Importance of local museums topic of Chinook presentation

CHINOOK - The importance of museums for local Montana towns is the topic of a presentation Friday at the Blaine County Museum.

Sabre Moore, executive director of the Carter County Museum in Ekalaka, will be speaking at the Blaine County Fairgrounds Commercial Building Friday, April 21, at noon. The event is scheduled to end around 1 p.m. She will elaborate on how Montana's rural museums are vital to the state's rural populations.

Blaine County Museum Director Samantha French said Moore's message applies in Chinook and for all Montana museum towns.

"The history here is as important as it is anywhere," French said. "I hope that Moore's conversation encourages and reminds people not to overlook what's in our own backyard. She inspires a lot of people to rethink the function of museums and has been very instrumental in putting that research together."

The presentation addresses museums' social impact and how it can be applied in local communities throughout Montana. Moore said audiences will learn how rural museums can excel at deepening economic and educational impact and discover how museum social impact, an elusive and challenging dataset, can be measured in communities throughout Montana.

Moore's research focuses on museums and rural community vitality and how power is exercised in practices of place, something she has experience in. She is the president of the Museums Association of Montana, chair of Visit Southeast Montana, serves on the Montana Governor's Tourism Advisory Council and is on the Board of Directors for Starry Skies Montana and Carter County Chamber of Commerce. She is also an emergency medical technician for Dahl Memorial Healthcare Ambulance and a Site Steward for Medicine Rocks State Park and the Bureau of Land Management in Carter County.

"They are embedded within the culture and historical context of a broader region, and their museums foster the experience of the histories as meaningful and personal, nurturing identity and connection to local places," she said. "As such, museums play an important role in rural community life and provide tools to address equity challenges facing rural places.

"While they are certainly economic drivers to their communities as tourist destinations, they also have a significant social impact on their visitors through continued learning and engagement, fostering health and well-being by providing spaces to recharge and satisfy their intellectual curiosities, describe the value of diverse communities through the histories they tell, and contribute to strengthened relationships by serving as a place where visitors bring their family and friends," Moore added.

She said an example is The Montana Dinosaur Trail, which consists of multiple museums, including in Chinook, Havre, Rudyard, and many more across the state, each playing their own part to contribute to the state's rich history.

"(Havre's) H. Earl Clack and (Rudyard) Depot Museum, like the others on the Montana Dinosaur Trail, have the opportunity to engage their communities in discovering the unique prehistoric narratives of their local place," Moore said.

French talked about specifics regarding how these locations play a big part of the country's history.

"Bear Paw (Battlefield,) south of Chinook, just 16 miles, that's really one of the most important sites in the history of the American West. Not just the state of Montana, but the history of the West."

The Blaine County Museum staff consists of French, one volunteer and five volunteer board members.

"I hope what Sabre has to say next Friday really gets people excited about wanting to get involved, because we do need everyone's help sharing the story of this area," French said.

The Chinook Chamber of Commerce will be sponsoring a pizza lunch during Moore's presentation. They encourage anyone planning on participating to RSVP to the museum 406-357-2590, so they know how many people are coming.