Clack Museum set for grand reopening Saturday

Staff and wire report

The H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum at 2 Fifth Ave. will have a grand reopening Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held promptly at 10 a.m. with the support of the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce.

Admission to the museum is $3 for adults, $2 for children ages 6 to 12, and children 5 and younger are free. Admission will be charged at the grand reopening, and all guests will also have the opportunity to become a Friend of the Museum. Friends of the Museum pay $25 a year for a membership card, and they and their immediate family can visit the museum for free throughout the year.

Throughout the day Saturday, guests can tour the new museum while listening to live music performed by two local pianists and purchase raffle tickets to win a prize.

“The museum features all of the original dioramas and displays from the previous location at the mall,” a release said. “Hill County is rich in history, from the prehistoric to the modern era, and as you tour the museum, you will move forward in time to the 20th century.

“The museum also features a new, permanent display honoring the Clacks,” the release added. “Inside the Clack Room, guests can admire the family grand piano, along with Margaret Clack’s collections of dolls, family heirlooms, and various other artifacts. On the day of the grand reopening, pianists Mary Stevens and Sarah Boyce will perform on the piano in the Clack Room.”

A long history of showing history

In the 1960s, Hill County took over operation of the museum, which had been operated by the Havre Jaycees. With Turner Clack leaving a bequest for the museum in his will, it was named in honor of his father as the H. Earl Clack Museum. The foundation that supports the museum later added the name of H. Earl Clack’s wife, Margaret Turner Clack.

The two were prominent members and supporters of the Havre community almost from its start. H. Earl Clack joined an older sister in Havre in 1903, before he turned 18 years old, the local history “Grits, Guts and Gusto” reports. That same year, he married Margaret Turner, daughter of a Baltimore doctor.

He started work as a hod carrier, “Grits” says, working for bricklayers building a new school, but soon he started his own business in freight, expanded to open the first grain elevator in northern Montana and soon had a chain of elevators. He then expanded into the petroleum business at first as an agent for an oil company then developing his own business. Throughout his career, Clack opened chains of service stations, stores and hotels and owned housing units in many cities.

The two also were extremely active in Havre society and earned reputations as philanthropists.

The Clack family has been a strong supporter of the county museum since it started.

The museum originally was housed in a building on the Hill County Fairgrounds, now the Great Northern Fairgrounds, until the mid-1990s. The museum then moved into the former Havre post office, calling it the Havre Heritage Center.

The funding source for the purchase of the post office failed to produce enough revenue, and with a combination of the final balloon payment and work needed on the building taking its toll, the museum moved to a location in the Holiday Village Mall early last decade, later moving to the other end of the mall to its location near the Wahkpa Chu’gn Buffalo Jump, also administered by the county museum board.

The board and foundation began looking for a permanent space since it moved to the mall, and in 2013 purchased the building housing Griggs Printing with the understanding that the business could operate in the building as long as the owners desired.

The building itself has an extensive history. Built in the 1920s or earlier, it housed a dairy as well as the catalog showroom Anderson Wholesale before Griggs Printing and Publishing moved into that location in 1988.

Setting up a Havre heritage center

Jim Griggs retired and closed his printing business Jan. 2, 2017.

That year, the release about the museum grand opening said, renovations on the new location of the museum began in earnest. With the help of grants secured through Bear Paw Development Corp. and the generous support of local area businesses and volunteers — who donated time, expertise and labor — the museum was finally ready for the big move this spring.

Over the last few months, volunteers and board members have worked diligently to get the new museum ready to receive visitors,

“We would not be here without the help and support of the community,” H. Earl and Margaret Turner Clack Memorial Museum Foundation Chair Elaine Morse said. “Thank you to everyone who helped and to those who continue to help — our intent is to keep developing the museum and to make it a place where the community can learn about our shared history.”

People who would like to support the museum can consider making a donation at the foundation website at http://earlclackmuseumfoundation.org .

Questions leading up to the reopening can be directed to the museum at 406-265-4000 or emailed to [email protected].