The Burton Farmers Gin lay dormant from 1974 to 1986 until a group of concerned citizens led by Douglas Hutchinson formed Operation Restoration, Inc. to save it from demolition after Houston investors sought to replace it with a strip center. Ora "Nell" Moseley, daughter of longtime gin manager Henry C. Wehring, played a lasting role in the effort as membership chairman, helping keep the cotton legacy alive in Burton. Recognized as the last intact turn-of-the-century air-system cotton gin and praised by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a resource of astounding integrity, the gin building was saved even as a small shopping strip was built on the property. In 1989 Operation Restoration, Inc. became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and raised funds to purchase the gin, beginning restoration in 1990. To support restoration of the 1925 Bessemer engine, the group created the Burton Cotton Gin Festival, held annually since 1990 as a celebration of cotton and the heritage of a small German community. A museum was created in 1999 to tell the story of the gin, and the organization later became the Burton Cotton Gin and Museum, Inc., then the Texas Cotton Gin Museum, Inc. after a 2009 Texas legislative resolution, signed by Governor Rick Perry, declared it the Official Cotton Gin Museum of Texas. Restoration first centered on the Bessemer engine, aided by a $5,000 grant from Cooper Industries and many donated parts, materials, and services from across Texas. After two years of volunteer work, the engine started on February 29, 1992, and in April 1994, at the fifth annual Burton Cotton Gin Festival, the gin produced its first bale of cotton after 20 years of dormancy. The Burton Farmers Gin is identified as the oldest operating cotton gin in America and has been designated a National Historic Engineering Landmark, recognized by the Smithsonian Institution, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and designated a Texas Historic Landmark.