Museum board meeting with county about management

A meeting with the commissioners about how to manage the Wahkpa Chu'gn Buffalo Jump, the upcoming annual meeting of the museum foundation and the resumption of work sessions at the Griggs Building to prepare it to house the museum were discussed at Monday's monthly meeting of the H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum Board.

Members of the Board's Transition Committee are scheduled to meet with the Hill County commissioners at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the commissioners' office to present their plan for managing the bison kill site, Board Chair Judi Dritshulas said. The meeting had been set for last week, but Dritshulas said it was postponed due to last week's snow storm.

Archaeologist John Brumley and his wife, Anna, have managed the bison kill site behind the Holiday Village Mall since the mid-1990s through a contract with Hill County. This past summer, Anna Brumley announced that she and her husband opted not to renew their contract with the county. The Brumleys will be retiring and are set to move to Salt Lake City sometime this month.

Dritshulas said the committee will present a plan to the commissioners. She said the plan might include a one-year trial period. If the plan doesn't work when that period is up. then the plan can be revised, she said.

The board also heard that tickets are on sale for the H. Earl and Margaret Turner Clack Memorial Museum Foundation's annual dinner and meeting, which will include a tribute to the Brumleys. The meeting will be Sunday, Oct. 15, starting at 6 p.m. in the Duck Inn Vineyard Room.

Foundation President Elaine Morse said after the Museum Board meeting, that the gathering is a chance for her to give a "State of the museum foundation address: about its accomplishments during the past year and plans for the coming year.

The dinner's featured speaker will be Randy Morger, a historian, speaker and author from Fort Benton who will give a presentation "Sundays with Shep," about the legendary sheep dog that used to greet people at a Fort Benton train station.

Morger gave a presentation about Shep during this year's Great Northern Fair along with his brother local artist Brian Morger, who will have a display of his art at the foundation meeting, as part of the museum's summer speaker series.

Tickets are $50 and include the price of dinner and a one-year membership to the Clack Museum Foundation. Tickets are available at the Great Northern and Brandon's Drapery & Floor Covering or by calling Linda Taplin, 265-7670.

Work sessions at the Griggs Building, which the foundation purchased to be renovated to one day house the museum, were on hold during the summer but will resume this month, Dritshulas said..

The sessions, she said, are meant for volunteers to help move and figure out what they want to do with items stored in the Griggs Building.

"We just all get into grubby clothes, get down into the basement and try and figure out what we want to do with our possessions, our treasures," Dritshulas said

She said the work sessions will take place the first Saturday of each month 9 a.m. to noon at the Havre History Center. She added the public is welcome to participate.

The next meeting of the Museum Board is 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 13, in the board room of the Havre Inn & Suites.