Templar: Museum director's story full of 'historical inaccuracies'

Museum director Jeff Hunt and the Texas National Guard tell a story about a tragically flawed replica of the last battle of the Civil War, built by 200 students from Gilbert's Highland High School, that simply had to be destroyed.

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It's also a story that labels Highland history teacher Glen Frakes as a cranky troublemaker attacking a museum that dared to reject his work.

Hunt's story sounds somewhat credible at first, but quickly falls apart when confronted by a handful of compelling facts. As a result, Hunt and the Texas Military Forces Museum have landed in a world of bad publicity and political troubles that just won't go away.

And it's all Hunt's fault. He alone made the decision to rip apart the diorama about the Battle of Palmetto Ranch - a 10-foot-long wonder that featured 750 individually painted Yankee and Confederate soldiers and a handcrafted steamboat. And he refuses to return the pieces of the diorama to Gilbert so the Highland students can try to restore it.

When I called Hunt last week, he immediately sent me to Col. Bill Meehan, who is assigned by the Texas National Guard as a spokesman for the Austin museum. Meehan said Hunt and the museum have been unfairly maligned by everyone from the Tribune to MSNBC talk show host Keith Olbermann, who on Feb. 15 named Hunt as that day's "Worst Person in the World."

Meehan walked me through the issue from Hunt's perspective: Shortly after the diorama was delivered in August, Hunt was hired to take over from an interim director. He brought a new vision to the museum that doesn't include oversized displays - especially those with gross historical inaccuracies, which Hunt quickly spotted in the diorama because he's an expert on that battle.

The Gilbert teacher had been warned by the previous director that the diorama was bulky and riddled with errors. But Frakes wouldn't make any changes, Meehan said.

So Hunt had no choice but to dismantle the diorama, and to carefully store all of the hundreds of figurines for later installment on a smaller and more accurate display, Meehan said.

But to believe Hunt's story, you have to consider his immediate predecessor a liar. That's because retired Col. Pat W. Simpson flatly denies he asked for any changes when he was the interim director.

"It really chaps me.... To say the diorama was bigger than what we ordered and the museum couldn't handle it is a crock of hooey," Simpson told me. "It's a wonderful piece of art. Just because one historian does not believe it's historically accurate doesn't mean it shouldn't be on display."

You also have to ignore the fact that four other dioramas crafted under Frakes' direction in the past 20 years are still on display, including a 10-foot-long version of the Battle at the Alamo that is one of the museum's most popular attractions.

In an April newsletter, museum board President Richard Gruetzner practically begs angry museum members to not take away their donations. Arizona's most powerful politicians, including Sen. John McCain and Gov. Janet Napolitano, have fired off missives demanding answers.

And the backlash will continue to grow as long as the diorama sits in Austin instead of returning back to the hands of the Highland students, where it belongs.