New director has big plans for Havasu Museum of History

Rangel has designed exhibits all over the world, including the Field Museum in Chicago, the London Natural History Museum, and several museums in Las Vegas including the Bigelow Aerospace Museum, the Children’s Museum and the Natural History Museum.

She has also put together several traveling exhibits including a “Beerology” exhibit that is still being shown in San Diego eight years after it opened.

Rangel said she wants to use that experience to help build the Lake Havasu Museum of History – and she has been impressed with what the museum has to offer already.

“Especially for having such a small museum here, everything we have is fabulous. Everything from the Chemehuevi to building the Parker Dam to McCulloch and the London Bridge – it is an amazing history. It is very different from anything I have ever seen in my life,” Rangel said. “I get why people are so fond of the particular history of Havasu. It is very different and unlike other histories. The only thing I really want to do is preserve that history and try to expand the museum and get to a level where we can increase our collections, bring more collections that we have out on the floor, and maybe go a little more in an interactive direction.”

Obviously the London Bridge is a big part of the museum in Havasu, but Rangel said the museum has so much more to offer than just pictures of the bridge or its dedication.

“Instead of just looking at a bridge we could go more into the mechanics or the mathematical side of what it takes to do that,” she said.

The museum could present additional information about the bridge such as how many people it took to disassemble and reassemble, she said the museum also has diagrams of how the bridge was put together and an explanation about the numbering system for each of the blocks.

“I have a lot of exhibit design experience,” Rangel said. “So I am really hoping to take this history and expand on it. There is so much more story to tell.”

Another big goal of Rangel’s is to make the documents included in the museum’s resource library more readily available to the public by making digital copies and putting them online. Rangel said the museum has every geological survey of the area dating back to the 1800s which shows the flood plans prior to the construction of the Parker Dam. The museum also has every edition of every newspaper that has ever been published in Havasu, lots of various magazines, and lots of pictures and film of people, places and events from the town’s history.

“Right now if you wanted to look for an obituary in 1958 we probably have it, but to find it you have to go through a book,” she said. “In time we are hoping to make all of those things accessible and not have them hidden in the back room. We have some amazing stuff.”

Rangel is also hoping to expand the museums footprint in Havasu through some extra community outreach. She said most of the workers and board members at the museum are extremely enthusiastic, but they are almost entirely from the older generation.

“We have no young people who participate, or are learning how to access and use the museum,” she said. “So when they are all gone who is going to be invested? It is about engaging the different groups in Havasu, the diversity, and the young people who come into Havasu. We want to engage with them and get them invested in the museum for the future.”