Current Exhibits

Temporary Exhibits

The Vietnam Experience
On display through January 2025

The U.S. Navy participated in a wide variety of roles and missions during the Vietnam War. Navy combat artists recorded many of these activities, typically sharing the same dangers as the sailors and Marines they accompanied. For those who were not there, the scenes depicted here give a visual sense of the Vietnam War: the colors, the landscape, the people, and adrenaline-charged combat actions.

The exhibit of artworks from Naval History and Heritage Command will be accompanied by artifacts and archival documents related to the Vietnam War.

Leave a remembrance for a lost loved one or share your own experience in the war through our interactive memorial.

Gemstones in Genealogy
On display through January 2025

The exhibit features the work of local artist Marla Ripperda and highlights the history of her family in Bell County and Central Texas through painting, collage, and other mediums.

This exhibit includes an interactive scavenger hunt for visitors of all ages.

Permanent Exhibits

Discover Bell County

Located in our 1904 Historic Carnegie Library, this exhibit takes visitors on a journey through Bell County History. Explore four themes of Bell County's past: The Land, Agriculture and Ranching, Transportation and Industry, and Education and Culture. Each theme covers part of the story of Bell County, Texas.

Enjoy historic photos on our interactive touchscreen, the famous Moustache Teacup Collection, paleolithic era artifacts, and more!

This exhibit features fun interactive elements for kids of all ages.

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The Gault Site: A Wealth of New Archaeological Evidence

This permanent exhibit includes large murals, discovery drawers, microscopes and the film, "The Gault Project: An Adventure in Time," funded by the Texas Historical Foundation.

The Gault Site has been home to human beings for over 13,000 years. It is strategically located in the Balcones Ecotone, the boundary zone of the Edwards Plateau and the Black Prairie/Coastal Plain Ecozone. The analysis of materials at the Gault Site provides archaeologists with a unique look into the lifestyles of the earliest people in Texas and, by extension, the earliest peoples in the Americas.

This exhibit features an interactive dig pit, a chance to be an archaeologist, a chalkboard for cave drawings, discovery drawers, and more!

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Little River Log Cabin

The Little River Log Cabin was built in the 1850s near Little River/Academy, the area of earliest Anglo settlement in Bell County. The cabin features half-dovetail notching, and was originally a “single-pen,” or one-room house, with side-facing gables.

In 1995, Grant and Jeanny Smith purchased the cabin and had it dismantled by Salado artist Lonnie Edwards. In 2001, the Smiths donated the cabin to the Bell County Museum.

The cabin is not the original size, nor are all of the stones and logs placed in their original positions. However, the logs and stones are original to the 1850s cabin.