In November 1958, Col. Robert E. Mann and a small group of interested residents organized the Cherokee County Historical Society in Cedar Bluff to begin preserving the history of Cherokee County. In the years that followed, the society erected 44 historical monuments and undertook a major effort to preserve county records and artifacts and find a place to archive them. That effort reached its goal in October 1987, when Robert Minnix and the Historical Society formally established the Cherokee County Historical Museum. It opened in downtown Centre at Jordan Big Store, where its central location in the county enables it to preserve and present the county's unique past for future generations through a permanent collection of artifacts and documents.