On July 1, ND250 Road Trip: Our American Story, celebrating our nation’s 250th birthday, will open at the ND Heritage Center & State Museum. The product of a four-year effort by staff, the exhibit covers North Dakota’s history from 1776 to the present, with a peek at what may lie ahead.

It has been a monumental effort for many of us in the agency. I have served as project manager in addition to contributing to the research and writing of interpretive content and designing the gallery layout. My efforts would have been impossible without my colleagues. Their talents and skills have made the exhibition a reality.

Postcard, 1940. SHSND SA B0716-00039 

Much of the interpretation is supported by images and objects from our collections. The postcard above with its bold graphics and Technicolor palette set the tone for the project early on. The image appears in the exhibition and is joined by a myriad of similarly impactful content.

I can’t help but play favorites when working on an exhibition, so as I introduce you to the exhibition’s various sections, I want to share some of the images and objects that really appeal to me.

An Indian Map of the Different Tribes that Inhabit the East & West Side of the Rocky Mountains with Rivers and other Remarkable Places, Paul Fidler, 1801. Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Archives of Manitoba

The Introduction situates the exhibition as part of the national America250 celebration. It also explores how the physical landscape of the Louisiana Territory, which included the region now known as North Dakota, was perceived in 1776, and how those details were expanded and clarified through additional exploration.

Among the maps in this section is one outside the traditional realm of cartography. This visual representation of the Missouri River is interpreted based on an oral explanation and a hand-drawn diagram provided to an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, rather than from a surveyor’s field measurements.

The map’s contents were conveyed by Blackfoot chief Ac ko mok ki (Feathers) to Paul Fidler. The overall drawing looks like a folding fan or a triangular rake. The Missouri River is depicted as a central column with its tributary rivers forming radiating spines. The river is accurately shown as coming from the Rocky Mountains and is notated with lists of tribal communities, populations, landmarks, and travel times between locations. It provides a novel and non-Western way to consider space and dimension. I find that appealing.

Detail of Dakota War Record (Lakota/Sioux), 1880-1889. SHSND 11935 

Who Was Here in 1776? looks at the vibrant Indigenous cultures existing in the region and the area’s importance as a hub of Native trade and commerce. This portion of the exhibition includes extensive artwork and photographs documenting the region’s tribal people. During the project development phase, our curators strongly recommended incorporating original artworks by Native artists. Toward this goal, we photographed several of the winter counts in our collection, including details of scenes and individuals, for inclusion.

My favorite winter count detail is a representation of a women’s dance line that is part of a Dakota image from the late 19th century. The large drawing is composed on cotton muslin in graphite and ink. The events being documented happened in colder weather, as the women are wrapped in colorful wool trade blankets and the two men providing the rhythmic accompaniment to their dance with hand drums wear hooded wool coats (capotes). Throughout the larger, episodic artwork other individuals are also dressed in warm clothes and some are shown near campfires. Three men are even wearing gloves with exaggerated splayed fingers.

I love the energy of this image, especially that the women are dancing on their toes. They are arranged in a dance line and rendered in the context of the tipi encampment. I have seen this same configuration of women elders in an early motion picture of a powwow made during the 1920s. This image adds both color and gravitas to the dance.

Norwegian spinning wheel, late 1700s. SHSND 11643 

European Immigration explores the circumstances that encouraged the mass immigration of Europeans in the 19th and early 20th centuries and how it defined the character of North Dakota. It also explores the impact of immigrants on the region’s Native tribes, including the loss of traditional lands and the imposition of the reservation system.

One particular delight is a small Saxony spinning wheel. It traveled from near Oslo, Norway, in 1881 to a new home in Milnor. The device belonged to the Anderson family and is one of the oldest objects in the exhibition. Originally handcrafted around 1750, it is made almost entirely of beautifully turned and shaped wood. The spinning wheel looks a bit like an overgrown stool. Though compact in form, it remains an excellent example of the combining of the decorative and the practical. The drive wheel is missing one hand-turned spoke, and a few of the carved white “buttons” are cracked but otherwise the piece is intact and even retains its original paint colors.

This spinning wheel speaks to the importance of textile production in rural households, both in the Old World and here. An early form of mechanization, the spinning wheel was a major part of everyday domestic life in rural North Dakota. At the time, most household textiles and clothing were made from home-grown fibers. Commodities such as wool, flax/linen, and cotton required processing to turn into spun yarns for weaving and this device served that purpose. Members of the household were constantly harvesting, processing fibers, spinning, knitting, and weaving materials.

Northern Pacific Railway train carrying steam engines and threshers, 1883. SHSND SA 2019-096-00002

Mechanization is also represented in a photograph of a Northern Pacific freight train in the Red River Valley. The Red River Valley consists of the richest and most productive soil in the region. This dynamic photograph captures the importance of the latest technology in North Dakota’s rise as an agricultural powerhouse. In the image, a steam locomotive pulls a string of flatcars carrying steam engines and a fleet of threshers. Steam engines, such as these, would eventually power threshers in the field during the all-important harvest season.

Another pertinent theme conveyed in this section is the survival of horse culture among tribal groups under the reservation system. I chose this image for the exhibition because it shows two Lakota men interacting with horses but also playfully interacting with one another. I like its humor, but I love the title.

A Good Horse on the Rope, Frank Fiske, circa 1910. SHSND SA 1952-00541

Destination North Dakota: Promoting the State features the range of promotional campaigns created to entice early immigrants and eventually tourists to come to Dakota Territory and North Dakota. The section also provides an overview of how the various campaigns have impacted perceptions of North Dakota’s contributions within the region, the nation, and the world.

North Dakota early on tapped into its importance as an agricultural center. Many of the earliest promotional campaigns championed the bounty and resources of the region. One such promotional event was a display at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Franciso (the 1915 World’s Fair). The centerpiece of the North Dakota Building was a towering structure mimicking the Eiffel Tower made entirely of corn and corn stalks and proclaiming the slogan “North Dakota Enlightening the World.” The image is very much of the era and represents a healthy dose of unchecked boosterism. North Dakota was making its importance known.

A corn towner display at the North Dakota Building, Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, 1915. SHSND SA E0409-00001

Explore Your Roots introduces visitors to genealogy and family history research techniques and resources by posing the question “Where were your people in 1776? It also provides details of resources available through the State Archives to investigate your family history. Period photographs of people engaging in various activities represent the “Faces of North Dakota” and show the continuity and resilience in North Dakotans’ traditions over time.

A favorite image is this photograph of an indoor curling rink in Pembina County around 1913. In an era before mechanical refrigeration, the photo hides the fact that it had to be below freezing indoors to maintain the curling sheet, the house (target), and its familiar circular markings. Curling was only possible in colder climates. The men in the photo are all wearing wool coats and hats, many with brooms in hand. Today, curling is North Dakota’s official state sport.

Indoor curling rink, Pembina County, circa 1913. SNSND SA 107-00230

New Frontiers: The Road Ahead focuses on North Dakota’s current role as a leading agricultural and energy producer within the nation’s economy, exploring the surprising range of technological research and advances happening within the state and asking what the next 250 years might bring. The section celebrates some of the unique and defining features that make North Dakota what it is, including our fun assortment of “world’s largest” roadside art.

Vending machine, circa 1960. SHSND 1993.133.55

Included in this section is a prototype spacesuit created at the University of North Dakota for use on the Martian surface. There’s also a bubble gum dispenser shaped like a spaceship that truly endeared itself to me. It reminded me of the Space Race obsession that permeated our culture during my youth in the 1960s. I was jealous of a friend’s toy Gemini space capsule for his G.I. Joe and then felt superior when I received a Maj. Matt Mason space station and lunar walker. In those heady days accompanied by the theme music to the original “Star Trek” series, the world seemed unlimited.

I truly hope that visitors to ND250 Road Trip: Our American Story, which runs through October 2028, will find similar moments of connection and inspiration. The exhibition provides so many stories and opportunities to engage. I invite you to visit the ND Heritage Center in Bismarck and experience this exhibition for yourself.

If your Spidey senses are tingling, it may be because Marvelocity: The Art of Alex Ross is coming to the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum. The traveling exhibition, developed by the Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake County, Illinois, will bring the gravity-defying world of Marvel Comic illustrations to Bismarck from March 16 through June 9, 2024.

Spider-Man, Marvelocity Cover, 2018

The exhibition includes more than 50 original illustrations, including cover art, storyboards, preliminary drawings, sculptures, and even a set of homemade action figures fashioned by Alex Ross when he was a child in Lubbock, Texas.

Ross is a prolific and award-winning illustrator, writer, and fine artist. He created his first cartoon at age three after seeing a live action Spider-Man sequence on “The Electric Company” television program. As a teenager he carefully studied the visual techniques of comic book and graphic novel artists before following in his mother’s footsteps and studying at the American Academy of Art in Chicago.

In 1990, Ross’ first published comic book illustrations appeared in Now Comics’ “Terminator: The Burning Earth.” His initial Marvel cover art was printed in 1993. Ross’ work in the 1990s was primarily for DC Comics. Beginning in 2000 he became more closely associated with the world of Marvel.

Dr. Strange, Marvelocity Cover, 2018 

His work is now synonymous with the images of the Avengers, Captain America, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and many, many other superheroes.

The fantastical world Ross creates lives outside human parameters, allowing him to push his visual representations of superheroes into a dramatic realm even beyond the limitations of computer-generated imagery (CGI). His characters are monumental and epic in scale, enhanced by exploding compositions that burst from the page. Ross works in the medium of gouache, an opaque watercolor. It allows for layering colors and is popular with commercial artists for its precise control and matte finish.

In 2018, Ross created a new series of cover images as part of a publication project documenting his career with Marvel. These illustrations form the Dunn Museum’s Marvelocity traveling exhibition and feature his signature hyperrealist style and dynamic poses.

Captain America, Marvelocity Cover, 2018

So if action is your reward, come get your fill at Marvelocity: The Art of Alex Ross, on exhibit in the James E. Sperry Gallery at the State Museum, March 16-June 9, 2024. Radioactive spiders not included.
 

Admittedly, the best part of my job is the opportunity to organize and create exhibitions. I love the creative forces involved in producing an exhibition—discovering new stories, collaborating on storylines, and working with our team to devise original ways to interpret exhibition themes. Then there is the “stuff” of exhibits, the wonderful objects from which the stories spring. I have long enjoyed working with objects and exploring the “chatter” and relationships that exist between them. It is also deeply gratifying to see how gallery visitors respond to and move through an exhibition. Once you open the gallery doors, exhibitions take on a life of their own.

The care and maintenance of an exhibition’s life cycle is also an important component of my job. We often revisit an installation, adjusting elements that need additional attention. This may include switching out an interpretive panel that is problematic or simply correcting a typo. It can mean adjusting an audiovisual component, refocusing a light, replacing a video monitor that is acting up, or even something as simple as lubricating a squeaky hinge.

The exhibition’s life can also entail adding new components. At the State Museum in Bismarck, just one of about a dozen of our exhibition areas across the state, we are currently working on an upgrade to the Industry & Energy section of the North Dakota story in the Inspiration Gallery: Yesterday and Today.

Two display fixtures donated by Continental Resources will be used to expand the narrative about the role of core samples within the petroleum industry. This involves reconceptualizing the exhibition space as well as developing new interpretive text and selecting accompanying photographs. Fortunately, we were able to draw from a series of photographs of the Williston Basin produced by Susan Tadewald for the State Historical Society of North Dakota Foundation.

Concept drawing for the core sample display at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum.

Pump operation near Williston, 2012. Photo by Susan Tadewald

The addition to the energy display also allows us to repurpose an existing interactive station and expand the current footprint of the display.

This project piqued my interest as it ties into my background. My late father was a geophysicist who worked in the petroleum industry and part of his job entailed interpreting seismic records and core samples. Indeed, core samples even served as decorative objects around my childhood homes. Later in my professional life, I encountered a custom-made dining table with a topographic map etched into its glass surface, supported on an undulating pedestal base made of core samples.

Maintenance issues relating to the physical structure of the ND Heritage Center have also triggered several recent exhibition projects. We are currently undergoing an extensive upgrade to the security system that monitors both the exhibition galleries and the public spaces. The upgrade involves removing the cables and cameras for the current system and installing the new system’s components. Contractors are running cables throughout the building, which necessitated the temporary removal of exhibition elements in a couple of galleries to ensure the safety of the museum objects.

Work in the James E. Sperry Gallery required completely deinstalling the exhibition The Prairie Post Office. Accessing the existing security cables meant opening several walls and a portion of the ceiling. Once the work was finished, crews installed and painted new walls and the existing carpet was replaced. When the new carpet, paint, and adhesives cure and off-gas, we will reinstall the exhibition.

The refreshed Sperry Gallery awaits the return of The Prairie Post Office.

A similar situation occurred in the Governors Gallery. A portion of Fashion & Function: North Dakota Style was deinstalled to allow contractors to pull cables in that space. The Wedding March section was temporarily removed to protect the objects and allow contractors to move a power lift into the space to access the ceiling. As soon as we get the “all-clear” from the contractors, we will reinstall the platforms and wedding gowns.

Eventually these gallery disruptions will result in an improved exhibition environment. A feature of the new security system is that it generates a heat record for each gallery based on the amount of time gallery visitors linger at any feature, allowing us to see how gallery visitors interact with a space. Hot spots will identify popular areas, and cooler zones may indicate the need to rework a component or reconsider the objects or storyline being interpreted.

Sometimes nature impacts the exhibition’s life. Some of you may recall the flooding that occurred last fall in the Adaptation Gallery: Geologic Time, resulting in part of the gallery’s temporary closure. The flooding was due to the combination of a flat roof, heavy rain, and a failed drain. As part of an effort to mitigate future flooding, the tail section of the Triceratops was recently deinstalled to allow access to the drainage pipes above that portion of the gallery. Connections were tightened and the drain and pipes tested to ensure there won’t be any additional leakage in the future, and the Triceratops got its tail back. So all is good!

Flooding in the Adaptation Gallery: Geologic Time, October 2021.

Exhibition maintenance is a constant and occupies a remarkable amount of time and resources. The Treehouse interactive and learning space on the upper level above the Missouri River Event Center requires almost daily maintenance. We often marvel at how the “unbreakable” gets broken and how even steel bolts are sheared in half. But then we remember the “unsinkable” RMS Titanic and remind ourselves we must always temper our expectations against reality.

In addition to ongoing maintenance projects, we are also working on upcoming exhibitions. On the Edge of the Wind: Native Storytellers and the Land premiers in late April 2023 in the Governors Gallery. The planning and preparation for the new exhibition is well underway. To date, it has already been a two-year production partnership between the State Historical Society and the North Dakota Council on the Arts, with State Folklorist Troyd Geist conducting fieldwork for the project for more than eight years. On the Edge of the Wind will see a complete reinstallation of the Governors Gallery.

Governors Gallery layout for On the Edge of the Wind, which will open in spring 2023.

We are also developing an art exhibition that will occupy the Sperry Gallery beginning next summer, a complete reinterpretation of the Pembina State Museum for installation in 2024, and the America 250 semiquincentennial exhibition that will open in the Governors Gallery in 2025.

With all this planning and maintenance, life is never dull. It may be a bit frantic at times, but it is never dull!

The Audience Engagement & Museum staff is currently working in partnership with the North Dakota Council on the Arts (NDCA) to develop On the Edge of the Wind: Native Storytellers & the Land, a 2023 exhibition to follow Fashion & Function: North Dakota Style in the Governors Gallery at the ND Heritage Center & State Museum. On the Edge of the Wind is a rare opportunity to gain understanding of sacred sites and oral traditions associated with tribal cultures in both North Dakota and South Dakota.

One site featured in the exhibition is Buffalo Lodge. In the early 19th century, it was the site of the largest Sun Dance in North America with more than 1,500 celebrants. Photographs by Barbara Hauser and Troyd Geist

The Navajo and Hopi tribes of the American Southwest celebrate the concept of “walking in beauty.” This same concept manifests itself among the tribes of the northern Plains in the idea that life is a ceremony, and one should seek balance through the integration of connectiveness and awareness. The concept of life as a ceremony is repeated throughout the stories explored in On the Edge of the Wind.

To recognize and honor the importance of the various sites, the exhibit focuses on traditional stories that establish the significance of place, rather than pinpointing actual sites. The narratives shared are told by respected storytellers who have been granted the right to tell the stories. Every effort is being made to respect both the cultures and the sanctity of the sites detailed. Stories were shared with appropriate permissions and in accordance with tribal guidelines.

An important organizing principle of the exhibition is the idea that there are no definitive stories in the oral tradition. Variations reveal themselves, and the same story may be told differently from family to family and from community to community. This exhibition captures each individual storyteller’s version of a particular tale.

On the Edge of the Wind has seven major thematic sections. Key to the exhibition are 118 large-format color photographs printed on aluminum. The photographs are primarily landscapes. Groupings of the photographs define the individual interpretive segments. Each section is also accompanied by objects supporting the narrative. Some of the objects were newly commissioned by NDCA for the exhibition. Several are from the collections of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.

Decorative ceremonial drum crafted by Laidman Fox Jr. The drum represents the Earth’s heartbeat, believed to reside within Heart Butte. Courtesy NDCA

Thunder Butte is the site of a traditional story in which the hunter Packs Antelope fights a heroic battle on behalf of the thunderbirds. Photo by Barbara Hauser

Components of the exhibition have been in development since early 2019. North Dakota’s state folklorist Troyd Geist spent months in the field working with tribal elders and storytellers collecting their traditional stories along with background information and invaluable interpretive content.

Geist captured the recorded sessions in more than five hours of narrative videos. His intent is to share select stories with our museum audience but even more importantly to document the narratives of contemporary elders for future generations. They form a valuable archive. When the exhibition is complete, Geist intends for the NDCA to gift the recordings to the associated tribal communities.

The video recordings will be accessed at five touch screen kiosks located throughout the gallery and on the State Museum’s website after the exhibition opens.

Beaded Ojibwe “octopus bag” crafted by Marvin Baldeagle Youngman. Despite its name, the shape of the bag represents a bison with four legs, the notched ends mimicking hooves. The bag is intended for carrying medicinal herbs and plants. Courtesy NDCA

Fashion & Function closes the Sunday following Thanksgiving 2022. After its deinstallation, we will begin installing On the Edge of the Wind. The new exhibit is scheduled to open in mid-March 2023 and run through November 2024.

We are always fortunate when a new object enters the museum collection with a fantastic story attached. The recent donation of the S.D. Nelson Collection came with a whole series of stories attached—in fact, the contents of the collection revolve around the art of storytelling.

S.D. Nelson is a prolific, award-winning writer and illustrator. Since 1999 he has produced a series of 12 children’s books and collaborated on an additional seven books focused on the cultural heritage of Native American communities.

A registered member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and a descendant of the Hunkpapa Lakota, Nelson spent childhood summers visiting his grandmother at Fort Yates, where he learned about his family’s cultural heritage. His mother, Christine Rose Gipp (Elk Tooth Woman), was a gifted storyteller who inspired him from a young age with tales and traditional lore of his tribe.

In a recent conversation I had with Nelson, he reflected on how the summer visits also exposed him to the shared community trauma that stemmed from reservation life and the disruptions inflicted by the American Indian boarding schools. He noted as an adult looking back on those painful childhood experiences that much of the trauma and many of the issues remain and have intensified, often with tragic results.

Nelson’s father, Thurston D. Nelson, was of Scandinavian descent and a career military officer. The family moved constantly following new postings, and S.D. and his three siblings were exposed to a broader world beyond the Standing Rock Reservation. Nelson would eventually graduate from high school in Fargo. His interest in art led him to complete the art education program at the University of Minnesota Moorhead. His professional career evolved as an art educator in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Nelson views his children’s books as an extension of his advocacy for children’s education. He is a cofounder of Read@Home, an organization promoting literary opportunities for preschoolers in Native American communities. He is a popular lecturer and was profiled on an episode produced by Prairie Public in 2010.

Last summer, Nelson visited the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck to deliver a selection of artwork, documentation, and objects relating to his publications. In all we received 135 objects, including original paintings, sketches, colored pencil drawings, printer’s proofs, and handcrafted traditional objects made by the artist.

The collection arrived as we were developing the graphic design and interpretation for the Sitting Bull exhibition currently on view at the Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center. As luck would have it, one of Nelson’s children’s books—which is well represented in the donation—is “Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of his People.” We eagerly incorporated several of his illustrations into the interpretive layouts and included one of his original acrylic paintings in the section exploring Sitting Bull’s contemporary legacy.

Two illustrations from S.D. Nelson’s 2015 book “Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of his People.” SHSND PAR-2020082.55

Sitting Bull killed his first bison at age 10. “Buffalo Brother” shows Sitting Bull thanking the bison for giving up his life. SHSND PAR-2020082.56 

The new donation also includes materials relating to Nelson’s first publication “Gift Horse: A Lakota Story” and his 2012 book “Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story.” “Buffalo Bird Girl” is a retelling of the landmark narrative provided by Buffalo Bird Woman (Waheenee, 1839-1932) to ethnographer Gilbert L. Wilson, and whose subsequent publication in 1921 provides much of the primary research documenting traditional Hidatsa lifestyles and agricultural practices. Nelson’s book focuses on Buffalo Bird Woman’s childhood, thus the age shift in the title.

S.D. Nelson shows Assistant Registrar Elise Dukart the beadwork on a pipe bowl bag he made.

We are currently developing a new exhibition drawn from materials in the S.D. Nelson Collection to be installed in the North Dakota Artists Gallery in late March 2022. The installation will include vignettes from the production of “Gift Horse: A Lakota Story,” “Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of his People,” and “Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story.” We will also show a selection of traditional objects fashioned and embellished by Nelson.

Nelson’s artistic style incorporates multiple aesthetics, which run the gamut from realism to highly stylized representation. His proud Native American figures are often brilliantly colored, blending the tradition of full body paint and the symbolism of favored Lakota colors. His characters and narratives exist in multi-layered landscapes merging the natural world, the spiritual, and the fantastical as one.

An illustration from “Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of His People” shows Lakota and Cheyenne warriors celebrating after the June 17, 1876, Battle of the Rosebud in the Montana Territory. SHSND PAR-2020.082.60

Nelson has illustrated book jackets, greeting cards, and CD covers, and his paintings are held in both private and public collections. His books have received the American Indian Library Association Honor Book Award in 2016; the Spur Award from Western Writers of America in 2004 and 2006; the Notable Children’s Book Award from the American Library Association in 2001 and 2011; and he was included on the 2011 Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List from the Texas Library Association. He has lectured at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., and was the keynote speaker for Read North Dakota in 2010 (North Dakota Humanities Council).

We look forward to introducing you to the evocative world of S.D. Nelson when we premier All Is Grass and Clouds, Forever: The Art of S.D. Nelson this spring.

Dakota the Dinomummy is returning! One of our most popular artifacts has been having a well-deserved rest and a bit of spa time. But in fall 2021 a thoroughly refreshed Dakota will return to the halls of the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck.

Dakota is a significant part of the region’s fossil record. Discovered in 1999 on a ranch near Marmarth in the extreme southwestern corner of the state, Dakota is an adolescent Edmontosaurus, one genus in a larger group of duck-billed dinosaurs called hadrosaurs. Dakota died in the swampy environment that was ancient North Dakota during the Late Cretaceous epoch, which lasted from about 100 to 66 million years ago. The carcass remained exposed long enough for the skin to dry, then the remains were buried in sedimentary material allowing for the preservation of some of the soft organs and skin. They have since become stone, but their distinctive mass and textures remain. The muscles and tendons are particularly recognizable in the tail section.

Stylized illustration of an Edmontosaurus.

Dakota’s former exhibit case in the main corridor of the State Museum was disassembled just prior to Thanksgiving 2019. I remember thinking at that time the massive ribcage looked like something that would have appeared on the Flintstones’ holiday table.

Dakota’s ribcage prior to returning to the paleontology lab.

After the wall components were removed, the fossil’s two huge stone sections were relocated to the paleontology lab in the basement, where the paleo staff began months of work to expose a larger portion of the fossil for scientific research. However, before the sections could be moved, their wooden frames had to be raised and blocked, and heavy-duty casters added to their undersides. That involved several hardy individuals shimmying under the suspended masses to attach the wheels. Then, once the wheels were in place, moving four tons of fossilized hadrosaur required both a forklift and staff member muscle.

As we moved the second section down the corridor, a little boy observed the action from his perch on a bench. He was wide-eyed. As we rumbled by him, I said, “It’s not every day a dinosaur passes by.”

North Dakota Geological Survey paleontologists Clint Boyd and Jeff Person, along with Chief Preparator Bryan Turnbow, get Dakota ready for its move.

On the move past the front entrance and mastodon skeleton.

While Dakota has been missed, its time away has been very productive. It was thoroughly scanned and a 3D model created. It has also undergone extensive preparation with the removal of more than 2,000 pounds of stone and plaster. Both the preparation and survey processes revealed many insights, especially regarding Dakota’s demise. Those new details remain proprietary pending peer review and publication. But stay tuned: More will be revealed in time.

Dakota’s return will include a new display case and interpretive content. Chief Preparator Bryan Turnbow along with a team of State Historical Society staff and paleontologists from the North Dakota Geological Survey worked closely with Taylor Studios in Illinois to fabricate Dakota’s new environment and update the interpretive text. The full fossil will not be on exhibit. However, extensive work on one of the arms will be showcased on a raised mount, and custom lighting will illuminate special features. New interpretive signage will accompany the display, with references and fresh discoveries that will help make Dakota more relevant and understandable to museum visitors.

A 3D model of Dakota’s skin will be included as part of the new installation.

One especially cool feature of the new installation will be a tactile component allowing visitors to touch a 3D model of Dakota’s skin. And much like the young visitor watching the huge dinosaur fossil rumbling down the hallway, for most of us, this will probably be the closest we come to encountering a “real” dinosaur.