The Daisy Airgun Museum
Historic Downtown Rogers, Arkansas

In January, 1999, when I joined Daisy we were still in the office building at the old (1958) plant on 8^th street.  We had a small room, just off the reception area, which housed six walnut upright cases, against the walls.  There were two additional walnut free-standing cases.  (These cases were repaired and moved to the downtown facility when it was built-out).There was not really any chronological organization to the presentation of the old Daisy airguns, and there was no gift shop.  It was a self-guided tour of the eight cases.  The plant and offices were on the real estate market at that time.

When the plant was sold in July, 1999, the new owners gave us until Thanksgiving weekend to re-locate.  We found office space in an industrial park in the north part of town.  We realized that the museum, if it was ever to become a tourist attraction, would not thrive in the industrial park setting.  We began looking for a new location and consulted our mayor about our desire to have the museum become a tourist attraction for the City.  Our mayor is a real Daisy fan (and a Colonel in the Army Reserves).  He was a big help in finding the old 1906 bank building downtown.  It was not until our museum was open that we would discover that that building once housed the Rogers Historical Museum.

We worked with a local display company to design the “flow” of the museum, refurbish the old walnut cases, select items for display and build it out in time for the opening.  The detailed, informative historic timeline we created was to have appeal to former employees, local residents and collectors.  We sorted vintage printed material by decade to create displays that allowed visitors to take a walk through our history.     

Because we had never had personnel dedicated to giving museum tours, and because a new free-standing museum would require several people to staff, we originally spoke to the mayor about asking the director of our City’s Rogers Historical Museum to “absorb” the responsibilities of this new downtown museum and even to house the collection in an annex of the Historical Museum.  Because of stipulations in current and potential grants, the Historical Museum’s director wanted to avoid the conflict of managing a “private collection”. 

The Parks and Recreation director, however, was excited at the opportunity to get involved and volunteered to establish the Daisy Airgun Museum as a City of Rogers Park.  Frankly, he was the right man for the right job at the right time – very resourceful. 

We stored the collection from July, 1999, when we sold the old building, until March, 2000 when we opened the new museum downtown under a partnership with the City of Rogers.  The City managed the day-to-day operation of the museum but did not own the collection.  It was a unique but beneficial partnership. 

Being managed by the City allowed us to be adequately promoted by the state tourism department.  And, we had a Parks Dept. staff which could cost-efficiently do the type of odd jobs that come up with you’re running a museum.  They built cases, repaired displays, mopped, moved things, etc. just like they would at any other Parks facility. 

Daisy retirees with an interest in preserving the collection and supporting the efforts of the museum created a non-profit corporation.  The non-profit was entitled “Friends of the Daisy Airgun Museum” in order to be able to solicit donations of cash and artifacts.  Over the course of three years, the “Friends” collected $4,750 in donations to restore the old Daisy sign and in excess of $6,000 in additional unrestricted donations.     

Long term, however, it was never our intention nor was it ever the City’s intention to operate the Museum jointly.  Froom 2000 to 2003, Daisy had continued to subsidize the museum annually so that it would not be a burden on the taxpayers.  Therefore, in 2003 we began studying the question of whether it was better and/or more costly to subsidize the Museum or just manage it.  We created a business plan for the Museum that included the creation of a new non-profit corporation. 

The exciting thing about the Daisy Museum today is that it is not owned or operated by Daisy nor is it owned and operated by the City of Rogers.  We have created a non-profit corporation which owns the collection, pays for the labor and, in every other way, is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Museum.  In this way, donations of money, antiques as well as the proceeds of Museum sales all go to the Daisy Airgun Museum, a non-profit entity with the sole responsibility of managing and protecting the collection and handling internet and gift shop sales. 

David Gates, John Ford, Orin Ribar (long-time Daisy associates) and Sue Secker, who were employed by the City under the former agreement, are now retained by the non-profit.  The bylaws protect the collection in perpetuity. 

Charter members of the board of the non-profit originally included Joe Murfin as chairman, Ray Hobbs and Marianne McBeth.  In June, 2004, upon the dissolution of the “Friends of the Daisy Museum”, the board created two new positions and elected Orin Ribar and David Gates.

On October 25^th, 2004, the Museum was relocated to the southwest corner of Second and Walnut Streets.  The new location is an historic building, dating to 1896 and known to many residents as the former Rexall Drug building.  The location was selected for the high traffic count for tourists visiting historic downtown Rogers and passing through town on their way to Beaver Lake, Eureka Springs and Branson. 

The new location offered the Museum an opportunity to build a maze of interior walls, further defining periods in Daisy’s history.  The new chronological presentation of antique airguns, advertising and memorabilia offers a more cohesive presentation. 

In conjunction with the Museum relocation, the staff hosted a relocation celebration and open house on Sunday, November 14^th with a ribbon cutting and silent auction.  This date also marked the launch of a fundraiser to refurbish and relocation of the old Daisy sign.  Various levels of donor awards were made available and response from Daisy retirees, business associates, community leaders and the general public was generous.  The Daisy sign is to be strategically placed in front of Daisy corporate offices, but more importantly strategically placed to lead visitors to the Daisy Museum.  The reverse side will thank visitors for visiting historic downtown Rogers. 

On January 31^st, 2005, the Daisy Museum, Daisy Outdoor Products and many of you suffered the loss of a wonderful friend.  David Gates had been a high school coach in Plymouth, Michigan when the president of Daisy asked him to write a shooting education curriculum during the summer school break in 1955.  David did so, and never went back to coaching at the school.  He moved his family from Michigan to Arkansas in 1958 and held many positions with Daisy until his retirement.  But he was always involved in education – Daisy’s shooting education and as a member of our community’s school board.  David was instrumental in the efforts to establilsh the Daisy Museum in 1999.  He was one of the curators when it opened on First Street in March, 2000.  He worked hard up until the day that his health no longer permitted.  David was a mentor to many of us.  He was a valuable counsel.  He was a great and true friend.  David was a coach. 

1880  ║  1890  ║ 1900  ║  1910  ║  1920  ║  1930  ║  1940  ║  The War Years
 1950  ║  1960  ║  1970  ║  1980  ║  1990  ║  2000  ║  The Museum