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Havre Daily News/Nikki Carlson
H. Earl and Margaret Turner Clack Memorial Museum curator of archeology John Brumley, left, and his wife, Wahkpa Chu'gn Buffalo Jump site manager Anna Brumley, examine soil excavated from the fifth display exhibit building at Wahkpa Chu'gn Thursday afternoon. The Brumleys will be honored with a preservation award Monday.
Students come from as far away as Glasgow and history-lovers come from all over the United States to see the Wahkpa Chu'gn Buffalo Jump.
Students can take part in stone boiling, throw an atlatal and feel century-old buffalo bones.
People come from all over the country to take part in Havre's annual Festival Days. It is a special lure to people who have moved away and want to come back to visit friends.
The Buffalo Jump and Havre Festival Days are two of Havre's enduring traditions, and Monday night the organizers of these activities will be honored for their work.
The Havre/Hill County Historic Preservation Commission will present the 2011 Preservation Month Awards to the Wahkpa Chu'gn Buffalo Jump and its operators, John and Anna Brumley, and to Havre Festival Days and its sponsor, the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Buffalo Jump is the best-preserved Native American hunting grounds. Assiniboine Indians hunted on the grounds for nearly 1,500 years. It is believed they started during the time of Christ and stopped for unknown reasons around 1500.
John Brumley discovered the bones as a youngster in 1960, his wife said. In 1974, the site was put on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1994, the Brumleys came back to Havre to manage the site for Hill County.
Tourists come from all over the country to see the archeological site, Anna Brumley said. But she gets the most enjoyment out of taking children on the tour.
School students come from all over the Hi-Line.
"The kids actually feel the bones... this is living history," she said.
Each year, about 130 students from Havre's Lincoln-McKinley Primary School tour the facility.
"The teachers tell me I ought to ride the bus back to the school," Anna Brumley said. "They are talking about it all the time. They get very excited."
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Work on Festival Days starts months before the activities. Community groups sponsor everything from the pancake breakfast to the soapbox derby.
"What the Chamber does for each activity is market and promote all the weekend's activities through posters, press releases and partnerships with the local media," said Debbie Vandeberg, the Chamber of Commerce's executive director.
Every year a theme, based on Havre history, is decided.
This theme is prominently featured in the highlight of the weekend: the Festival Days parade.
"I wonder each year when the entries come in... who will be lining the streets to watch the parade as there are so many participating in the parade," she said.
But every year, thousands of people line Fifth Avenue and other streets along the route as the parade makes its way to downtown Havre.
These people join in the rest of the activities made available by volunteers. Festival Days couldn't come off without the many volunteers, she said.
It takes about 25 people just to make sure the parade goes smoothly, she said.
"It truly takes a community to accomplish a successful Festival Days celebration," she said.
Both organizations have rich traditions, but they also have plans for the future.
Anna Brumley would like to see a small interpretive center at the bison kill site to help visitors understand what they are seeing. And she looks forward to working with other historic sites in the area.
By convincing people to visit more of the attractions, she said, more people will stay at hotels overnight and visit local restaurants.
As for Festival Day, organizers will keep motoring along.
"As we get closer to the third weekend in September, it is always exciting to see the energy that develops around Festival Days," Vandeberg said.
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