Bosque Museum

Norwegian immigrants began arriving in Bosque County in 1854. Many came under Cleng Peerson, who left Norway in 1821, reached Texas in 1849 and led a group to the county in 1853. A state marker calls him the Father of Norwegian Immigration to America. The state offered 320 acres to each family that settled in the new county, and most settled in a triangle bounded by Clifton, Norse and Cranfills Gap. Peerson died in 1865 and is buried in the church cemetery at Norse.

The museum's Norwegian collection includes a chair Peerson made and Norwegian-language books the immigrants brought, the earliest dated 1735. Its Native American gallery shows artifacts collected in the county going back about 10,000 years, with a Horn Shelter exhibit on Paleo-Americans. The Handbook of Texas names the Tonkawa, Waco and Tawakoni as the peoples of the region before settlement.

Other galleries hold about 150 long guns and handguns from the 1750s on, early photographs of immigrants and their homes, textiles from the 1850s, furniture made in the county, medical and school collections, and paintings by the Bosque Seven. Jacob Olson founded the museum, and his childhood log cabin stands outdoors with pioneer furniture. The museum does not list admission online.