Buffalo's Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum worth the trip

The Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum in Buffalo, Wyoming, is a first-class museum!

See more images in our Jim Gatchell Gallery

Montana digs dinosaurs...

by Larry Miller

It was a hot and dry summer afternoon when, nearly 40 years ago, I walked along a hillside in Hot Springs, South Dakota, taking pictures of Chadron State Coillege students, feverishly working at unearthing a collection of mammoth bones. It had been a remarkable discovery, one that would bode well for the community, Chadron State College……and science.

And this week, I learned there’s another paleo-playground just across the border in Montana.  It’s a burgeoning dinosaur business that’s been thriving for, oh, several millions of years. 

Don Matthesen (left) and MSU student Jack Wilson

Montana State University and its Earth Sciences department spiritual mentor Jack Horner (of Jurassic Park fame) have put together “the largest paleontological field program in the country.”  MSU students have hit the road all across the state, and we met one of them this week in Ekalaka, which is nestled in far southeast Montana.

Jack Wilson is an Earth Sciences major at MSU, and he’s one of the young folks who’ve helped the Carter County Museum in Ekalaka become one of the finest small museums in the region.

He and fellow students assist the museum staff in numerous ways, examining and identifying fossils, conducting research and helping with exhibits.  Another MSU student, a graphic arts major, recently redesigned what is now an impressive museum website.  There’s little doubt that these young folks are helping revitalize the Carter County Museum.

Friend Don Matthesen and I have visited a few museums around the area over the past couple of years, and each one has its particular attraction.  However, I confess I was more than a bit oblivious to the museum at Ekalaka, and when he first mentioned it, I hesitated a bit.  But Don and I have found a lot of interesting things during earlier museum treks, so I quickly warmed up to the idea of visiting the Carter County Museum.

The expressway to Ekalaka, Montana

The three-hour trip from Spearfish to Ekalaka took just a bit longer, since we had to navigate through a herd of several hundred cattle on Wyoming 323 about 20 miles north of Alzada.  Having grown up in Nebraska, I'm not unaccustomed to seeing cattle driven across country -- but this was something a bit different.  

It was quite an experience in itself, watching the cattle meander along the road and ditch, prompted occasionally by a pickup and a gent on a four-wheeler, which more often than not is the new steed of choice for ranchers these days.

After arriving in Ekalaka and enjoying a hearty breakfast at the Wagon Wheel café, we spent several hours exploring the museum, which offers a real variety of items.  From arrowheads and dinosaurs to pottery, photographs, old newspapers, and well-constructed exhibits reflecting American Indian life on the plains through the era of white settlements by early pioneers.  And the price is right, too:  Free.  Of course, generous contributions are always appreciated!

You can enjoy a brief photographic tour by visiting our Carter County Museum gallery.

Expansion underway at West Texas Trail Museum

We like this panoramic image of early day Moorcroft, Wyoming, which is home to the expanding West Texas Trail Museum.  You can get a closer look in our Museum Gallery. (Sorry, Gallery is temporarily closed eff. 4/25/16)

The framed photograph -- along with hundreds of other items -- is part of a growing collection of artifacts that are housed in the museum at 100 E. Weston Street in Moorcroft.  The collections helps to tell the story of Moorcroft and the longhorn cattle trails that stretched from Texas through Wyoming and into Montana as early as 1866.

Last year, friend Don Matthesen and I made a trek to the museum at Newell, South Dakota, and enjoyed it so much that we elected to make another similar museum outing -- this time westward to Moorcroft.

After a hearty breakfast at Higbee's in Sundance one day last week (7/11/13), we headed west on I-90 toward Moorcroft, arriving about 30 minutes after the 9:00 a.m. opening of the museum.

Museum Director Cynthia Conch

New director Cynthia Conch, obviously pumped about the 1,800 square foot expansion of the museum that's underway, provided us with some background about the exhibits that remain accessible during construction.

It might have been a bit disappointing that some items are not displayed during construction, but Cynthia's enthusiasm -- and the remaining availability of many artifacts and photographs -- enticed us to explore the rooms that are still open.  And it simply motivated us to plan a return visit after the addition is completed this fall.

"We're hoping construction will be completed and we can show off the facility by the time of the Heritage Roundup in September," Conch told us.  The addition includes a conference room and break room that will help make the museum an even more viable facility.

Like Belle Fourche in Dakota Territory, Moorcroft became an important Wyoming trailhead for shipping cattle in the late 1800's.  Of course, there're no remnants of the old depot  on the south side of town, but the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy (CB&Q) line was certainly a conduit for prosperity during the late 1800's and early 1900's.

The museum offers lots of histories of Crook County pioneer families and railroad memorabilia, and it also boasts a wide array of quilts, sewing machines, and embroidery work.  Perhaps our wives should have been along, too!

Ranching displays highlighted western saddles and tack collected from the surrounding area, including items from "Mr. Mustang," Bob Brislawn.

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy depot in Moorcroft

Most of the railroad items are still inaccessible, but we were surprised and pleased to be able to pore over a collection of American Indian artifacts and tools.  There's also an impressive collection of household and personal items from the Helen Robinson Zimmerscheid Collection -- and even more for the Robinson Mercantile store owned by early-day merchant L. H. Robinson.

We've assembled a fair number of photographs taken while ambling through the museum, and you'll find them in our West Texas Trail Museum gallery.

Admission to the West Texas Trail Museum is free, and they're open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday.   We found their slogan, "A little bit of everything…..A whole lot of history…" to be true.  When their expansion is complete this fall, we anticipate finding even more!

The Newell Museum: A Jewel in the rough...

by Larry Miller

Good friend Don Matthesen and I had been ruminating for some time about a trip into the Belle Fourche Irrigation District country to visit his old stomping grounds.....and to visit to the Newell Museum.

We finally made the trip yesterday (6/29/12) and it was delightful day.

After driving a back road route to Nisland -- via the old Dane Church -- we enjoyed some burgers and fries at the Nisland Cafe before setting off for Newell.

For a community that claims only about 800 souls, the Newell Museum is a real surprise.  Despite a few newspapers articles about the museum in recent months, we were the only visitors on this sizzling Friday afternoon.  Of course, it was a weekday, and younger folks are at work.  We're a couple of retirees -- but even most of the folks in our age category have enough sense to stay home on hot afternoons!

Nonetheless, we were pleasantly greeted by Museum Curator Linda Velder, who spent much of her afternoon giving us a tour of the museum, co-located with town offices on 3rd Street in Newell.

Linda Velder is the Curator at the Newell Museum.....a "must-see" destination!

We suspected that the museum might have more items than you might expect in such a small community, and we were right!  The museum is spread out in four different buildings -- and there's a newer storage building on the back of the property containing items "not yet ready for prime time."

The ground floor of the main museum is chock full of artifacts and documents that should delight any history buff.  While space is sparse for conducting research, many people have already utilized the variety of school yearbooks, family histories, and other historical publications that are nestled in a front corner of the museum.

Don was able to forage through quite a bit of Matthesen information; of course, since he'd attended school in this vicinity as a youngster, he was familiar with many of the family names and businesses in the area.  I'm still a bit of a newcomer, but I thoroughly enjoyed delving into the variety of displays and memorabilia.

Most of the items relate to the early settlers and businesses of the area, and there's quite a bit about the U.S. Reclamation Service (USRS), which played a key role in helping develop the irrigation district.  Named for the first USRS chief engineer Frederick Haynes Newell, the town was established in 1910.  For more than a century now, irrigation waters have been the lifeblood of this area stretching eastward from Orman Dam on the plains at the northern end of the Black Hills.

We'll not recount all the fascinating things you'll find in the museum, but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the superb doll collection that's displayed on the second floor of the museum.  We're told that there are more than 800 dolls, antique toys, and numerous other artifacts from  bygone eras.  There're also replicas of a medical clinic, an old bathing room, a judge's chambers, and more.

And that's all just in the main museum.

In separate buildings you'll find an impressively outfitted cabin that was built in 1880 on Horse Creek and served as home for the Johannes Flaigg family.

The One Room Schoolhouse will transport you to another era when education seemed a bit more straightforward -- and some might say better!  If the pot-bellied stove, chalk boards, and old desks don't nudge your nostalgia, the meticulously assembled school census records available in the old Wetz School building will remind you that this was an important part of education -- and life -- for generations past.

And although it was a Congregational Church when it was built in 1911, the Church Museum on the lot behind the Newell Museum is very ecumenical these days -- and very impressive.   While curator Linda Velder laments the laundry list of things yet to done in this and other museum areas, we think there's also good cause for her and the citizens of Newell to rejoice at such a remarkable resource in their community.

Numerous folks have contributed items and funds to help make this museum one of the best -- if yet least known -- museums in the region.

We have a feeling that'll change in the coming months and years -- as it should.

We've started this small gallery of photos from our excursion.  See:  Newell Museum. 

Congratulations to Linda Velder and the Town of Newell for their vision in developing this institution.  With more promotion......and community involvement......current and future generations can gain a better understanding and appreciation for their ancestors and their significant contributions to this region.