New exhibit on famous eastern Idahoans to open Friday
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IDAHO FALLS — The Museum of Idaho is premiering a new history exhibit this week with a special opening event on Friday.
The new exhibit, titled the Law of the Land, focuses on well-known eastern Idahoans that help shaped the land and its communities during the early years. The stories explore the efforts of early settlers to tame the land, develop infrastructure and bring people to the region.
“This small exhibit reminds us that it takes all kinds to make a community, and the making of our community was definitely not boring. Those that came before us to this vast, rich land were of hardy stock,” Museum Director of Exhibitions Rod Hansen said in a news release.
The exhibit focuses on individuals such as “Dugout Dick” (Richard Zimmerman), a man who gained national fame while squatting from 1948 to 2010 in self-dug caves on public land in Central Idaho. Another person of note is Minnie Hitt, the first female banker in eastern Idaho who gave out land to local land developers. Hitt Road in Idaho Falls is named after Minnie Hitt.
“These artifacts have an ability to transport you to a different time,” Curator Carrie Anderson Athay said in a news release. “In this exhibit, we not only feature amazing stories of the land and how it affects us – or how we affect it – but it features special artifacts from some of our most beloved collections, including pieces from the beloved Keefer collection and one of our newer collections: from the caves of Dugout Dick.”
The Law of the Land collection will be on display in Nickum-Bates Hall on the first floor, which until recently featured another museum curated exhibit called It Takes a Village. Law of the Land will remain in the gallery until 2020, when the museum will debut its expansive new regional history exhibit, The Way Out West, which will nearly fill the museum’s existing exhibit space, according to a news release.
During Friday’s special event, curators will be giving specially guided tours through the new exhibit. Light hors d’oeuvres and beverages will also be served at the event.
Tickets for Friday’s event are $20 for the public and $10 for museum members. Museum members need to call the museum to get a coupon code for the discount. Tickets can be purchased on the museum’s website here.
The museum’s traveling exhibit side, Dinosaurs in Motion, also is entering its final weeks. It runs through April 22, after which the museum will close in preparation for the world premiere of Discover Steampunk on May 11. Discover Steampunk will explore innovation, technology, and ideals through Victorian-era thinkers such as Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, and George Eastman, and will feature numerous interactive machines they inspired, according to a news release.
