BELLE FOURCHE—The end of summer brings spooky season to the Tri-State Museum with its latest temporary exhibit, “Ghost Towns, Ghost Times.” The new display made its debut on Saturday, August 29. The Red Onion Marketplace crafted special cupcakes topped with ghostly decorations for the reception, while the Museum provided refreshments.
The fun yet scary exhibit explores all of the area ghost towns. “It is all of the ghost towns in the Black Hills area,” shared Jean Maher, Assistant Director.
The exhibit explores what the ghost towns were like when they were at their peak, and what happened to them—what made growing towns disappear? “Most of them were mining towns, and so that’s why they were established, and then when the minerals ran out, everyone just left and only the towns and buildings were left,” explained Maher.
There is a lot of great historical information to discover, including photos, displays, artifacts and more. Informative storyboards detail the history behind each display. Maher said, “it is one that we did in 2015, I think. One of our first ones and it wasn’t this elaborate—we’ve added a lot to it this time!”
After you spend time going through the exhibit, you can test your knowledge at the touchscreen quiz. For the little ones, there is an entire Kids Corner set up for them to enjoy. It contains books, activities, a take-home packet and coloring sheets. The packet is filled with crossword puzzles, dot-to-dot sheets, word searches and other educational activities. The crafting activity encourages kids to create their own ghost family portrait.
The exhibit was put together by museum staff: Jada Udager, Collections Archivist, gathered all of the artifacts; Kristi Thielen, Director, did the research and writing of the storyboards and touchscreen quiz; Jean Maher handled the exhibit’s photo collation and mounting; Kim Reausaw, Gift Shop Manager and Volunteer Coordinator, created the PowerPoint and children’s table craft. All four of them, plus Sheila Culhane, Programs and Events Assistant, installed the exhibit.
Come out and enjoy this spooky fun temporary exhibit and learn the history of all of the ghost towns that call the Black Hills home. It runs through November when the next temporary exhibit will move in and take over the same space.
The next one will be the Ginger Village, which will be part of the annual Ginger Festival on December 5. There will be all kinds of games, crafts, music, candy and even a visit from Santa.
While you are at the Museum, make sure to check out the current mini-exhibit “All About Postage Stamps.” And then in mid-September the “I Spy a Spider” mini-exhibit will begin.
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