The Cherokee County Historical Society has added new dimensions to its Cherokee Remembers Exhibition.

The exhibition, which was started in 2007, is conducted each year in January to commemorate Cherokee's history.

This year, the exhibition will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday through Monday and Jan. 23 and 24 at the Rock Barn in Canton. Admission is free.

Historical society Executive Director Stefanie Joyner said that along with more than 100 historic photographs depicting Cherokee through the years, the exhibit this year will include artifacts from Native Americans, the segregation period, World War I and a bell recently fished out of the Etowah River from a train that crashed in the Keithsburg community in 1926 .

The artifacts were added to make the exhibit "new and exciting," she said, but also to gauge the interest in having a permanent museum established in the county. The society has started a Cherokee History Center Task Force to explore the idea of establishing such a facility.

"We have lots more in our archives that could be kept in a more comprehensive and permanent display," she said, adding the society has thousands of artifacts in its collection.

The society also has added local experts to the program this year, and a different time period or industry will be featured each day of the exhibit.

Representatives from the Sons of Confederate Veterans and re-enactors from the 34th Georgia Volunteer Infantry will be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday; experts in Cherokees's mining industry from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday; and experts on the marble industry from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday.

Experts on the Canton Cotton Mills will be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Jan. 23, and Native Americans will be in attendance on Jan. 24 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Mike Richey, a Civil War re-enactor, will be at the exhibit on Saturday to talk about the county's role in the fight. He said 380 men left Cherokee as part of the 34th Georgia Volunteer Infantry, but only 80 made it back after the war.

"There are people who don't have a clue," he said about local knowledge of the role Cherokee played in the war.

Mimi Jo Hill Butler of the Marble Valley Historical Society is another guest speaker for the exhibit. She said the show is a good way for people to learn more about parts of their community's history they never knew about.

"This is a major part of the early history of the city and county," she said about the local marble industry. "Ninety percent of Cherokee doesn't know anything about it."