remembered throughout the weekend.
The film itself was shown three times at the Vickers Theatre, each screening followed by a Q-and-A session, with performers and crew members recalling their movie-making experiences in Michiana in 1989.
At 4 PM, cast & crew were hailed in a PrancerPalooza parade that wound down Elm Street Between Maple and Linden. They rode in sleighs decked out in Christmas finery, accompanied by "rein-dogs" (pooches wearing antlers) and even a pony and a couple of llamas!
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The parade ended just outside Three Oaks Heritage Hall, where the museum displayed the scale model of Three Oaks village used in the film's final scene, along with a slide show showing more that 100 images of the cast and crew at work on the streets of Three Oaks and other Michiana sites.
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PrancerPalooza was a joint effort of the museum, Three Oaks Village, and the village's Downtown Development Authority. The festivities shifted to LaPorte the next day, where cast and crew answered questions at a screening at the city's Civic Center.​​
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TROTOM VP presents the story of "The Sandburgs and the Nisei"
at statewide history conference.
History buffs from across the state of Michigan heard a remarkable tale of wartime Harbert at the annual conference of the Historical Society of Michigan in late September.
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TROTOM Vice President Nick Bogert presented a 45-minute program on how famed poet Carl Sandburg and his wife Paula took in two young Japanese-Americans who had been detained by the government under rules later declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court. Sunao Imoto and Kaye Miyamoto left detention centers where their families were being held and lived with the Sandburgs in the early 1940s, helping Carl Sandburg as he wrote his massive biography of Abraham Lincoln and also tending Paula Sandburg's prize-winning goat herd.
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Bogert had presented a similar program on this little-known chapter of Harbert history in June at the Chikaming Township Hall as part of TROTOM's summer lecture series.
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Remembering Harold Russell
TROTOM lost an avid supporter and guiding force this summer with the passing of Harold Russell. Harold was a seminal player in the effort to revive a history museum in Three Oaks, motivated in ​part by fond boyhood memories of visiting the Chamberlain Museum, which closed down in the1950s.
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Harold's love of local history and his skills as a lawyer were quite valuable to the effort to bring a museum back to the Three Oaks area in the early 2000s, and he served as a TROTOM board member for almost two decades. Our condolences go out to his wife Margo and Harold's family.
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