Study of Native American Cultures

Wayne J. Parker (1938-1992) was a self-taught anthropologist heavily vested in the folkways of Indian tribes that roamed the Staked Plains of Texas. A graduate of West Texas State University, Parker spent 42 years amassing a collection of over 23,000 locally-found points and other abandoned artifacts. After his death in 1992, the Parker family donated portions of his collection to CCPMM. In 1994, Rick Walter, CCPMM Project Archeologist, prepared the collection for exhibit at CCPMM, photographing and cataloguing each object. Walter also compiled a series of bound books describing this amazing collection. Mrs. Alice Faye Parker's extensive collection of New Mexico and Caddo pottery also is on display in the Parker Center. To house the Parker artifacts, the children of Wayne and Alice Parker have provided CCPMM with beautifully hand-crafted oak exhibit cases.

It is CCPMM's distinct privilege to house these acquisitions, making them available to visitors and scholars.   

Choise Smith (1938-2020) was the great-grandson of the area's first Anglo settlers, Hank and Elizabeth Boyle Smith. 

As youths, Choise Smith and his childhood friend, Wayne J. Parker, were drawn to the wonders of Blanco Canyon and the mysteries it held of Native Americans who once roamed its creeks and bluffs. Although the Comanches, Kiowas, and Apaches had been relegated to reservations 75 years prior, their hunting grounds, camping sites, and trails remained relatively undisturbed, resulting in a rich opportunity for two teenage boys to explore and discover. 

Choise Smith is considered a gifted scholar of local Indian history and was a rich resource of information which he generously shared for many years with CCPMM until his death in 2020.

Choice will be remembered for his great interest in CCPMM which was the recipient of his sizable collection in 2010. Frequently, he could be found in the Parker Center teaching school children or chatting with museum visitors about the history of Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache culture.

In 2019, Crosby County resident  Barbara Dunn, wife of the late Crosby County farmer, Darrell Dunn, endowed CCPMM with beautifully-preserved animal mounts from her husband's hunting collection, the result of his many hunting trips to Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and various parts of Texas. These include moose, bear, caribou, sheep, ibis, deer, elk, along with Pacific northwest aquatic animals. All are on display in the Wayne J. Parker Center.