‘Old Fort Bliss’ enhances educational opportunities

Natalie M. Hinojos

Special to The Monitor

The Old Fort Bliss Replica Museum has rebuilt its golden days from the ground up.

Wanda Kienzle, program director of the Old Fort Bliss Replica Museum, has worked hard to bring people back to the museum so they can experience the daily lives of the 1800s.

Kienzle organized a small reading session and asked Gigi Winburn, program assistant for Army Family Team Building, if she could volunteer her time to read the Tales of Benjamin Bunny and the Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck by Beatrix Potter to a group of children during the Feb. 27 grand opening of the reading room.

“It was a lot of fun. There was this one little boy in particular who was really entranced by the story, and that was the kind of thing I look forward to when I volunteer here at the Replica Museum,” said Winburn. “If he was the only one to have shown up today, it would have been worth coming out just to read to him.”

The reading room is available to people to use for meetings, crafts, teaching and small events. The Old Fort Bliss Replica Museum was donated to Fort Bliss property and community in 1940 from the community of El Paso as a museum and replica of one of the many forts that occupied the area in the 1800s.

“In the 1800s not everyone could read, but while others could, they would pass along the information of what was going on in the world – the inventions, the ideas and culture through reading to each other,” said Kienzle. “I thought it would be a good idea to introduce to people and tie it in with reading to the children.”

Originally it was a museum, but because of the unique structure of the building it is not able to house valuable pieces and artifacts due to its open area to weather, so it was changed to a hands-on learning center.

The museum contains a blacksmith’s shop, leather shop, weaving room, a pottery room, kitchen, a settlers’ store and now the reading room.

Kienzle began to collect a variety of books, including book donations from volunteers, in order to open the resource center. During the process they organized an opportunity to read to children.

“I noticed people had questions after going through the rooms,” said Kienzle. “So I thought to have a little resource center–an area where people can come in and read about the 1800s in the Southwest.”

The museum has hosted small events to utilize the room, such as re-enactments of historical events, throughout the year. The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.