Col. Raymond C. Vietzen and the Indian Ridge Museum Revisited

The wooden arrow from the Indian Ridge Museum –
at its new home in the New Indian Ridge Museum

Back in January (was it that long ago?), Colonel Raymond C. Vietzen and his Indian Ridge Museum were featured in a post that collected several articles about them from the Lorain Journal, dating from 1944 to his wife's passing in 1999.

Since then, I found an earlier article about Vietzen, and the publication of his book, Ancient Man in Northern Ohio. The article by Jean Weaver appeared in the Journal on August 23, 1941.

One of the articles from the earlier post (dated October 16, 1951) indicated that there would be four more parts in the series on the following Tuesdays. However, it appears that the intention to publish that many more articles was overly ambitious. I could only locate one more, which appeared on Wednesday, October 24, 1951 (below). The length of it seems to indicate that it contains the balance of the story. After the publication of this article, the Journal moved on to another multi-part historical series.

Here's another article that missed the cut to be included on the original blog post. It's from June 30, 1965 and promotes Col. Vietzen's latest book at that time, Indians of the Lake Erie Basin or Lost Nation.

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After that first blog post, local historian Col. Matt Nahorn of the New Indian Ridge Museum in Amherst provided me with some great photos to share.

Here's the Colonel, back when he was just Corporal Nahorn, outside the original Indian Ridge Museum. At right is the photo of the Museum from the 1951 article. Note the wooden arrow in the window; Nahorn salvaged it and it is shown in the photo at the top of this post.

Matt noted that the original Indian Ridge Museum was part of a 1920s filling station. The Museum was demolished in 2000, and Matt was able to salvage the original door. Here he is with it.

Lastly, here are photos of the two Colonels – four decades apart – posing with the statue from the original museum that now calls the New Indian Ridge Museum home.