Preserving the rich history of the Silver Valley
Gordon Rago | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 10 years, 9 months AGO
<p>Jim McReynolds, right, the executive director at the Wallace District Mining Museum, welcomes Kathy Haywood and her family, of Missoula, who visited the museum after stopping in Wallace for lunch. The museum recently received Idaho's highest honor for outstanding service.</p>
<p>Peggy McReynolds stands in front of a digital kiosk inside the Wallace District Mining Museum on Friday. Customers can use the kiosk to delve into the rich history of Wallace.</p>
<p>This 30-by-80 inch silk banner from the Murray Western Federation of Miners union is being restored in Boise and will be hung inside the Wallace District Mining Museum. The museum is using money from a recent award to pay for its restoration.</p>
He calls himself the keeper of the area’s stories.
And now this week, Jim McReynolds, who is the executive director of the Wallace District Mining Museum, will be the recipient of Idaho’s highest museum honors after several years of digitizing and storing history in and around the Silver Valley.
“We’re extremely pleased and honored to be selected for this award,” McReynolds said on Friday.
The award — the 2013 Sister Alfreda Elsensohn Award for Outstanding Service — is given annually by the Idaho Humanities Council, Idaho State Historical Society and Idaho Heritage Trust.
McReynolds said his museum is the sixth recipient of the award, for which there is no application process.
There will be a presentation on Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m. at the museum located at 509 Bank St. in Wallace.
The special recognition also includes $10,000, which the museum will use to continue cataloguing history and organizing its digital archives. McReynolds said the museum has roughly over 26,000 images and thousands upon thousands of documents.
Customers, for example, can look up a local storefront and find out what business used to occupy the building dating as far back as the 1800s. And thanks to cataloguing software, McReynolds said he, along with his wife Peggy, can pin pictures of people who are associated with a location of interest.
A third of the money received from the award will go towards restoring an 1892 ‘Western Federation of Miners’ union banner. The banner, which is currently being restored in Boise, was part of the WFM, a radical, violent miners’ union in the late 1800s and early 1900s throughout the west.
McReynolds, who grew up in the Silver Valley and once worked underground at the Sunshine Mine, said he has always been a history buff and is appreciative of the recognition.
But it is the words of the state groups that bestowed the award to McReynolds, which show how the work at the Wallace District Mining Museum is not going unnoticed.
“We greatly appreciate the professional collaboration of many partners throughout the state who work to preserve Idaho’s rich history on a daily basis,” said Janet Gallimore, the executive director at the Idaho State Historical Society. “The Wallace District Mining Museum exemplifies the finest quality work being undertaken in the state. Their efforts to digitize their collections lead the state. It is an honor for us to recognize their outstanding efforts.”
Rick Ardinger, executive director of the Idaho Humanities Council, echoed Gallimore’s sentiment.
“The Idaho Humanities Council encourages public awareness and understanding of history and other humanities disciplines,” Ardinger said. “The Wallace District Mining Museum provides visitors with an exemplary museum experience, demonstrating how history and the humanities can provide for not only a stimulating educational experience, but an entertaining one as well.”
Prior recipients of the award have been the Bonner County Historical Museum in Sandpoint (2008), the South Bannock County Historical Center in Lava Hot Springs (2009), the Historical Museum at St. Gertrude in Cottonwood (2010), the Lemhi County Historical Society in Salmon (2011), and the Basque Museum and Cultural Center in Boise (2012).