South Dakota museum prepares for big move

YANKTON, S.D. (AP) — Lost in the excitement of renovating the Mead Cultural Education Center to become the new home of the Dakota Territorial Museum is the fact that there are more than 35,000 artifacts that must be moved.

According to Crystal Nelson, director and curator of the museum, the planning phase is just about completed and now the transition is beginning, with plans to close the Westside Park location to the public on Oct. 1.

Packing and moving may sound simple but Nelson said with three phases planned, plus the process of readying each individual artifact for the move, the next year is going to be a busy one.

A lot of people are like 'Can't you just throw it in a box, put in the back of a pickup and move it across town?'

While some collections are not rare or unique — such as the items in the museum's research library — they can be boxed up, labeled and moved.

"The majority of the collection all needs condition reporting so we know if there is a problem in the new facility," she said.

"The first phase is going to include mostly the collections that we will use on a regular basis, as well as the collections that will be part of the initial opening exhibits," Nelson said.

The hope is that moving those first exhibits will free up some space so the staff and volunteers can finish processing and getting everything ready for the transfer.

The biggest changes people will see at the current location is the sight of more shelving and rolling storage.

The move has also presented an opportunity to go through the collection, and staff has already found things they didn't know were in the archives.

Even when October comes around, there is going to be so much that we need to do to keep our operations active and to pay the bills that having a move coordinator to keep things going in the new facility and here is going to be very important.

[...] if there are people who feel confident in their ability to help on a management- or hands-on level with the move, I can almost guarantee I can find something for them to do, as long as they are physically able to do it.

Nelson said if there are organizations or individuals that are interested in helping, the more people they know are available the better.