Health director offers tours of 'museum'

Curious visitors to the Whitman County Public Service building can check out a collection of vintage medical instruments and educational posters dating back a half-century or more.

Director of Whitman County Public Health Troy Henderson discovered an abundance on retro medical materials, most originating between the 50s and the 90s, during a routine cleaning of the storage room. Henderson decided to put them to use, so he set up a makeshift "museum" in a small room of the Public Service Building and has been adding items to the collection for five years.

Many of the items are educational posters aimed at young adults from the U.S. anti-smoking campaigns of the 60s and 70s, while other parts of the collection include old-school metal syringes or plastic models of the human heart.

Henderson said residents wishing to check out the collection should stop by the Public Health office during regular business hours and ask to be taken for a visit.