Museum gets ready for opening day

With the Heritage Museum’s opening day scheduled in a little over a month, volunteers are already busy getting everything in order — including a few new exhibits.

The large, round log building was built in 1978, at the height of Libby’s booming timber industry, and has become a local landmark.

What many don’t know is the sheer volume of volunteer hours that go into preserving delicate historical items, maintaining the large grounds, and keeping the museum moving into the future with new, safer archiving practices.

There are no paid positions at the museum.

Becky Simmons, a volunteer of over 20 years, opens the door with a big smile. Behind her, the place is bustling with volunteers even on an early spring day, well before the museum’s official opening on May 1.

“Except for the grounds keepers, whose busy season is summer, we do most of our work during the winter” Simmons said. “We have different committees, like exhibits, accessions [archiving] grants and grounds and it adds up to about 30 regular volunteers.”

Museum president Charles McFarland added “It’s more like 50 (volunteers) when we’re open, because we have some who only work the front desk.”

With over 30 exhibits inside the museum, volunteers have to undertake training in order to take care of some exhibits.

“We just finished training from a local taxidermist on cleaning and restoring some of our birds,” Simmons said. “You clean the feathers with a swiffer.”

Their training extends to taking care of an exhibit funded by the EPA on vermiculite.

The vermiculite exhibit, new this year, includes EPA-approved encapsulated samples of attic insulation and various forms of vermiculite.

Volunteers also underwent training on gathering oral histories, thanks to a grant from the CARD clinic.

Visitors can now listen to and watch 23 locals speak about their experience of asbestos poisoning.

Libby’s long history with asbestos contamination affects the town in more ways than widespread chronic illnesses.

According to a number of economic development studies undertaken by the city in the last decade, it’s often the most cited reason visitors do not want to visit Libby.

However, the museum’s new exhibit will help educate visitors about Libby’s past, while embracing a possible future in tourism.

The grant-writing committee has been busy, with funds being available this year to update an internal staircase to OSHA standards, purchase new boxes for paper archives which better deter bugs and humidity which would degrade the objects, and expand the carpark to make it easy for RV’s to pull in and turn around.

A private donation has allowed for a new pavilion to protect some outdoor exhibits.

“A lot of outside artifacts are impacted by weather,” Simmons said.

Not so for the 1906 steam locomotive that the museum is restoring to be used as tourist entertainment on museum grounds.

Currently in pieces but safely stored in a shed on the grounds, the engine is being worked on by local volunteers with mechanical knowledge.

“We should be blowing steam by June” McFarland said.

June 3 is the date of the museum’s grand opening for 2017, a fun family day out which may well include a steam train ride.

Although the museum has official opening hours, McFarland said, “In the dead of winter, people will knock, and if we can open to them, we will.”

Volunteer Jim Mari talks about how many people the museum attracts every year: “not even 4,000 people came through last season.”

Simmons said that 2,800 people signed the book last year. However, she noted that they have no idea how many people came in without signing.

Donations help with maintenance cost and basics like utility bills.

“It’s $400 a month to keep it warm in winter” says McFarland. A grant from Flathead Electric to replace the current bulbs with LED bulbs should help bring that number down next year.

Along with hosting passers by and tourists, the museum also puts on special after hours showings, like the ‘Night at the Museum’ they have been holding for sixth graders annually for five years. It’s not actually an overnighter, but a late afternoon private museum showing with special features.

These events may not raise much money, but they are a large part of why the museum exists - to serve it’s community.

McFarland is in his fourth year as a volunteer.

“When I first came here, I just liked it,” he recalled. “Someone asked me to come and help with something specific, and then I ended up coming back for other things. I think a lot of people come here inadvertently and then stay on.”

“There are always opportunities for volunteers” says Simmons “and we have fun, we really do.”