The story about the destruction of a Civil War diorama built by Gilbert’s Highland High School students has gotten suprisingly little coverage in the home state of the Texas Military Forces Museum. That’s the site of the massacre of the Palmetto Ranch diorama and subsequent cover-up by museum director Jeff Hunt.

But there’s an excellent overview in this week’s Austin Chronicle, a weekly newspaper in the Texas capital city where the museum is located. The best part of the story is the reporter’s first-hand look at the remaining shell of the 10-foot diorama, as she saw “several broken hooves where cavalry had been removed, severed below the horses’ knees.”

This directly contradicts Hunt’s earlier claims that he carefully removed and packed away every single one of the 750 figures that had been handcrafted and painted by the Highland students. Hunt is forced to admit he actually damaged a piece of art that he doesn’t own.

“Taking this apart, did some rifles get bent? Some figures get broken? Sure,” Hunt told the Austin Chronicle.

This story is part of an on-going drumbeat of pressure against the museum and its owner, the Texas National Guard, to return the diorama to Gilbert so Highland students and their teacher, Glen Frakes, can try to restore it.

Keith Olbermann, host of “Countdown” on MSNBC, also revisited the issue on April 15 –discussing a column by me two days earlier that highlighted the deep holes in Jeff Hunt’s official explanation for taking apart the diorama. Unfortunately, Olbermann doesn’t mention me or the Tribune by name. Come on, Keith, is it so hard to give us just a little credit?

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