1. That’s made out of butterflies?

Friend to gardeners, ecotourists, and second-grade science projects, the butterfly is the flagship for biodiversity in your front yard. Butterflies are an essential part of the food web and plant pollination. And artwork, it turns out.

Look closely at this portrait and you will see it’s not just a silhouette of a woman — the piece is made entirely out of butterfly wings.

2. The most dangerous animal in the museum is what?

When museum bloggers discuss dangerous animals, the usual suspects come to mind: bears, mountain lions, and venomous snakes are certainly to be respected in the North Dakota wilderness. Relatively few people think of the bison, which was perhaps the biggest killer of humans even 500 years ago. Imagine being part of a hunting party, crouching in the grass, while thousands of 2,000-pound bison, strong enough to plow snow with their faces, graze a few feet away from you. Horses were reintroduced to North America in 1519, and that made the bison hunt faster, but not necessarily safer.

The point is bison are tough. Our taxidermy mounts have been on display since 1925. Depending on your age, you might remember them from when the museum was housed in the Liberty Memorial Building, the ND Heritage Center & State Museum constructed in the 1980s, or as they are displayed today in the Innovation Gallery: Early Peoples. They are beautiful to appreciate, but it’s still advisable to keep your distance.

3. Why does your exhibit contain arsenic?

I am not a museum preparator or conservator. I don’t even play one on TV. But common sense tells me if the word “arsenic” is involved, it would be a good idea to keep my distance. Arsenic used to be a mainstay in industries like embalming, agriculture, and even cosmetics. It was also a champion bug killer, so it was used heavily in taxidermy until people realized that it wasn’t very good for your health.

Taxidermy specimens have a lot of uses for researchers and are great tools for interpretation and education. But when the sign says “don’t touch” — we really mean it.

4. Why do you freeze the artifacts?

Some things don’t come in the door dangerous; they just get that way over time. Silver nitrate film is a good example of when good things go bad. When State Archives staff open a box of old film and get a strong whiff of vinegar from the silver nitrate, they take action to preserve the negatives. This is done through digitization, scanning, and good, old-fashioned refrigeration.

Why store things in a freezer? Without cold storage, materials can deteriorate rapidly. Silver nitrate film can spontaneously combust, which is pretty high on the crisis scale. With cold storage, negatives can remain unchanged and accessible for many centuries.

5. Just how many guns do you have?

While museum security is not as exciting as actor Ben Stiller would have you believe, remember that what you see at a museum is only about 10 percent of the actual collection (there many reasons for that, but that’s another blog post). Most of the museum’s gun collection, for example, is kept in a gun vault. There are muskets, cannons, pistols, guns from 19th-century campaigns and both World Wars. There’s even a flame thrower in the arsenal. (When the zombies come, we’re ready.)

The North Dakota Legislative Assembly meets every odd year to determine the state’s budget and whether new laws or changes to current laws need to be made. State agency leaders testify in front of appropriation committees to explain why their proposed budget is necessary to fulfill their commitment to the people of the state. People from all walks of life contact their senators and representatives to express their beliefs about what is right and what is wrong for North Dakota. Whether it’s business owners wanting to be open Sunday mornings, the energy industry seeking tax breaks, or the livestock industry seeking more stringent restrictions on cattle imports, a plethora of issues comes before the legislature each session.

As the repository for state government records of historical value, the North Dakota State Archives collects much of the work accomplished during (and in between) these legislative sessions. We have archived all the bills and resolutions introduced in the House and Senate since statehood in 1889. Probably one of the more interesting and most requested sets of records we archive is the written and recorded testimony from standing committee hearings. These audio tapes run from 1977 to 2005. The majority is on mini-cassette tapes, organized chronologically and by committee and bill number (digital recording of these hearings began in 2007). Because many bills resurface in subsequent sessions, interested parties will often look back and listen to what opponents and proponents said about the bill as they prepare for an upcoming hearing.

The State Archives also preserves videos of television news. Our collection includes substantial television coverage of legislative issues in North Dakota from the 1970s through the 1990s. For example, the blue laws, or Sunday restrictions on sales, have garnered much attention for decades. This session features a bill that would repeal the last of the blue laws, allowing all stores to open before noon on Sundays. Below are a few clips I picked out from our Meyer Television (KFYR-TV) news collection about blue law legislation, as well as the wrap-up report from the final day of the 1989 session. Enjoy!

Our current The Horse in North Dakota exhibit at the State Museum features one of my favorite artifacts in the museum collections, a display horse (SHSND 1972.1635). Visitors to the Chateau de Mores State Historic Site (Chateau), located in the town of Medora, in the 1940s through the mid-1980s might remember a dappled grey horse sporting one of Medora’s (the Marquis de Mores’ wife) side saddles (SHSND 1972.715). Over the years this display horse gained the nickname “Medora’s Horse,” and many stories about its origins have been told.

The display horse SHSND1972.1635 in the hunting or trophy room at the Chateau de Mores State Historic Site 1971. Photo by Norman Paulson

Medora, an experienced equestrian, and her husband built the Chateau in 1883 as their summer home for a few years. One popular myth claimed that this horse was a real horse once owned by Medora and it had been stuffed after its death. In addition to being wrong, the story never explained why Medora would want one of her horses stuffed. The real story about the horse and how the State Historical Society acquired it is just as interesting, though less macabre.

Medora’s horse is actually a display horse. Much like a mannequin in a department store, this horse was used to display saddles and harnesses. It represents a gelding, standing 15.2 hands (62”) high. It is made of painted gesso over a canvas “hide” stretched over a wood and metal frame, with a real horse tail attached to a wood dowel and a real horse hair mane. It has glass eyes and cast iron ears. Each wooden hoof has a real horse shoe attached. The whole thing is mounted on a wooden platform on wheels. The lower jaw, ears, and tail of the horse are removable to make “dressing” it easier.

The horse was on display at the Chateau from the early 1940s until the mid-1980s when it was moved to the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck in preparation for renovations to the house. We knew very little about this horse or where it came from. A chance reading of the newsletter of the Maryland Historical Society in late 2000 gave us our first clue. The newsletter had an article in their “Recent Acquisitions” section about Frosty Morn, a model horse they had just received. Frosty Morn was a duplicate of our horse. I learned that display horses like this one were made in the late 1880s to 1890s by the Toledo Display Horse Company in Toledo, Ohio. We now knew who made our horse and when.

The next part of the story came when I told the Chateau supervisor at the time, Diane Rogness, about my find. She sent me a copy of an article written by Harry Roberts in January 1978. Roberts was the first Chateau de Mores State Historic Site caretaker from 1941-1966. Roberts wrote about how he bought the model from a woman who lived on the south side of Dickinson. Roberts bought it for $10, though she claimed she had “$150.00 tied up in it, but it was of no use to her…” He loaded the display horse on a flatbed trailer to take it to Medora. We can only imagine the odd looks he must have received from passing motorists by hauling what looked like a real horse on a flatbed trailer. Roberts also tells of meeting with a friend, Joe Fritz, who was the chief of Police in Belfield at the time. Roberts writes, “I said to Joe that I had a horse in my trailer, and I was going into Billings County with it, maybe I should have a ‘Brand Inspection.’ As quick as Joe saw the model, ‘Why that is the horse that used to be in the Zimmerman’s Harness Shop!’” This gave us another clue to pursue. While the woman in this story was unnamed, she was possibly Minerva Zimmerman, widow of William J. Zimmerman, the owner of Zimmerman’s Harness Shop.

State Archives was the next place to look. There we found information about M.T and William J. Zimmerman, the father and son who opened M.T. Zimmerman Harness Shop in Dickinson, about 30 miles from the town of Medora, around 1898. The business continued to operate until William’s 'death in 1928. Advertisements like the one below indicate that they also sold a variety of goods including Navajo rugs and pocket knives. A display horse like this one would have been an excellent mannequin for showing off the saddles and harnesses Zimmerman made and sold.

Dickinson City, Stark and Dunn Counties, North Dakota, Directory, 1914-1915, Vol. 3, (Norfolk, NE: Keiter Directory Co., 1915), p. 118. State Archives 917.84/D560

We now have a richer story around this display horse than the rumor that it was just a stuffed horse. We know where it was manufactured, who manufactured it, and when. We know who brought it to North Dakota and why. We know how and when it got to the Chateau de Mores State Historic Site, and the names of the people and businesses involved.

While the display horse has been a fun and interesting part of collections tours since the mid-1980s, we were waiting for the right exhibit to bring it out and show it off. Our current exhibit, The Horse in North Dakota, is a perfect way for you to see an item that is part of the Chateau legend, an integral part of the history of the West, and a symbol of the importance of the horse to the people of North Dakota.

Some of you may be noticing that the “Dakota the Dinomummy” exhibit at the State Museum looks a little . . . different. Don’t worry! Nothing is wrong, we are just in the initial phase of producing a new exhibit for everyone to enjoy. Since Dakota is quite the rarity (one of about six hadrosaur mummies in the world), and because it’s large and difficult to understand what the fossil contains, we decided it was time for a makeover.

Over the next number of months, parts of the current display will be removed for continued preparation and study. The first pieces to go are the arm, one foot, the tip of the tail, and the tail itself. What we call the “body block” will remain on exhibit for a while yet. The pieces that have been removed still have matrix (the unprepared rock) attached, which needs to be carefully chiseled off. The dinomummy as it sits now has had five years of preparation completed. Five . . . years . . . of people sitting around the blocks with pneumatic chisels and magnifying lenses, carefully removing the matrix grain by grain. After five years, there’s still a lot of work that can be done!

When a large fossil is removed from the ground, we have to flip it over to cover the bottom-side of the plaster “jacket.” To avoid damage to the fossil, this usually means that the bottom-side of the fossil is opened and prepared first. This works well, because the bottom of the fossil has had less exposure to destructive elements (wind, rain, snow, cows, etc.). So if only one side of the fossil will be prepared, in this case due to the size, weight, and fragile nature of the specimen — then the bottom is the way to go. The tail will be prepared this way.

Skin found near the elbow of the dinomummy, with small scales and wrinkles to accommodate movement.

Other portions, such as the arm, are small and stable enough to prepare in-the-round. As you can see in the photos, the scales are vastly different depending on where you look. Toward the elbow, where the skin would stretch and move, the scales are very small, with wrinkles to accommodate movement — much like your elbows (sans scales, of course). The larger scales are found on the back of the arm and are relatively smooth. This would represent the mid-forearm on people, between the wrist and the elbow — an area with no movement.

Skin found mid-forearm on the dinomummy, with fingernail-sized scales. This is an area between joints, without movement.

If you would like to follow along with the continued preparation of the tail, foot, and arm, we will have periodic updates on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (@NDGSPaleo, @ndmuseum). We have to remove as much matrix as soon as possible so we can have the tail 3D scanned. Our goal is to have a 3D-printed, touchable tail for visitors to interact with. The real thing will still be behind glass, but this way the public can truly pet a dinosaur.

How do you eat a whale? One bite at a time. How do you teach history? The same way. The history of us—North Dakotans, Americans, humans, the planet—is a really big story. We break it down, one bite at a time, into arbitrary regions and time periods to make it easier to process.

At places like the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck and our state historic sites, we try to have a comprehensive, encyclopedic approach to telling the story of North Dakota. If something has happened within the borders of the state to the people who have lived here (even for the briefest time), we try to capture that story when we can. We break the “big picture” story down into lots of little stories and themes. We try our best to identify these stories, preserve them, interpret them, and promote them. This means we also have to make some very hard decisions. We have committees that decide everything from what objects we collect to what history books get sold in the store. There are a lot of people who help decide which stories are highlighted on any given day at the State Museum.

Grey Whale breaches the ocean.

My job as an outreach coordinator with the North Dakota Studies project is to help educators break this whale of a story down into bite-size pieces for their students. Rather than having educators try to teach all of North Dakota history in just a few weeks, we help teachers and their students to think like historians, so they find the bite-size stories that they are interested in and learn to think critically about how that story is interpreted.

Instead of having students memorize an encyclopedia’s worth of names, places, and dates, museum educators would rather students learn more about how historians think. How do we develop good questions to ask of the past? How do we find and analyze sources to know whether they are accurate? Does the evidence support our hypothesis? The key to making all of this relevant and interesting to students is the questions we ask. We want to ask questions of history that lead to investigation and analysis.

We want students to become history detectives. Instead of simply telling students what type of shelter people of the past used, we want them to think about what type of resources would have been available in a particular location. When we look at illustrations of tipis, earthlodges, forts, and sod cabins, we want them to think about why someone might be living in that particular style of housing. Why would someone build a fort? Why would a tipi be useful? Solving these puzzles is more interesting and engaging than simply memorizing textbook information. The single most useful question my colleagues and I ask of the content we work with is “How do we know?” Try using this question the next time you are visiting an exhibit or reading a book, and see if it leads to some detective work of your own.

Solving history's mysteries: How do we know what we know?

Among the many things about my job I truly enjoy are the opportunities that arise, for one reason or another, to get out of the office on a beautiful, sunny day! Being able to visit one of the state historic sites that I’ve never been to is an added bonus. Even better if I get to visit TWO sites. And if I also have the opportunity to fly our quadcopter at those sites . . . well then, you’ve just about described a perfect work day for me!

I’ve blogged about flying the Society’s quadcopter (also known as a “drone,” “unmanned aerial vehicle,” or “UAV”) several times before [check out some of my earlier entries about flying a drone at North Dakota’s state historic sites, including Double Ditch Indian Village, Menoken Indian Village, Fort Clark, and Fort Rice, among others.]

To date, I’ve piloted a UAV at 13 prehistoric or historic archaeological sites in North Dakota, including 9 state historic sites managed by the State Historical Society. I hope to fly a great deal more in 2019 and beyond. The technology, opportunities for application, and regulatory environment have all evolved since our earliest flights in 2014. But the reasons for these flights all share the same basic purpose: to document preservation concerns about cultural resources, and to enable interpretation and management of North Dakota’s state historic sites.

Aerial image of Cannonball Stage Station State Historic Site, Grant County, North Dakota, taken by State Historical Society quadcopter on October 17, 2018. View is to the east. The altitude of the quadcopter was 400 feet and wind speed was 5-7 miles per hour when this image was taken. Surface depressions marking the location of two dugout structures and a barn are visible near the fenced area.

I was fortunate to fly the quadcopter at two sites on a beautiful fall day in October 2018. I’d like to share some images and video from these recent flights over the Cannonball Stage Station and Fort Mandan Overlook State Historic Sites. Cannonball Stage Station and Fort Mandan Overlook are among the lesser visited of the 57 historic sites in our state. Both are in beautiful, remote locations and definitely off the beaten path.

Located near Raleigh, in Grant County, North Dakota, the Cannonball Stage Station was the fifth stop after Bismarck on the Bismarck to Deadwood Stage Trail. For a brief period from 1877 to 1880, a booming stagecoach line linked the westernmost stop of the Northern Pacific Railroad in Bismarck to the gold fields of the Black Hills. Travelers would have the opportunity to have a short rest and a quick meal here while horses were swapped, and the stage was quickly back on its way. This unique period in North Dakota is well- interpreted at the site, picnic facilities are available, and it’s a peaceful spot. Earthen dugouts clearly visible at the site represent the locations of the stage office, another building, and a barn. Check out a video from a recent UAV flight at Cannonball Stage Station State Historic Site.

Aerial image of Fort Mandan Overlook State Historic Site, McLean County, North Dakota, taken by State Historical Society quadcopter on October 16, 2018. View is to the northwest. The altitude of the quadcopter was approximately 100 feet above ground surface, with winds gusting to 30 miles per hour when this image was taken. Two historical markers present at the site are visible in this image, as well as the dramatic bluff edge.

Fort Mandan Overlook State Historic Site is located near Washburn, North Dakota, in McLean County. This site overlooks the former location of Fort Mandan, constructed and occupied during the fall and winter of 1804–1805 by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The fort location has long since been eroded away by the nearby Missouri River, but there are other stories here as well. During archaeological investigations conducted at the site by the State Historical Society in 1991–1992, a fortification ditch dating to the late 1700s–early 1800s and a Plains Village campsite dating to the 14th century were documented. Interpretive signs are present, and the viewshed from this location is stunning. Watch your step, though—the bluff edge is steep. Check out the video from a recent UAV flight at Fort Mandan Overlook State Historic Site.

I was happy to add Cannonball Stage Station and the Fort Mandan Overlook to the list of state historic sites I’ve visited and documented from the air. Someday, I’m going to get to every one of them. In the meantime, I hope you’ll consider a trip sometime soon to these or one of the many other state historic sites in North Dakota. I hope the video links in this blog help to give you just a hint of the historical significance and natural beauty of these locations. The videos were a lot of fun to shoot! Many thanks to the video editor who helped me out on short notice, and to the Bismarck/Mandan local musicians that provided the accompanying music. Enjoy!