 Lakeland Currents, your public affairs program for North Central Minnesota, produced by Lakeland PBS with host Bethany Wesley. Production funding for Lakeland Currents is made possible by Bemidji Regional Airport, serving the region with daily flights to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. For information available at BemidjiAirport.org. Closed captioning for Lakeland Currents is sponsored by Niswa Tax Service, tax preparation for businesses and individuals, online at NiswaTax.com. I'm Bethany Wesley and this is Lakeland Currents. The Beltrami County Historical Society was founded in 1952, initially located near Paul and Babe at the Lake Bemidji Waterfront. Today the Historical Society operates the Beltrami County History Center in the James J. Hill Railroad Depot in downtown Bemidji. Here visitors tour exhibits, conduct research, browse the gift shop and ultimately learn more about the land and resources in Beltrami County, including of course its people. Last year the Historical Society hired Gary Rosman as its newest executive director. Today I welcome Gary to the table along with Sherry Geisen, I'm sorry along with Sharon Geisen, president of the Historical Society Board of Directors to discuss some of the happenings opportunities and challenges at the History Center. Welcome. Hi Sharon. Sorry about that. As we get started let's talk a little bit about what your role and how long you've kind of been active with the Historical Society. So Sharon you predate Gary so let's start with you. How did you first get involved? I joined the board of directors and I've been on the board now for 12 years and enjoy it. I mean I love history so it's a passion with me so it's a good way to preserve history and enjoy it along the way. Is that what intrigued you about the position was the connection with the history? Yes, yes very much so. Gary when did you join? When did you come to Bemidji? I came to Bemidji in the summer of 2016 so going on two years now I took a leave of absence from my work with the city of New York where in part I taught the history of the parks, Central Park and some of the other parks in the five boroughs and I was very fortunate to find a role here in Bemidji that sort of piqued my interest and I felt tapped into my towns. I had become aware of the Historical Society actually through my involvement with the community theater. I volunteered for our history mystery and this is an annual fundraiser that has become very popular in recent years. I portrayed a historical person from Bemidji's from Beltrami County's past and through that means found out that my predecessor Dan Carolus was moving on to greener pastures and well the rest as they say in my field is history. So Sharon you've had different executive directors over the years. How much does an executive director kind of influence the operation or the feel of the history center? Does that make sense? Does everybody kind of bring their own spin to it? They do. They do you know some are a little more introvert than others but they still have their their field of expertise to get us into the 21st century especially into the media you know our web page, twitter, what are some of the other ones? Instagram. Instagram. All your online right? Right. To get us out there and that's really stirred up the interest you know and before Dan was Nicole she's the one that created the current display that we have on now trails through time but it was developed so that we could change out certain sections of it. Gary is well I guess you could say he's an extrovert and so he's he's really viewed more around the city you know and more visible and that's been a real asset for us so to let the public know more about us and as we kind of start talking about what the history center is I kind of want to talk a little bit about what the historical society is because a lot of those a lot of times those are used interchangeably and they're really kind of distinct so how do you what is the difference between historical society and the history center? The historical society is the organization that the board of directors that runs runs it. We hire an executive director to do the day to day the board only meets once a month and approves the bills and we talk about fundraising it's a it's a working board it is not a board that just meets and goes away and doesn't meet again it's very very much a working board so when we have a fundraiser or an activity board members are there they're either handing out cookies or pouring coffee or working in the gift shop it's a hands-on board because we only have one paid staff. I'll add to that that the historical society is also comprised of our dedicated volunteers and the membership and truly they are the lifeblood of the historical society what we do is really for them otherwise we'd have no real reason to exist what we're trying to do is preserve history so that the residents of Beltraman County and the surrounding areas have some connection to the past to their past the history center itself currently is one in the same with the Great Northern Depot one of the railroad stations that served freight and passenger traffic in Bemidji back in the early part of the 20th century and throughout much of the 20th century actually but before we moved in in 01 of this century around the turn of the millennium there was there really wasn't a history center per se at one point or another in the historical society's past we worked out of a facility at the fairgrounds but those were those were intermittent for Sharon if you maybe can correct me for a long time our collection our items our historical photographs and other relics and antiques were stored but unable to be exhibited and displayed okay how key is it to keep those open to the public so people can see them right what good does it do if you store things and people can't see them well very true very true but we are limited in our space too so yeah it's it's a that's a hard hard decision you know what do you pull out it's a challenge we like to looking at some themes you know try to have some themes like world war one now we could bring out some things for world war one and okay so you wait till you kind of have a collection of things to kind of link together we do we do we are a non-for-profit we don't have the resources and funds to go out and acquire items to to put on display most of our shows our exhibits and and other shows are are comprised of the materials that have been generously donated by residents and and we have to try to see what the common thread is in in a group of items in a given number of historic pieces and see what what narrative what story we can we can weave out of them but yeah it is it is a challenge our building of course is not a museum it's a railroad station it was not meant for displays and and and exhibits and and you know model railroad sets and mannequins with historic attire so we actually had to put in a second floor into the depot that was part of its remodel to house all of the items that we had accumulated over the past half century okay so talk to me about the exhibits like how many exhibits do you typically have at once are they pretty static how often are they changed i would say there's a triple focus to the work that we do that we put on display a jibway language and culture railroad technology and then the evolution of beltraman county the past the past 150 plus years now okay those are part of our permanent display called trails through time those three facets but we are always trying to change things up uh to provide for our guests a little bit of variety we're lucky in that Bemidji caters to um the tourism population and over the summer we do experience and increase in our visitorship and frequently these are folks who have not been to the museum yet and so for them everything is new but we also don't want to discount the again like i mentioned the lifeblood of our museum are the folks that do reside here and it is for their sake that we're always trying to program in it in an innovative way by putting on the world war one centennial display for example as Sharon mentioned we're working with bsu to help tell the story of the college's founding and subsequent hundred years they are celebrating their their centennial actually april of this year marks the hundred years a hundred years since groundbreaking and uh next year will be the hundredth anniversary of the first class at what was then called the normal school so that's something that would be developed into an exhibit of some kind for the history center absolutely yeah but you do it in partnership with bsu everything that we do is in partnership with other entities we simply can't do what we do alone and i think that's one of the benefits to having the historical society in beltraman county is that we are able to forge these connections and to widen the circle bring other folks organizations entities in and work together because i think that holistic approach helps to cement the importance in the significance of of what we're doing and i think by having other people's views and perspectives employed we were able to tell a much more comprehensive story of the past okay so with this bsu display then or this bsu project that you've undertaken how much of it is collaborative how much do you direct in terms of what you want versus what bsu's message wants to be do you want to say how do you uh well we'll have to wait and see uh we're just in the beginning stages right now uh we're working with um their photo archivist we're working with the history department with uh with at bsu and also with their recently appointed um librarian uh and so we're we're we're at the stage where we're deliberating the best way to shine a light and showcase uh that that particular story what we're trying to do is see if we want to maybe focus on different eras this was bsu in the 30s and in the 50s and so on and so forth or whether we want to highlight famous alums or uh or maybe maybe try to connect the college with other aspects of american history how how the students and faculty responded to vietnam for example okay um but uh yeah we hope to participate in a year-long series of events that the college is hosting and also have an exhibit um at the history center that uh hopefully we'll we'll um we'll dovetail with what they're doing and be part and parcel with that with that celebration so do all your exhibits then come locally are they all developed locally do you get them from other cities that come pass through do you have partnerships that's a good question one of our other key partners is the minnesota state historical society okay um they are they are a wonderful group of people there are strong presence in the state we're lucky to be in a state where actually uh i'm going to try to get this right every single one of our counties has a historical society and i think that says a lot about minnesota as a state and the importance that we place on the the the connection with our forebears the minnesota historical society does consult with us we had uh the honor not too long ago just this past winter hope hosting traveling exhibit on the fur trade uh the date curated and developed and that is making its way around uh museums uh throughout greater minnesota okay so sherry i wanted to ask you how you've seen in your involvement from the board of directors side um how how have the exhibits changed we know like for example trails through time is a little bit more interactive than probably i would guess they had years ago right you have touch screens and you have technology is it important to kind of include those kind of modern touches when you develop these exhibits you know i believe it does um to get the customer that's coming in to look you know to be to able to touch and feel and pull them pull them in you know and some of those electronics that we have now today really do and a good example was the fur trade one where they could push a button and they'd watch a screen and it was spoken in ojibwe and then you had the choice what did they say you know a b or c so it makes you listen and learn and yes it helps to have all that hands-on interaction if you can correlate it with the exhibit that you're doing try to appeal to more than just one sense right absolutely that that tactile sensation is uh uh truly a way that one of the one of the ways that people do learn uh and like you said it's a multi-sensory approach if we can figure out how to do it we will i want to move to some of the events um because it's not just the exhibits right you want people to keep coming back more and more and more and we talked a little bit about the history mystery early on this is right it's by far your most popular event would you say am i am i accurate the history mystery yes yes very much a family event that is really caught on and yes it's based on um the board game clue so instead of a mansion we have the depot itself and what we do is every year we identify uh four or five individuals from the midges past from the triumphant counties past uh from all walks of life and we engage local actors to portray them so we'll do the research our volunteers help in that effort okay we'll give the information to these performers and then uh and outfit them appropriately for the era and the time period in question they then are suspects in a fictional crime uh but the participants have to figure out through a series of uh uh clues that they unearth and so on and so forth who the culprit is of course no crime actually happens but it's a really fun way to engage everybody that comes it's an it's an opportunity to engage in uh uh uh participatory programming so it's not passive you're actually doing something you're playing a part and it allows you to learn a little bit and also have fun at the same time uh this book is something that we want to um that we want to print uh some more copies of and uh offer in our museum store uh but it's a sort of a little photo essay about the last three or four years produced uh generously for us by one of our great volunteers Cecilia McKee and uh so uh we're we're we're excited to create uh future volumes as uh we put on the history as it keeps expanding right exactly yeah but these events right what do they do what is the philosophy behind them because it brings in people right which is obviously key but it brings in maybe perhaps correct me if I'm wrong different demographics of people then maybe perhaps would visit and different ages okay different ages because this one is really family orientated so so you've got the children coming in to and learning and listening to the suspects you know as they tell you a little bit about their life so yeah when we can appeal to a wide range I think you hit the nail on the head we are looking to diversify our audience and folks that may not think to spend a platter afternoon let's say at a history museum perhaps for them it it would be appealing to come to let's say um well a poetry lecture which we had and which we're hoping to have um again April national poetry appreciation month so we focused on historical poetry so there is that connection to history but it may not be something that has ever been held at the center before we we did a meditation at the museum for example that's another strategy that we employed something that's a little bit out of the box in other words what our main asset is is the building itself it's a historic structure it's on the national register of historic places um gorgeous architecture well preserved it can do more than tell the story of the past that can be employed as a as a community center as a resource for Bemidji as a whole and one of the things about museums is that their state that they're quiet and we thought what with mindfulness and meditation being so popular these days let's see if we can combine those two and so one day um earlier this year we uh we uh opened up early um uh had some light music going I thought it was a very successful event and we hope to have a more of the same and we're always looking for other ideas for undertakings that um that uh we may not have thought of yet so we're open so if I'm hearing you correctly you're saying you're looking to potentially have more events more people come through that don't always necessarily have a very obvious connection to history right you want them to come in and kind of use the building keep the building functional and then you know open it up to what they could experience beyond absolutely once they're in they're aware of the historical society we're kind of a bit off the beaten path we're at the end of uh minnesota avenue number 130 in the rate what's known as the rail corridor once upon a time it was a bit more central and and bustling of course we don't service uh train passengers anymore uh but yeah any way that we can attract attention um to to what we do I'm I'm all for because that does then translate into a renewed interest in history okay I do want to touch on also one of the other big aspects of what the history center and historical society helps with which is research opportunities right tell me about the type of people that come in to do research what do you offer what can they really access there it runs the gamut truly uh we've hosted school kids doing homework assignments and history day presentations and research papers we have an internet connection and an ancestry dot com account for folks that are keen to study up on their own genealogy this is also something now that's becoming quite popular with advances in genetic testing and so on people are really eager to to delve into their family's past using these technologies that that that make that search a bit more accessible to them we have we have decades worth of the Bemidji pioneer on microfilm we have city directories going going back to the early 1900s we have historical photographs people people here have long long histories with the past so a lot of the times when they come it's not just for abstract scholarship although we can help with that and are happy to they're looking for information about their their own families grandparents great grandparents and frequently we're able to unearth these family histories for them and that that's one of my favorite aspects of the job is to be able to illuminate a thread of somebody's unique family story and saga that that's that I think that that's very special but it goes beyond the local we recently were able to assist with a cemetery I believe it was in the Netherlands they had they had service members buried there from the wars that America is involved in and have been now trying to post photographs of these service members and reached out to us about two particular individuals that they were able to deduce originally we're from Beltrami County wow and we with the help of some of our members we put the word out we're looking for such and such individuals and if you have any photos please contact us lo and behold we they did and we sent it to them they were so grateful and this is something that we can point to as a as an instance of the practical application of our work and what we do and what was so unique about this is that the community where these grave sites are each family has adopted a grave oh wow and they they from generation and to the next generation they take care of that one particular grave oh wow year after year neglected right so it is never neglected oh wow I just thought that was amazing that's just one of those things they just call out of the blue and they just say can you help us with this yeah yep it's one of the it's one of the perks of being the historical society for uh for the county uh there's never a del day we get we get all such interesting requests and such interesting donations again unsolicited we had a quilt come in over a hundred-year-old quilt um from um the solway part of uh of the state and uh this was embroidered with gosh I'd say over a hundred uh different names and so we're undertaking a project uh to transcribe each of those names uh I call it sort of the the rosetta stone of local history uh it's really unearthed for us a treasure trove of a of a future academic opportunities for us to delve into um we have just a few minutes left here but I do want to have a chance to highlight one of the projects you've kind of taken up um because I believe you have your own personal interest in this but Beltrami County does not have an official flag correct that is correct how did you come to learn that it was June 14th of last year which happens to be flag day I think uh most underrated holiday and civic observance here and I thought um I had just been on duty for a few months in the historical society and as Sharon mentioned we do have a media presence thanks to my predecessor and I wanted to post a photo of the Beltrami County flag I thought it was incumbent upon us as the historical society for the county to to celebrate the occasion uh in that way we didn't have one I came to realize uh it is not essential apparently some counties simply don't okay but I started to do a little bit of digging and I realized that municipalities that do for those locations cities counties for example the city of Chicago has a great looking flag and it has become a point of pride for the citizens I wanted to do something like that for Beltrami County I know we have a diverse population I I am neither Native American or Norwegian or New Yorker but I wanted something that everyone could rally behind no matter your particular heritage or or backstory or where you came from I wanted to do something that really symbolized the unique past that we all share as Beltrami County residents and so I engaged the services of a local designer and put together a few options presented to them presented them to the board of commissioners and well I'm keeping my fingers crossed to see what what comes of it I have a an image of one such design that I'll show you okay and I try to incorporate the colors of the Italian flag because our namesake Giacomo Beltrami was of course an Italian explorer and I wanted to I wanted to incorporate some of some of that that that part of the story so how is that process working like if somebody watching has an interest like wow I would really like to hear more about this or get involved just contact you is it still ongoing it's still ongoing the county commissioners obviously have pressing matters that demand their attention and I don't want to detract from their important work but anybody who has an interest in this could while there are a number of ways they could write the letter to the editor to the pioneer they could appear at a county board a county commissioners meeting those are held monthly and open to the public but yeah they can also feel very free to contact us we're at the depot at Beltrami County Beltrami history org forgive me or just stop on by with their their thoughts on the topic my goal is to actually bring the completed flag to Bergamo Italy the birthplace of Giacomo Beltrami when I visit later this year I plan to travel in the fall to see a museum there where some Native American artifacts from Beltrami's travels through this part of the world are actually housed oh wow that's fascinating well we can't wait to follow along with your journey and see what happens with the flag thank you thank you I'm excited about it listen I want to thank you guys for joining me today and for talking both about the historical society and also the history center thank you for tuning in tonight if you would like to learn more about either historical society or history center the website here is on the bottom of the screen also they have active facebook and twitter accounts so you can certainly find them online thank you for joining me tonight please join me next time