The Blaine County Museum is looking for a new board member. Since its latest vacancy in July, the board has yet to receive any letters of interest. While the search continues, Museum Director Samantha French wanted to celebrate the service of past board members.

According to French, the museum has seen a lot of board turnover in the last year. "After our board chair, Scott MacKenzie, passed away last fall, we added Doug Mitchell to the board. The first meeting he attended was in December 2020, so he's fairly new. Jeannie Powell was also on our board, and since her passing we have added Cassie Johnson. Cassie is finishing her obligations with the Bear Paw Roundup board and will attend her first museum meeting on Monday, August 16."

The vacancy for which the museum is currently advertising was left by Wally Elliot, who stepped down at the July meeting after 27 years. Shirley Keller and Caryl Luckett are the only remaining board members who have been involved for longer than French has been director.

"We really don't have a board chairperson at this time, and we hope that one of our new members will be up for the position. For the time being, Caryl is our interim chair," French reported.

Blaine County Museum (BCM) is governed by a board of five trustees, including a chairperson who represents the board, supervises the museum director, and acts as liaison to the county commissioners. The duties of the include having an idea of the organization's current projects and goals. For example, in protecting the museum's collection, French and her board are concerned about some building decay. At present, the collection is being stored in the facility's basement, the walls of which are decaying due to age. The decay has led to dampness and mold in downstairs exhibit and storage spaces, putting the collection at risk.

Another goal is to develop and implement plans to keep the community engaged with the museum during the off-season. Strategies include promoting the museum bookstore and ensuring a quality selection of titles and Montana-made items are available as well as developing a strategy to better market the museum to the public.

The Board has also discussed creating a museum "friends" group that will assist in planning and putting on exhibits and sponsoring seasonal events and/or fundraisers.

Finally, the Board oversees grant funded projects. Current grant projects include a Humanities Montana funded talk by Terry Ball of Cascade. Ball designed a limited edition Pendleton blanket commemorating the Nez Perce Flight of 1877 and the Battle of Bear's Paw. His talk is projected to take place this coming fall.

For a full list of board duties, a person can contact French at 357-2590.

Most of this business is conducted during monthly meetings. The BCM Board typically meets on the third Monday of each month with meetings usually consuming one hour. If special circumstances such as job interviews arise, additional meetings may be called. While meeting attendance is the primary obligation, individual members may choose to get more involved outside of monthly meetings.

BCM board members like Scott MacKenzie were involved beyond that limited criteria. He was on the original museum board in 1977 when the museum first opened. About his role, former Museum Director Jude Sheppard said, "Scott was always such a passionate and invested member of the board. He was chairman from the beginning, and even when he was sick, he didn't want to give up that position. He not only had a vision for the Visitor Center that was built in 2009 at the Bear Paw Battlefield but was the driving force behind the audio-visual production we have at the museum. Together, he and Isabel Bonifas found the right artists and helped to write the powerful narrative that gives life and emotion to that profound and impactful documentary Forty Miles from Freedom, a program developed in the late 80's. For years, Scott was a tireless advocate for the development of the Bear Paw Battlefield."

Sheppard continued, "While I served as the museum's director, I had the best job in town. I loved working for the Board because Scott made my job pleasurable. Although he and I would occasionally argue about certain exhibits and issues, he would open his mind to my perspective and we would get things done in a good way. He was quite a man with his classic MacKenzie smirk; we all knew his thoughts when he wore that smirk, but he would always do what was right in the end. He wasn't just my boss but my friend."

Another board member active in the effort to have a Visitor Center built for the Battlefield was Elliot. Joining the board in 1994, Elliot not only provided advocacy to the development of the Bear Paw Battlefield but helped approve the donation of the John Michaud Collection in 2001. The collection included several Nez Perce and military artifacts that could be connected to the battle. According to French, this collection makes up some of the best materials from Bear Paw that the museum has on display.

Elliot is also an avid reader and collector of books pertaining to Montana history. "Wally brought a deep knowledge of and appreciation for Montana history to the board. He also recommended numerous titles which are sold in the museum bookstore. One of his favorites is Andrew Garcia's Tough Trip through Paradise," French stated.

She went on to say, "In the short two years since I've been at the museum, I gathered that Wally genuinely cares about preserving and sharing the history of Blaine County, Montana, and the West. His affection for local people and events that made history is undeniable."

A third passionate member, Powell began her service in 2009. "Her final contribution was her push towards getting an oral history project going. We have not started this project yet, but at one of the last meetings she attended, she helped approve a budget to buy equipment," French reported.

The BCM Board's latest achievement was adopting a logo designed by Cody McCracken. Board members were looking for designs that conveyed the many aspects of Blaine County's historical identity. According to French, McCracken's design was selected because it visually represents multiple aspects of Blaine County – the mountain ranges, plains, fossil rich lands, first peoples, and agricultural heritage.

"I personally like the inclusion of the shape of Blaine County because it conveys so much history itself. The Missouri River creates our county's southernmost boundary, and our section of the river includes the historic Cow Island crossing, which was used by migrating prairie animals and native peoples for thousands of years. While Cody's original design included the words 'Preservation, Education, Interpretation,' the Board liked the usage of the museum's mission statement as it was included on entrant Khayla Farmer's design: 'Collect, Preserve, Interpret.' So, Hannah Weber at Montana Grafix took Cody's design and made it into a final, polished graphic, and that design features our mission statement."

French encourages applicants with an invested interest in local history and a passion for preserving it for future generations to join the BCM Board. After all, museums bring people face-to-face with cultural and historical objects that promote a better understanding of our collective heritage while fostering dialogue, curiosity, and self-reflection.