File:The Down Home Blues Club's eclectic decor, home and music venue of Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival co-founder D.C. Minner, in Rentiesville, OK, Apr. 6, 2015 (20150407-RD-LSC-0977 by U.S. Department of Agriculture).jpg

Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame musician and Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival co-founder Selby Minner recalls blues music history, her rise as a bass player, the marriage with Blues legend D.C. Minner, and their settling into a rural community to create the Down Home Blues Club, at D.C. Minner’s birth place in Rentiesville, Oklahoma, on Tuesday, Apr 6, 2015. Mrs. Minner also talks about the area’s significance during and after the Civil War. This Blues venue and home is adjacent to the future site of the future Honey Springs Visitors’ Center, a multi-purpose community/visitor center and library, that can educate people about one of thirteen remaining “All-Black Towns” that was populated by former slaves after the Civil War. This is the historic site of Oklahoma’s largest military engagement, The Battle of Honey Springs and the nation’s largest Civil War battle in which African American, American Indian, Hispanic and Anglo American soldiers engaged. The heroics of the Civil War’s first African American regiment, the First Kansas Colored, were largely responsible for the Union’s victory there. Today, the community is challenged by poverty, but does have historic and cultural assets for tourism. The new visitor center will feature and capitalize on these cultural and historic assets. In January the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) opened bids for building a multi-purpose community/visitor center and library in Rentiesville, The center is a multi-million dollar partnership between four federal agencies, a state agency, McIntosh County, several local businesses, and a non-profit organization. The federal involvement includes the National Park Service, as well as all three agencies of USDA Rural Development – Rural Business Service, Rural Utilities Service and Rural Housing Service. The site offers visitors the opportunity to enjoy hiking and area wildlife, while learning about the Battle of Honey Springs and the impact of the Civil War on American Indians living in Indian Territory. The Friends of Honey Springs organization will lease the land from the Oklahoma Historical Society to construct the new center. Upon completion of the 5,000 square foot visitors’ center, the National Park Service predicts an annual visitation of 150,000 people, which would represent $9 million in tourism revenues for the local area. USDA Rural Development has awarded nearly $500,000 in grant funds and over $600,000 in financing through the Rural Business Enterprise Grant and Community Facilities programs. A portion of the financing includes a guaranteed loan through Peoples National Bank in Checotah. The project also includes a Rural Utilities Service award to Cross Telephone Cooperative to extend high-speed internet access to the area as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. State and local funds will come from $800,000 worth of site development and in-kind services from the Oklahoma Historical Society and thousands more in road improvements from McIntosh Co. For more information, please see www.usda.gov. USDA photos by Lance Cheung.