After a 2 ½-year closure for a $1 million renovation, the Boyhood Home of Wyatt Earp has re-opened in Pella. Executive Director of Pella Historical Society and Museums Valerie Van Kooten says the newly interpreted space tells the story of the 14 years the Nicholas Earp family lived in Pella, and the three years (1861-1864) that they lived in this particular space. It then follows the legendary lawman as he travels West.
“To have the original house in the original location is a real boon,” says Van Kooten, Executive Director of Pella Historical Society and Museums, where the Earp House resides in the Historical Village. “So much of Wyatt’s later lift has been documented, but we are the only ones who can tell the story of how a Scots-Irish family lived in a small Dutch community in the 1850s and ‘60s.”
True West Magazine
The Pella Historical Society starts at home.
Certainly, Wyatt Earp didn’t play cowboys and Indians growing up in Pella, Iowa. We know because it would be decades before cowboys were glorified enough for little boys to imitate, and Indians were still too real and seen as too dangerous. But this is about all that’s certain for the years when Wyatt was a lad.
The final exhibition room of the Wyatt Earp Experience allows visitors to reflect on who they think Wyatt Earp really was in life and legend.
All Images Courtesy Pella Historical Society and Museums Unless Otherwise Noted