By Tim Cable
Anchor / WJHL
Published: June 4, 2007

There’s excitement in the journey.

“This has been a real exciting exhibit for us”, says Director, Trish Patterson.

It’s Johnson’s Journey at the Hands On Museum.

“There was an opportunity for Hands On to help the city celebrate 150 years from the first train that stopped at Johnson’s Tank”, according to Trish.

Ah yes, Henry Johnson—the journey begins with him.

“Well, Henry Johnson was quite an entrepreneur”, Trish says. “Henry Johnson built the tank to get the trains to stop to water and while the train was stopped people could get off and shop and that started to make Johnson’s Tank a gathering place, a stopping place it grew into Johnson’s Depot and then finally became Johnson City”.

So the journey is a trip through time—through the city’s history—laid out on a timeline from one end to the other.

“Oh, it’s a pretty big undertaking the space is 5,000 square feet”, says Exhibit & Outreach Coordinator, Franci Sloan. “This is an in house exhibit which means we built the whole thing ourselves”.

With help from the community and ETSU.

“A graduate program in early childhood education took it as a class project”, adds Trish.

Start your journey at Johnson’s Tank—then move on down to the Beehive Department Store where you can pretend to be a shopper or the storekeeper. At the Blue Plum Post Office..

“They get to draw a commemorative stamp”, Franci says.

To the right, there’s a real wall of fame.

“History mystery wall that they can see people who’ve been important and they can follow the clues to solve the history mystery”, says Trish.

There’s a colossal walk through caboose.

“Put on an engineer cap and pretend that they are riding in the caboose”, says Franci.

Track your way through the quilt trail and a then and now photo gallery and you find yourself at the fountain. The city agreed to allow the museum to display the old Lady of the Fountain statue.

“Who once stood down in Fountain Square”, Trish adds.

Watch a model of the old Tweetsie Railroad train track its way around the bend and if you have a favorite story or memory of Johnson City, you can share that by writing it down at the storytelling desk.

Franci reads one of the notes scribbled down by a visitor: “I can remember coming to King’s Department Store as a little girl to get my Girl Scout uniform”.

The journey ends with a trip to the future of Johnson City.

“That’s called the Blue Plum Village”, says Franci. “It’s kind of up to the children to create what they think Johnson City’s future will be like to use their imaginations and creativity”.

In the Blue Plum Village, you can try your turn at what they call plasma cars.

“It runs on momentum and friction”, Franci says. “So you put your feet on the car and you turn the handle and it’s propelled by your friction”.

On display until mid September, Johnson’s Journey is quite a hands on history lesson.

“The museum’s mission is to provide interactive exhibits, displays, outreach activities in the arts, sciences and humanities”, according to Trish. “But, this gave us the opportunity to do a lot with humanities, with history in an interactive way”.

“Sometimes you know I have to stop and think, wow, I can’t believe we took this empty space and transformed it into this interactive history lesson for kids”, says Franci.

And the lesson’s for all kids—from one to 92.

“Hands On is for learners of all ages, Tim”, Trish laughs.