Military artifacts will go back on display in November
By NEIL YOUNG/The Daily News
Three years after the contents of the American Heroes Museum were turned over to them, Kevin and Julie Hassett are getting ready for their opening at an upscale Fort Mohave business park. The museum was formerly housed at Laughlin’s Ramada – now Tropicana – Express.
Kevin Hassett prefers to call it “a reopening,” as opposed to a grand opening. “The grand opening will be when we get (the permanent home) built,” he said.
“This is actually a homecoming,” said Chaz Martinez, marketing coordinator for the museum.
It took longer than the Hassetts anticipated to get a 501(c) (3), or nonprofit tax status, from the federal government. “It took us a year to get that,” Hassett said. An then, the recession set the project back an additional two years, he said.
The museum will be opening at noon, Nov. 11 with special guest Susan Murphy. The former Ramada Express vice president and general manager founded the original museum, which displayed World War II artifacts in the hotel/casino’s Pavilion Theater.
When hotel officials decided to close the facility, they sought business proposals from organizations wanting to take possession of the artifacts and to open their own museum. A committee chose the Hassetts, who proposed constructing a museum on an acre of land set aside at their Desert Lawn Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens in Mohave Valley.
In the meantime, the 1,200 square-foot suite they secured at a discounted rental rate will serve as a temporary home for the museum, Hassett said. There will be no admission charge, but donations will be welcome.
Negotiations are continuing between Hassett and Veterans United, regarding the contents of its Arizona Military Heritage Center, which recently closed due to a lack of operating funds.
The contents are currently in storage. Hassett has offered to display the artifacts in the American Heroes Museum. Mark Crough, the Heritage Center’s manager, said it’s up to the Veterans United board to finalize any potential agreement.
The American Heroes Museum will be seeking additional memorabilia from individual donors. “People are just cleaning their house and they come across these things and they feel a little bit guilty about maybe just discarding it. Now they don’t have to do that. They have a home (at the museum),” Martinez said.
Some of the museum’s artifacts will be displayed in the Laughlin Ranch art gallery a week before the museum opens. There will be a golf tournament to raise funds for the museum Dec. 12 at Laughlin Ranch.
Museum officials see the facility as helping to make Bullhead City “a veterans destination. That’s one thing we want to be known for,” Martinez said.
