Garst Museum

The Garst Museum is dedicated to preserving the history of the county and fostering education on its relevance to the American experience. Our mission is to collect, preserve, exhibit, study, and interpret materials relating to the history and culture of Darke County, Ohio, as it represents a Crossroads of the American Experience.

The DCHS operates the Garst Museum in Greenville, Ohio, and its 35,000-square-foot campus houses over 300,000 artifacts. Permanent exhibitions of national significance include the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Annie Oakley, the Treaty of Greene Ville, Lowell Thomas, and Ohio Native Americans. The Garst Museum offers programs for people of all ages and walks of life and welcomes thousands of visitors annually. In its effort to address the community’s needs, the museum offers an opportunity for all fourth-grade students in Darke County to participate in educational programs aligned with Ohio’s fourth-grade curriculum standards at no charge. As of 2024, Darke County Parks will partner with the Garst and begin hosting the acclaimed and highly-anticipated Gathering at Garst, a festival which the Garst has hosted in past years.

Alongside being the home county of Annie Oakley and Lowell Thomas, Darke County also claims the origins of one of the most famous partnerships of discovery in American history: Lewis and Clark. Meriwether Lewis met William Clark in Greenville for the first time during it’s fort period in 1795. He was on trial for court martial here and was transferred into Clark’s Chosen Rifles. Years later, Lewis would recall the friendship he founded in Greenville and asked Clark to be a co-captain with him on their legendary expedition. Not only this, but the expedition would not have been as successful as it was were it not for Lewis and Clark’s shared experiences in Greenville concerning their encounters with the native tribes during the Treaty of Greenville.