PC Museum sets to open '18 season with new displays

If you drove by the Phillips County Museum last Tuesday afternoon and happened to glance at the building, the scene would have looked much like it has all winter; closed and lonely.

A look into the building, however, painted a much different scene as volunteers vacuumed, put shelving together, filed files and readied displays as the 2018 season at the Phillips County Museum begins with new light...literally.

A total of 135 new light bulbs have been installed over the winter, making the switch to brand new LED lights which are supposed to be better for the items they illuminate, according to Phillips County Museum Curator Lori Taylor.

"They are supposed to be 100-percent better for our artifacts," Taylor said. "They are supposed to be more energy efficient as well and they are definitely brighter."

The Phillips County Museum officially opens at 10 a.m. on Monday, April 2 and with the new season at the museum comes many new artifacts in a few new displays.

Taylor said that the museum's new Granath-Kruse Collection features nearly 80 items and many of them are on display around the building. She said she was contacted by Steve Perry, a northern California resident, who wanted to know if the museum had any interest in his family's collection of Native American artifacts.

"I had been to Phillips County before doing research," Perry said. "My dad was born in Ruby Gulch and most of my aunts were born in Dodson. I chose this museum (to donate the collection too) because I know that most of the Indian stuff in the collection came from that area."

Perry said much of the Granath-Kruse Collection came from his grandfather, Oscar Theodore Granath (better known as Cooney) who ran the Zortman Stage, among other things, in Phillips County (Perry will be coming to Phillips County In June for more research and promised to meet with the PCN on a bigger story on the Granath-Kruse collection and "Grandpa Cooney" and "Grandma Kruse.")

"Rumor has it that he might have helped out the Wild Bunch, but there is no documentation that I have found to prove it," Perry said of Grandpa Cooney.

Items in the Granath-Kruse collection (which totals some 167 pieces, around half of them are on display at the museum) include brilliant beadwork on pouches and purses, ties and belts, riding gloves and moccasins. Other items from the collection on display include artwork, headdresses, and weaponry.

"I am hoping to get a Helping hands Grant through the Montana Historical Society and then they could send a conservator here to help us identify things," Taylor said.

Also new to the museum this year is a display honoring the memory of the late Phillips County native Dorothy Orrey.

"She left money to the museum in her will and the new lights are made possible through her gift to us," Taylor said.

Orrey passed away in 2016 and was known for her ranching and horsemanship. Several pictures are apart of the "thank you exhibit" as is a name-quilt which features sirnames known to the people of Phillips County.

"We really have a lot going on," Taylor said, "I hope everyone comes out to see us when we open next week."