For years, motorists along John R. Junkin Drive have motored past two pieces of Natchez’s history.

With each passing year of sun, heat, humidity and cold, the historic firefighting apparatuses look just a bit more dull, a bit more like junk behind a farmer’s barn than a piece of American history.

Natchez Mayor Butch Brown said last week that he’s seeking to have estimates created for the restoration of the historic fire equipment.

The mayor said he’s heard complaints about the matter for years and promised to try and do something about it when he was elected in 2012.

We applaud his efforts and hope the community will come to the support of not only raising the necessary money to restore the equipment, but also to find a permanent, climate-controlled home for the fire equipment, as well.

Such would go well in a museum of Natchez’s history, if such a thing were ever created.

Shouldn’t the oldest settlement on the Mississippi River have a fantastic museum that encompasses all of that history?

Natchez is known for its antebellum structures and Victorian-era downtown, but the scope of the city’s history is diverse, impressive and worthy of being preserved and displayed in a museum.