{"id":23214,"date":"2026-04-15T18:51:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T00:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=23214"},"modified":"2026-04-22T18:54:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T00:54:29","slug":"blaine-county-historical-museums-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/15\/blaine-county-historical-museums-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Blaine County Historical Museum\u2019s Director"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ISAIAH FRIZZELL<\/em><\/p>\n

Rebecca Cox, the Blaine County Historical Museum\u2019s director, has lived in the Wood River Valley nearly her entire life.
\n\u201cMy parents were working for the Forest Service, and they moved here when I was six months old,\u201d Cox said. \u201cWe lived way out in Muldoon Canyon in a Forest Service guard station. I learned to walk out there, and it was idyllic.\u201d
\nNowadays, she oversees the treasure trove of well-kept objects and defining stories that describe where we are and how we got here at the Blaine County Historical Museum on Main Street in Hailey. It takes a special type of person, fascinated by history and graced with joy, who recognizes the value of shared nostalgia. Her work with the museum began as a volunteer.
\n\u201cI started working with the collections and talking with the former director,\u201d Cox said. \u201cAbout a year later, Joan Davies invited me to join the board. As the vice-president, she invited me to a board meeting, and I was so involved that they voted me in as a board member. I just got really excited about the potential of the place. I realized that this has been a treasure box here in the community, but a treasure box that wasn\u2019t fully opened.\u201d
\nBecoming the director evolved organically. \u201cIt just seemed like something I wanted to pour my heart into. I became the director in 2019, and we\u2019ve been steadily doing stepping-stones of growth.\u201d
\nCox is also a talented pianist and vocalist who performs in the valley at farmers\u2019 markets and local gigs. She got her start in Germany playing on Air Force bases. \u201cThat\u2019s how my husband and I met, while in Germany,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s a guitar player. So, I brought him back here, and we got married, 20 years ago now.\u201d
\nThey were married at the old Carnation Mansion just south of Bellevue.
\n\u201cWe were such wandering souls,\u201d Cox recalled. \u201cBut then I thought, this is where we\u2019re going to raise our kids. It kind of shifted something in me, and I looked at my community differently. But it was my husband who encouraged me to volunteer at the museum. I\u2019d just had my third child, and as I do music, you know, we\u2019d been doing things around the valley. But I hadn\u2019t really found my true connection with the community.\u201d
\nCox can often be found at the museum even during off-hours, finding new ways t bring delight to the community with event nights including food, music, and special guided tours.
\nA gorgeous, working, antique cash register sits at the front of the museum and Cox loves to demonstrate how it works.
\n\u201cWe love to have kids pretend that they\u2019re miners,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we show them these receipts of actual miners coming into a store. We\u2019ll say, \u2018How much do you think they spent?\u2019\u201d
\nTo demonstrate, Cox punches in the numbers. The total displays with a beautiful, well-crafted sound.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re really excited to be participating with the school district and other community partners during Hailey\u2019s Days of the Old West,\u201d Cox said. \u201cThis will be a very big program we\u2019ll offer annually for the fourth graders. It\u2019s an immersive history experience.\u201d
\nMeet Rebecca Cox at the Blaine County Historical Museum.
\nEntirely free and open daily from Memorial Day through Labor Day Weekend.
\n11 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday and 1-5 p.m. on Sundays.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ISAIAH FRIZZELL Rebecca Cox, the Blaine County Historical Museum\u2019s director, has lived in the Wood River Valley nearly her entire life. \u201cMy parents were working for the Forest Service, and they moved here when I was six months old,\u201d Cox said. \u201cWe lived way out in Muldoon Canyon in a Forest Service guard station. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":479,"featured_media":23215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-commentary","8":"category-people-that-you-meet"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23216,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23214\/revisions\/23216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}