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Beginning today, the Pioneer Museum of Alabama will be open an extra day to better accommodate travelers along busy Highway 231 North in Troy during the summer season.

The museum will be open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday until July 31. The addition of the extra day will be an opportunity for travelers and local residents to learn from and enjoy the pioneer museum that focuses on Alabama pioneer history.

Barbara Tatom, museum director, said the summer season is an opportunity for travelers to stop and visit the Pioneer Museum of Alabama and learn more about pioneer life and also about Alabama.

The museum is the unofficial welcome center for Troy and a timely stopover for travelers going to and from the Gulf Coast beaches.

“We have a large number of travelers who stop at the museum to ‘stretch their legs,’” Tatom said, adding that the Pioneer Museum of Alabama is an “accommodating” place to stop. “Many times, those who stop to take a break from their travels stay and visit the museum. And, their comments are, most often, that the Pike Pioneer Museum of Alabama is the best museum of its kind that they have visited.”

Tatom said a large number of summer visitors to the museum are from Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia, and Indiana.

However, the most recent distant travelers were from Cairns, Australia.

“Locally, we have residents who have visitors during the summer months and they often visit the museum as a place of local interest,” Tatom said.

“And the more traffic on Highway 231, the more opportunities for more people to the visit the Pioneer Museum of Alabama and learn about Alabama’s pioneer heritage.

The Pioneer Museum of Alabama features 18,000 artifacts and 22 structures related to Alabama pioneer history.

Admission is charged.