COUNTY ARCHIVE CENTER A GOOD INVESTENT

A week ago the county Archive Center on the north side of the courthouse square was dedicated at an open house. The 7,500-square-foot building should provide not only ample space for storage of the valuable records for many years to come but also offers reading areas where researchers can work. Genealogists should find the new center eases their work by consolidating all county records in one place.

The problem of records storage wasn't a new one. As long ago as the 1930s, the county auctioned many old maps, some dating to the Civil War, because there was no place to store them. A Jackson resident, Bernard Schaper, presented the county with some of those maps his cousin had bought in the 1930s, and they will now be in safe keeping.

The archive center was a good choice. It will assure that valuable records of the past and future will be available to those who need them.