Museum launches fundraising campaign for Bicentennial Expansion
by Pinedale Online!
March 9, 2024
The Museum of the Mountain Man held their annual Spring Thaw Party and 2024 Annual Meeting of the Sublette County Historical Society on Thursday, March 7th. The event is the annual business meeting to elect new officers, bring on new board members, as well as update the membership on news and upcoming events. Board President Jerry Boyer conducted the election of new board members and officers. Board members returning for another term are Dan Tau and Kaidi Raney. New board member is Jay Fear, who is returning having been a past board member and a past board president. This year’s board officers are Ken Marincic-President; Kim Bright-Vice President; Dan Tau-Treasurer; Kaidi Raney-Secretary. Newly- elected board President Ken Marincic said he was looking forward to great things coming ahead, and the plans and vision for the Museum are pretty amazing.
Retiring from the board is Rob Tolley, who has served two terms and has been the Board President twice. He was given a personalized apron and wine kit in recognition of his years of service, wine expertise, and help with the annual art & wine auction fundraiser. Rob has promised to continue to help the Museum with their projects even though he is going off the board.
Museum of the Mountain Man Executive Director, Clint Gilchrist, spoke about the upcoming plans, "We are actively looking at a pretty significant expansion." 2024 is the beginning of the 200th anniversary of the rendezvous period, which includes recognition of significant events that happened over the sixteen years of rendezvous (1825-1840). The long-range fundraising goal is $30 million to expand the facilities over time. They have broken this larger goal into more manageable phases and stages. The first phase is a $5 million fundraising campaign that will fund three main goals:
1. Building Fort Sublette, a rustic log fort on the north end of the property to allow for living history demonstrations by the American Mountain Men (AMM) all summer long. The goal is to break down in the summer of 2025.
2. Acquisition of the Bad Hand Native American collection, documentation, interpretation of Plains Indians culture during the pre-reservation period. This collection has over 1500 historically-researched reproduction pieces specific to tribes interacting with the Mountain Men.
3. Building an underground curatorial facility to handle and manage the current and future artifact collections.
Over $900,000 has already been raised toward Phase I. The goal for this summer is to get the architecture done on the fort and collections care facility and secure the Bad Hand Plains Indians collection.
In more news, the Museum is redoing the downstairs for a new special art display featuring over 70 contemporary original art pieces by 38 different artists on topics related to Mountain Man history. The art collection is on loan from the Tim Peterson family of Boston, Massachusetts, and will be on display through the summer of 2024. The art display is called, "One with the Land: Mountain Man’s Journey into the Unknown."
Lastly, the Museum will be hosting the National Fur Trade Symposium in the fall, September 12-15, 2024, a four-day conference that is held every three years around the nation. The theme of the conference is "1824 The Eve of Rendezvous." Subjects will focus on the lead-up to and creation of the rendezvous system, as well as subjects relating to the fur trade in the Green River Valley will be featured. Registration is now open for the conference. See the links at the end of this article for more information.
Special guest speaker for the evening program was Ann Noble, who gave a talk on Big Sandy Lodge and the Big Sandy area. The site of Big Sandy lodge on the banks of Mudd Lake was first a fishing camp operated by Finis Mitchell, established in 1930. The guest lodge was built by the Thomas family in 1946. The lodge is currently managed by the Morris family of Boulder. In the fall of 2023, Big Sandy Lodge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In cooperation with the Sublette County Historic Preservation Board, there will be an open house at the lodge this summer on July 6th to celebrate the National Register listing. More details about the open house will be announced. For anyone who missed Ann’s talk, a video recording is available on the Museum’s YouTube channel (see link at the end of this article.)
For more information about the Museum or the fundraising campaign, please contact Clint Gilchrist, Executive Director, 307-367-4101 or director@mmmuseum.com.
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