When someone helps build something as grand as Cleburne’s Chisholm Trail Outdoor Museum, one might think it was a realization of a lifelong dream. And although history is a love of the museum’s charter president David Murdoch, he just happened upon what will undoubtedly become a great part of his legacy.
“There were two other gentlemen involved, and they had just moved the courthouse there,” said Murdoch of the beginning of his involvement with the museum. “My ranch is right around the corner from there, so I just stopped by to see what they were doing, got to know them, and it became obvious pretty quick that they needed a quarterback. So, I just started to help them.”
That was in 2003. Pretty soon, Murdoch was dressing in chaps saddled with ropes and six-shooters as one of a handful of cowboys for the museum’s first annual event, Pioneer Days.
“The first time we had Pioneer Days, my wife walked past me three times asking people where I was. She didn’t even recognize me because I had on my 10-gallon hat and my chaps,” Murdoch laughed.
Murdoch’s John Wayne attire may have been a disguise during that first event, but after 17 years of Pioneer Days, it eventually became a staple look for the museum’s current CEO and chairman.
