By ANN ALLEN
Indiana Correspondent

COLUMBIA CITY, Ind. — The weather was so hot at the Whitley County 4-H Fair that ice cream vendors could barely keep up – but at the Agricultural Center and 4-H Learning Center, Phil Valjack was hotter than anyone else.

Bent over a glowing forge, Valjack worked on a steel rim he eventually shaped to fit over a wooden wheel that would become part of a quarter-scale Studebaker wagon for yet another display in the burgeoning museum.

He’d already made a half-scale replica mounted high over some of the other exhibits.

The museum, which opened in 2006, is home to a variety of booths designed to teach today’s 4-H members how their ancestors lived and worked. There, youngsters can see milk separator demonstrations, attend classes in a one-room school, watch a quilt being made or candles being poured.

They can drop by a kitchen where Pauline Scott, who donated nearly everything displayed, explains how she grew up in that kitchen.
Attendance, however, is not limited to youngsters – their parents and grandparents enjoy the exhibits as much as the kids do, and sometimes bore the younger generation by pointing out, “That’s just like we used to do it. You kids don’t know how lucky you are.”
Very few, however, could duplicate Valjack’s effort performed outside the air-conditioned building. It was, as he said, “one hot job.”