BELMONT COUNTY, Ohio (WTRF) — History can be pretty juicy.

As the Belmont County Heritage Museum opens for the season, there are some surprising stories behind the exhibits.

Betty Zane, best known for running with gunpowder and saving Fort Henry, was a free spirit.

She had a baby out of wedlock in her early teens.

And she was briefly a horse thief at the age of 13 when British soldiers came to her family’s home and demanded to stay overnight.

“And you know, that was one of the things that the colonists were unhappy about. And Betty snuck out in the middle of the night, stole their horses and took them to some of General George Washington’s men who were stationed nearby. And the British soldiers didn’t suspect young Betty, but they did think that someone in the family had done it and so her family sent her to live with friends for a while until the heat died down.”

Cathryn Stanley, Museum Curator/ Group Tour Specialist

“And you know, that was one of the things that the colonists were unhappy about. And Betty snuck out in the middle of the night, stole their horses and took them to some of General George Washington’s men who were stationed nearby. And the British soldiers didn’t suspect young Betty, but they did think that someone in the family had done it and so her family sent her to live with friends for a while until the heat died down.”

Cathryn Stanley, Museum Curator/ Group Tour Specialist

The museum also has scary looking antique hospital equipment–and bedpans used in local hospitals and made in the Bellaire Enamel Works.

There’s a pump organ from the old Georgetown Church of God.

The same model was demonstrated at the 1892 Chicago World’s Fair.

There are arrowheads dating back five thousand years, that were dug up from a farm near the current sheriff’s department.

And there’s the plow blade that Ebeneezer Martin used to plant corn, after his father founded Martins Ferry.

The Belmont County Heritage Museum is open Thursdays through Saturdays, 10 to 4, and admission is free.