Powder River Historical Museum looks past 2020 towards a mammoth new year
December 17, 2020
By Jessica Malone
We've had an interesting and surprisingly eventful year at the Powder River Historical Museum. The COVID shutdown closed our doors for the season and meant cancellation of several planned events. The Medora Teddy Roosevelt impersonator, the new Homesteader Days summer event and a special Women's Suffrage Centennial Celebration all fell victim to the virus, but we hope to eventually reschedule some or all of these activities. Fortunately, we were still able to utilize much of the Montana Office of Tourism grant money awarded for Homesteader Days for new signage, advertising and promotional materials, despite the event cancellation.
In October, we hosted a volunteer day at the museum. Several community and club members of the local Art & Soul group helped hang artwork and paint an incredible mammoth mural in the recently enclosed car barn. Mammoth and dinosaur fossils will be on display in the new area and eventually we hope to receive a skull cast of the Colombian Mammoth discovered by the Randall family on the Powder River. Special thanks to Connie Barnhart, Kate Ruland, Lana Smith and Kathy Heidel for donating your talents to this project!
This month, the museum is taking a big technological step forward with the unveiling of our new website! Larry Heidel has been the driving force, generously donating his time and expertise as well as covering the setup costs. Please check out the site designed by Larry for a collection of local history resources and museum details http://www.powderriverhistory.com! Plus, be sure to follow our Facebook page @PRHistoricalMuseum for interesting stories, historic photos and current events!
I'm also excited to announce the launch of our Powder River Examiner Newspaper Digitization project! With a grant from the Powder River Community Endowment Fund administered by the SCDC and a few private donations, we were able to complete the first phase of our efforts in 2020. Working in conjunction with the Montana Historical Society, we now have public digital editions available from the 1919 inception through 1936. We hope to continue this process and bring the record current as we expand access to our historical record. Thank you to all of those that have contributed so far! Browse the digital newspapers via the links on our website http://www.powderriverhistory.com under the Collections tab.
Also available on the website is a new donation feature, so if you want to support the museum operations or any of the projects detailed here you can now do so via credit or debit card transaction. The Powder River Historical Society is a registered 501(c)(3) organization, which means any donation you make is 100% tax deductible. 2020 tax law allows a $300 above the line charitable contribution, so if you're looking for a last-minute tax deduction (even if you don't itemize), this is a great year to support a charity while also reaping a tax benefit!
Thank you for supporting our organization in 2020 and we look forward to welcoming you to the museum in 2021!
Reader Comments(0)