One of the great hidden treasures of the Wilderness Road Regional Museum are boxes and boxes of ledgers, books, old newspapers, and family documents stored under the eaves in the archival section of the museum. While they are in air-conditioned space, they are not in any special order nor are they being properly stored in archival boxes. Dr. Tal Stanley of Emory and Henry College and a group of his students operating under a special grant have started work to scan and digitize these items and then organize them in labeled archival boxes. This is a monumental task that could only be accomplished for the Museum with this level of expertise and financial support. This is a cooperative effort with Gene Hyde and the Radford University library that will make some records available free to the public via the Radford University web site.
The reorganized documents will remain on site at the Museum and the intellectual property online belongs to the Museum and Historical Society. In the next few years funds will need to be found to renovate the Old Jail and have these items along with the current archives organized in their own building and more available for research.