Fifty years ago during the early 1960's a group of far-sighted Harrietville women spread the word in our community that they were going to start gathering what they could of our unique and fascinating local history.  They called for anyone who had photographs, documents, maps, paper clippings or anything else relevant to the history of Harrietville or the mountains beyond, to donate them to the cause.  At a time when hardly anybody around here saw any value in things historical and written off by many as a complete waste of time, this was indeed an inspired thing to do.  But the stuff came rolling in, heaps and heaps of it, from bottom drawers and tattered photograph albums throughout the district, so much so that the women were overwhelmed.  Faced with a mountain of material, they had some huge, leather-bound books made up and simply pasted the stuff onto the pages, quite randomly, as it came in.  More items followed. The Harrietville Historical Society (HHS) was born.  It became incorporated in 2003 and currently has a membership of 64 people.