Emlenton’s Pumping Jack Museum explores reopening
After standing still for several years, the Pumping Jack Museum in Emlenton is preparing to reopen to the public as soon as spring 2027. Multiple local nonprofits have joined forces to give the museum a face-lift.
According to Eric Cook, executive director of the Venango County Historical Society, the museum — located inside Emlenton’s multiuse Crawford Center — has been open for limited hours and by special request only since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Ever since COVID, it's been open infrequently and hasn’t really been staffed,” Cook said. “The borough secretary would sometimes open it for visitors if someone wanted to take a look at the collection, but there really hadn’t been regular hours since 2021.”
The museum’s plans for moving forward were made possible when the Pumping Jack Historical Association — which previously oversaw the museum’s operations — voted to dissolve and donate the museum’s artifacts to the historical society.
“As (the board members) aged, they just didn’t have new people or support to take over the leadership,” Cook said. “So rather than see the collection broken up and given to different museums, the collection was given to the Venango County Historical Society.”
The borough of Emlenton and the Oil Region Alliance have partnered with the historical society on the museum’s redevelopment to develop new historical programming and catalog exhibits not publicly displayed previously. One of the key objects of the face lift, according to Cook, is to allow visitors to enjoy the museum even when no staff is on hand.
While some items are currently on display in the museum space, other items were temporarily relocated from a storage area to the historical society’s museum at the Egbert-Mullins-Koos House in Franklin.
“A lot of the collection had been donated over the years and never put on display,” Cook said. “What was in storage we brought to the historical society’s home in Franklin. What we’re doing right now is we’re cataloging it and sorting it.”
