Payson Roundup

Roundup file photo

The Rim Country Museum was named the 10th best western museum on True West’s list for 2010.

Hundreds of museums around the country celebrate the American West and True West magazine says the Rim Country Museum in Payson is one of the best.

Recently, the Rim Country Museum was named the 10th best western museum on True West’s list for 2010. The New Mexico History Museum of Santa Fe took top honors.

“Payson isn’t as well known as many Old West towns, but it should be — and the Rim Country Museum is just one reason,” says True West Executive Editor Bob Boze Bell. “Its various exhibits and special events make it a place that shouldn’t be missed.”

Writer Johnny D. Boggs selected the winners for this year’s award based on his extensive travels, research and firsthand experiences in visiting western museums each year.

Readers also nominated museums through an application form on the magazine’s Web site.

Boggs cited the Rim Country’s ongoing efforts to honor western novelist Zane Grey, who spent much time in the area in the early and mid-1900s. Last year, the museum dedicated the Gib Styles collection of 294 items, featuring several Zane Grey first editions, as a permanent exhibit in the replica of the cabin Grey lived in.

Other displays tell the stories of the area’s Indians and rodeos, miners and lumberjacks, moonshiners and firefighters.

All winners of this year’s top western museums will be featured in True West’s May 2010 issue, on newsstands April 20.

For more information, visit http://www.twmag.com or call (888) 687-1881.