Archeologists visit Wahkpa Chu'gn Buffalo Jump

At a meeting of the H. Earl Clack Museum Board Monday night, Board Chair Lela Patera discussed a July 6 visit from state archeologist Patrick Rennie and Montana native Jim Keyser of the Oregon Archeological Society.

Patera said the two archeologists did some work at the Wahkpa Chu’gn Buffalo Jump behind the Havre Holiday Village Mall.

“Why they were here was they wanted to map a stone that’s at the bottom of the stairs with a hoofprint on there,” she added.

She said the archaeologists verified it is real and she went with the two and their crew to watch the mapping process.

“They used a piece of I don’t know, plastic, it was sticky and they put that on there. And then they pushed around with their fingers and got it all into the grooves of it. And then they took a marker and then marked all through there to make their picture,” Patera said.

She said they took lots of regular pictures and had a blue light to bring that image up, because it doesn’t show unless in bright sunshine.

Patera said the board will eventually be sent a report and a book on mapping and stone artwork relating to the area.

Museum to present at Great Northern Fair

Museum Manager Emily Mayer also said during the meeting she will be giving a presentation at the upcoming Great Northern Fair.

“Frank English called about in wanted to know whether or not the museum would do something for the Great Northern Pair because he thought it would be a good idea for us to have the (Faber) schoolhouse open. So I decided Friday and Saturday, I would be there,” Mayer said.

“I’ll give a presentation at 1 and 3:30. … I’ll do sedition in Hill County on Friday, and then Saturday I’ll do a history of the Faber School, just because I know more people might be there and they might be more interested in the history of the schoolhouse rather than sedition,” she added.

Mayer said she will be bringing a cooler of water so patrons can combat the heat.

She said in her report on the museum to the board things are going well with new apparel from Pratt & Company selling well at the gift shop.

She also said Montana Dinosaur Trail tour numbers are up.

“In May, we had three. In June, we had 76 people come in with their (Dinosaur Trail) passports to get stamped. This month so far from the first to the 11th, 14. So the Dinosaur Trail has been really hot,” Mayer said.

Mayer said the museum sold out of trail passports and has ordered more. She said the trail has attracted not just native Montanans, but people from North Carolina, St. Louis and Chicago.

She said visitation to the museum was down from two years ago, but said it wasn’t discouraging with everything going on in the past 18 months.

Mayer said in a report on the Buffalo Jump site that visitation numbers are up. In 2019 there were 296 visitors and as of June this year, there have been 417 visitors.

Work on new museum building continues

H. Earl and Margaret Turner Clack Memorial Museum Foundation President Elaine Morse discussed in the foundation report work being done on the future location for the museum, the former Griggs Printing Building on the 10 Block of Fifth Avenue. The work being done right now is flooring but Morse also said garage doors have been replaced.

Morse said the board’s next project will be replacing windows and that she has gotten a bid of about $11,000. Morse also said she is completing a grant for $10,000 to make restrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Our board talked about our endowment fund, and the fact that we’ve always guarded it zealously, and that we need to use this time to start spending some of that, because this is what we’ve been saving for is our building. So that’s why we’re doing windows, garage doors and a few other things,” Morse said.

The board also passed a motion to have Board Vice-Chair David Sageser replace old lights in the Wahkpa Chu’gn Interpretative Center with energy and cost-efficient LED bulbs.

Fire at Buffalo Jump

Patera said a fire started at the Buffalo Jump July 5 at midnight.

“(Buffalo Jump volunteer) Kelly Jones was called to bring keys up there because they had to go through the fence and they were hoping that they could get it stopped but if they couldn’t, they wanted to be able to get in the buildings,” Patera said.

“Luckily, it hardly got through, thank goodness for us. It probably was fireworks and it started behind the mall and came over and it could have been really devastating for us. But luckily it was not,” she added.

Patera said the fence was repaired by mall personnel.

The H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum Board will meet next month Monday, Aug. 9, at 6 p.m. at Havre Inn and Suites.