Frontier history drew volunteer to Old Cowtown Museum

At Old Cowtown Museum, Ron Parker gets to be pretty much anyone he wants to be.

“I can do anything – cowboy, soldier, farmer. I can hitch harness and drive a team,” Parker said. “That’s all the stuff I’ve done out there.

“I got more clothes than Barbie.”

For the past eight years, Parker has been a volunteer at the 1870s-era living history museum. This past May, he posed for the museum’s Steampunk Day dressed as a Steampunk Batman.

“I had a secret identity,” he said, jokingly.

Parker, 51, grew up doing farm work for his uncle near Grove, Okla. He said he learned to drive a pickup on dirt roads. It was a way of life he treasures.

The rural, frontier history is initially what drew him to be a volunteer at Cowtown, he said.

“I have always loved the history,” Parker said. “That’s always been important.

“And I did acting in school. This lets me do both. I get to go out and meet people.”

At times, he has been an ambassador of goodwill.

“I’ve met more people from all over the world – from China, Russia, Australia, Germany and France,” he said. “I don’t have to go anywhere. They come to see me.

“The history isn’t dead. We live it.”

This story was originally published September 14, 2014 at 11:36 AM with the headline "Frontier history drew volunteer to Old Cowtown Museum."