Hi-Line Living: Sheppard says her last goodbyes to the museum

Last week, former Blaine County Museum Director Jude Sheppard, made her last goodbyes to a position she held for more than two decades.

"It's something that I truly enjoyed and always have," Sheppard said. "I've always liked history. It was a perfect job."

Last week, Sheppard handed the reins over to Havre High School graduate Samantha French.

Sheppard officially retired at the start of March, but had been coming in to help French get started in the position.

She said that she first started at the museum as the director in 1996. Before that she served on its board of directors for five years.

She always had a great interest in history, she said, and when the job became open she jumped at the opportunity. She said she had to quit the board as well as her job at Independence Bank before she could apply.

"I just hoped and prayed I was the one selected," Sheppard said. "If I hadn't been, I don't know what would have happened."

While serving as director, she said that one of her favorite things about the job was meeting with the public, providing tours and answering questions for people.

She said she gave tours to more than 1,000 children, adding that she wanted to ignite a spark for the love of history. On the tours she would have to match the tour to children's age and have to make the tour entertaining while she showed them exhibits and the history of the area.

"You try to take them through and teach them things, and with children it is hard to keep their interest," she said. "So you have to add in a little humor and you have to tell them things you think they would be interested in. Keep it going, you have to keep moving."

She said that last year when she told the teachers in Chinook that she was retiring the teachers didn't want to hear the news.

"They said, 'You can't quit,'" she said. "It felt good."

Sheppard said she was happy that she was able to make a positive impact on those teachers and their classes over the years.

"They always seemed to enjoy the tours," she said.

She said she remembers that the younger children's favorite exhibit was the paleontology room. During the tours, the children would tell her the history of the dinosaurs rather than the other way around. She added that it was always amazing to her how much the children knew and how excited they were.

The children also always liked to share their family stories with her during these tours, she said.

What has changed over the years

When she first started, there were at least 14 different exhibits, Sheppard said. Some of the exhibits were in the basement, but an audio and visual exhibit, the old west exhibit, the homestead shack, the Native American exhibit, the paleontology exhibit and the photo room were upstairs.

The photo room, she said, was something that she worked on when becoming on the board, before she was the director.

She said one of the things that changed was adding the Allison Photography Gallery, a collection of photographs by A.M. Allison. When she started, nothing was permanently in that space, which was used for a variety of different exhibits. She added that she also used to hang different paintings in the space as well as have a Sugar Beet Festival exhibit every year.

She said if she could find space, she would hire a cabinet maker to build a new display. One exhibit she built was of C. M. Russell letters and paintings, which were donated to the museum by a bank.

"They weren't on display and I knew they had to be," she said.

One of the exhibits that she didn't have to work with was the homestead shack, she said. One of the original directors did a great job putting it together, she said, and there was no need to change anything.

On the other hand, some other exhibits did need to be updated, she added. Sheppard said that she updated the paleontology exhibit as well as built some cases for the Native American exhibit. She said she was also very proud of the Native American culture room, with this updated look much different from its former state.

An exhibit she said she was happy the museum to acquire was the collection of artifacts from the Bear Paw Battlefield. Sheppard added that this exhibit was fun to work on.

The museum board hired an archaeologist to come and study the collection, she said, and visiting with him about the different pieces was very interesting.

Looking back, she said, it is a great asset to the museum in addition to the great audio visual presentation that is included. The audio and visual exhibit was something unique to the Blaine County Museum, she said. It is well-done and is pretty outstanding, she added. Not many places have something like that.

She said she was very proud of the upgrades she made to the Old West exhibit. She said she liked the way it turned out. She repainted the walls red, which made the room pop, she said, and made everything more visible to visitors.

"I'm proud of all those exhibits," she said. "... I like all the exhibits."

Sheppard added that the museum is also very lucky to have the Sweet Collection. One of the things that she changed as director was moving the Sweet Collection exhibit from the downstairs area to the upstairs area.

"The local people knew who he was, but the tourists didn't," she said, "so they would not look at that exhibit and it drove me crazy."

Lloyd Sweet was a Blaine County and Chinook resident who made his fortune in California as an investor and acted as a benefactor for Chinook, donating funds for many projects and organizations.

He originally donated his collection to the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, who have permanently loaned it to the museum for display.

Sheppard said she updated the exhibits regularly. She wanted to alternate the clothing on the mannequins, changing them every season. The museum has a great number of clothes and outfits, ranging from the late 1800s to the 1960s.

Things she learned

Sheppard said she also learned a great deal of things while she was the director.

She made it a point to go to the Museums Association of Montana conferences, she said. Different people from across the state would hold workshops at the conferences, where she learned about fabrics, how to take care of artifacts, different cleaning methods, how to put exhibits together and how to label displays.

Something she learned about the information panels was that she had to keep labels short so people don't get tired of reading and can move along, she said.

"I learned so much," Sheppard said, and picked up some great information at these conferences.

Something that she always appreciated were the comments she would get on the museum, she said. Many of the visitors were often very impressed with its quality.

"People are just amazed that a small town has the quality of our museum," she said.

Often people would tell her the Blaine County Museum was the best county museum they have been in, she said, and that always made her feel good.

Now she is leaving the position she is going to miss the friends that she has made over the years. The people who come and visit the museum, she said, would end up as friends.

"It is pretty special," she said.

Other friends she met through history conferences and through the Museums Association of Montana.

"It's nice to know people from across the state and consider them your friends," she said. "You run into people that you've met through the museum and have good memories of those people."

But, she said, what she will miss the most is meeting new people and working with the children.

Retirement: looking forward

Sheppard said that she is planning to stay in the area. She has two grandchildren who live in the Bear Paw Mountains who come to visit her after school. She added that she also wants to visit her other grandchildren who don't live in the area.

One of the biggest changes for her, she said, will be starting to travel. She would like to do a river cruise and go to Europe, places like France and Spain and Germany. She added that she has a friend in the Netherlands who she wants to visit, as well.

Traveling while she was director was difficult, Sheppard said, because it was hard for her to get help in the museum. Oftentimes she would have to rely on a specific few people to watch the museum so she could leave.

In addition to travel, Sheppard said, she also has many projects at home and looks forward to working in her yard. She also likes to paint.

She said she is an amateur artist, but has not picked up a paint brush for a long time due to her obligations at the museum.

"I need to do that, I need to start painting again," she said.