Templeton Historical Museum turns up the heat with 'Some Like It Hot'

By Camille DeVaul · Thu Mar 19 2026

Ranch branding and chili cookoff highlight the museum’s annual spring event

TEMPLETON — The Templeton Historical Museum Society hosted its annual fundraising event, “Some Like It Hot,” on Saturday, March 14, drawing community members to a day full of history, food, and fun. The event featured a ranch branding activity honoring local cattle ranchers, a chili competition showcasing the area’s best home cooks, and a vintage silent auction.

This year marked a shift from past traditions. Instead of the usual blacksmithing demonstration, the museum incorporated brand burning, allowing participants to leave their mark on Templeton history. Guests without an existing brand could purchase a character, while chili tastings were available for $1 per sample. Participants could compete in the cookoff or simply enjoy sampling the wide variety of entries.

Laura Lowe Brooks, chairperson of the museum, explained the reasoning behind the change.

“Last year was a blacksmithing competition with blacksmiths from across the state. It’s a very labor-intensive event to put together,” Brooks said. “We were looking around the museum and realizing that all the 200-some odd brands that are in the blacksmith shop ... we thought, let's do some burning brands.”

Brooks highlighted that the event is designed to bring new people into Templeton and encourage them to learn about the town’s history.

“We really are encouraging to get lots of new people to Templeton. We want them to be in here, learn from what's happened in the past, learn about their futures, and like we say, mingle it all together," Brooks shared. "It's just a really fun way of bringing people and food and talent together.”

The museum relies on events like “Some Like It Hot” to support its operations and future growth.

“We are trying to support everything," Brooks explained. "Then hopefully we'll have some that we can put into our new building that we're trying to build in the back. We really need a new storage area.”

The planned structure will provide much-needed storage space to catalog and protect the museum’s collection, which includes newspapers, photographs, and other historical artifacts.

Brooks highlighted the importance of community contributions to the museum’s mission. She encourages anyone with old photos or records to get in touch with the museum.

“We're highly aware that we're reliant upon people in the community who might have pictures of their families, or family homes, or businesses that came from the past,” she said.

Earlier this year, the museum temporarily closed in January to make renovations but reopened in time for the event, complete with a new resource room for visitors to conduct research. The museum’s long-term goal is to raise approximately $400,000 to construct a fireproof, secure storage facility that safeguards Templeton’s history for years to come.

For more information on the Templeton Historical Museum, visit templetonmuseum.com

Feature Image: (From left) Harrison Harbers, Dustin Keele, and Perry Tefft were judges for the chili competition that was of the Templeton Historical Museum Society's annual fundraising event on March 14. Photo by Camille DeVaul/ATN