Backstage Pass to North Dakota History

This blog takes you behind the scenes of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Get a glimpse at a day-in-the-life of the staff, volunteers, and partners who make it all possible. Discover what it takes to preserve North Dakota's natural and cultural history.

A Dog Blog: 5 Things Shaped Like Dogs in the State Museum Collections

February is the month of love. Do you know what I love? Dogs! Here are some artifacts in our museum collections that make me say, “What a good boi!”

1. Doorstops

Shaped like Boston terriers, this set of cast-iron doorstops held open doors in the Devils Lake area around the 1930s. The Hubley Manufacturing Company is well-known for cast-iron toys, but they also created doorstops, bookends, and door knockers. These helpful pups were originally sold with a leather collar and a leash.

Two Boston terrier cast-iron doorstops

Sturdy silent types. SHSND 16695.1-2

2. Nutcracker

Everyone knows dogs love treats. Gustav and Bertha Helm used this cast-iron canine cruncher in their home three miles south of Mandan. Although its age is not known, the nutcracker was likely produced in the 1910s or 1920s.

A dog shaped nutcracker with the mouth being the part that opens and closes to crack the nut and the tail being the part that lifts to open and close the mouth

Ready to crack your toughest nuts. (Shown with a photoshopped nut for full effect.) SHSND 2007.80.95

3. Dachshund Woodcarving

Ben Ehreth of Mandan carved this little pal in March 2001. Ben first started carving in 1973. He was largely self-taught in the craft and gave away his creations as gifts. Ben’s son and daughter-in-law Mike and Linda Ehreth received their dachshund friend along with many other Ben Ehreth originals.

A wood carved figure of a Dachshund

So cute you can almost see his tail wag. SHSND 2018.6.2

4. Stuffed Animals

These two chunky puppies kept Hazel McCulloch company while growing up near Washburn in the early 1900s. The homemade hounds are stuffed with straw around a wire frame. Hazel became one of the first 12 faculty members at the Minot Normal School (now Minot State University). She served on the staff from 1913 to 1959 as a training school supervisor and history professor. Students can now stay in a residence hall named in her honor.

Two cream colored dog stuffed animals with very short tail

Loved so much, their eyes fell out. SHSND 15574.1-2

5. Salt and Pepper Shakers

The Wahpeton-based pottery company Rosemeade was well known for its eclectic salt and pepper shaker sets. You can get the spice of life from any number of flora and fauna: flickertail gophers, a prairie rose, pheasants, cacti, and 13 different breeds of dogs! Made sometime between 1953 and 1961, these disembodied cocker spaniel shakers are ready to add excitement to your meal. But they don’t seem happy about it.

Salt and pepper shakers that are the heads of brown cocker spaniels

They're making that face to let you know they also want to be eating your food. SHSND 2017.55.16

A Matter of Interpretation: Bringing History to Life at State Historic Sites

Learning how to tell stories objectively isn’t always easy. Not many people realize it, but the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center and Fort Mandan State Historic Site where I work is staffed with team members who are nationally certified in interpretation. To obtain certification, our staff attends training courses offered through the National Association for Interpretation (NAI). These are weeklong programs, which teach the core principles of interpretation.

One might ask, “What is interpretation?” NAI defines it as “a purposeful approach to communication that facilitates meaningful, relevant, and inclusive experiences that deepen understanding, broaden perspectives, and inspire engagement with the world around us.”

So how does that apply to these sites? Through our training from NAI, we are able to help visitors better understand and relate to site content, and hopefully spark interest in furthering their knowledge of what they learn at these sites. We do so by offering hands-on items that bring seemingly intangible information learned through textbooks or novels to life. The Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center and Fort Mandan State Historic Site hold more than 1,500 items (mainly replicas) related to their content. Using replicas allows us to offer visitors the opportunity to handle some of these items. In a sense, we are able to put history into the hands of visitors. Interpretive Resource Specialist Shannon Kelly makes sure all the items we acquire are both historically accurate and add to the story the sites tell. A recent commission by the agency included a beaded belt by Hunkpapha Lakhota/Hidatsa artist D. Joyce Kitson. The purpose of the belt is to allow visitors to handle and contextualize what this representative piece of history may have been like.

This blue beaded belt by Hunkpapha Lakhota/Hidatsa artist D. Joyce Kitson will be used as an interpretive piece for staff to discuss Sacagawea’s possessions and attire during the expedition. We do not know the exact design of Sacagawea’s belt, but this is a good approximation.

Aside from historical items at the site, we also have a lot of programming. From arts and crafts to geology and navigation, we add fun educational activities for visitors. Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG) training teaches you how to develop these programs. Staff then create engaging interactive activities and programs that allow visitors to get the most out of their visit. One recent program we ran was a paper boat challenge, where visitors were taught how to make paper boats and then offered “provisions” in the form of beads, corn, corks, and wooden clothespins. The visitor was tasked with loading up their boat with the provisions and seeing how long it could stay afloat while dealing with the elements (or in this case, people splashing).

Our setup for a recent paper boat challenge held at the Fort Mandan State Historic Site Visitor Center near Washburn.

Once staff obtain their certification, they are required to maintain credits for their NAI membership, and this is done by attending its conferences. After an NAI conference, staff come back motivated, inspired, and sometimes even with a new skill set. In November 2023, Bethany Schatz, one of our team members, and I went to Little Rock, Arkansas, for the NAI National Conference. While there, we attended a workshop on 19th-century blacksmithing. Bethany was offered the opportunity to make an item in the forge. She created a steak flipper, which is something that could have very easily been made by the blacksmiths of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. From the forge to the tools, it was all similar to what would have been used in 1804 at the site. Bethany was able to experience in just a short amount of time what it would have been like to work as a blacksmith during the expedition. Not only did she leave the session with a new item she created with her own hands, but she also left with a desire to learn more about the trade as well as how to bring similar hands-on learning experiences to the site and spread inspiration to visitors.

Seasonal employee Bethany Schatz learns how to blacksmith during the 2023 NAI National Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. Bethany was guided through the steps to make a steak flipper by Historic Arkansas Museum site interpreter/residential blacksmith Casey Marshall.

In North Dakota, we are fortunate to have nationally certified interpreters at many of our state historic sites and museums. After all, interpretation is a way to connect with visitors, help develop their interests, and cultivate memorable experiences. Come check us out!