Museum board prepares for July 9 grand opening in new location

The H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum Board met Monday evening and discussed the upcoming openings of the museum’s new location at the former Griggs Printing Building.

The much-anticipated move from the Holiday Village Mall has given the museum much more space for historical displays and has been touted as a massive overall improvement for a showcase of the area’s histories.

Board Vice Chair David Sageser said a soft opening will be held June 26 at 3 p.m. for the people who worked on the move, for which invites have already been sent.

July 9 at 10 a.m., Sageser said, the museum will have its grand opening to the general public.

He also said the museum’s security system has been set up with surveillance over all major exhibit areas and the back entrance, which he’s happy about.

He said the system may be expanded if the museum adds more exhibits, but for now they are set up pretty nicely.

At the meeting, the board also heard updates on the museum and Wahkpa Chu’gn Buffalo Jump’s operations from Museum Manager Emily Mayer.

Mayer said new exhibits at the museum are still being set up and things are progressing nicely.

She said she and Board Chair Lela Patera, who was not at Monday’s meeting, have been discussing what to put in one of the exhibit areas and they settled on photography including tributes to two local photographers that the community lost recently, Steve Helmbrecht and Rick Ervin.

She said the museum has also gotten a few artifacts donated recently, including a 1903 Oldsmobile which she is hoping they might be able to show off at the Festival Days parade.

Mayer said they also got a bunch of old Havre business signs she’d like to display, as well as a relief map of Glacier National Park.

She also talked about ongoing staffing issues at the museum and at Wahkpa Chu’gn, and said she would be at the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce’s Job Fair Tuesday looking for possible workers, with the help of Hill County Commissioner Jake Strissel.

She said only two people are working at the museum at the moment.

Sageser said they are still low on tour guides for the Jump as well.

Mayer said they have had to cancel a few Wakkpa Chu’gn tours due to recent rain, but, overall, they are still going very well.

However, she said, the Jump’s Polaris had its clutch break again, and the vehicle is becoming increasingly unreliable, to the point that she thinks they need to consider replacing it.

Sageser said recent proposed changes to the board’s bylaws have been submitted to the Hill County Commission for approval.

Among those changes is expanding the board’s number of members from seven to nine, with names of potential members submitted by the board to the Hill County Commission for potential nomination and approval.