DETROIT LAKES — The new Becker County Museum officially opened its doors to the public this past Friday, Feb. 17 — and the public showed up in droves, with more than 200 kids and adults eager to test out the various interactive exhibits in the science center and explore the new, expanded gift shop.
The grand opening celebration included a presentation that featured Museum Director Becky Mitchell, Becker County commissioners John Okeson and David Meyer, Detroit Lakes City Alderman Matt Boeke, retired U.S. Congressman Collin Peterson and White Earth Spiritual Advisor Mike Swan, followed by a ribbon-cutting outside the science center.
"We are going to celebrate the opening — kind of opening — of our science floor today," Mitchell said. "We are cutting a ribbon, we're going to party until 7:30, and then ... those doors are going to close for about a week and a half."
She explained that some last-minute construction and installation of furnishings and exhibits need to happen before they're fully ready to begin having regular hours of operation again. "We don't have networking, or phones, or interior door locks yet. We have a few things to add in before we can open to the public. But March 1 we will be here, and open, and ready for business."
After Mitchell's opening remarks, Swan and his assistant, Emily Buermann (a former programming director for the museum) provided an Ojibwe blessing, complete with pipe smoke — as Swan alluded to when he jokingly mentioned that he was probably the only one who would ever be allowed to smoke tobacco inside the building.
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He talked about how he had prayed in all four directions, starting with the east and then proceeding to look south, west and north. "I asked them (the spirits) to watch over everyone here, and to watch over this building, the Becker County Museum — to watch over everyone that comes in here, and to preserve our past ... we all have different stories."
After noting how important the Native American blessing had been to include in the proceedings, Mitchell said, "We have been pushing really hard to get this building open as soon as possible. It is a lot of work — an unbelievable, unimaginable amount of work. We just decided to take a step back with that history floor (the building's ground floor). We wanted to get this floor open — this was the floor we could get to first — so we wanted to get it open to the public and start serving our community again as quickly as we could.
"We're going to take our time (with opening the rest of the building) and do it right downstairs. There's a lot of exhibits, and a lot of artifacts to put away, and there are still a lot of artifacts left in storage ... so we have a lot of work left to do, but we are so, so happy and looking forward to a little sense of normalcy."
The museum had been closed to the public for more than a year, in order to accommodate the demolition of the old building and construction of the new one.
"It's amazing what you guys have done to set this (museum) up for future generations," said Boeke, adding that "a lot of partnerships" had been involved in the process, including not just the city, but also Becker County.
Meyer said that the museum was able to secure a significant amount of financial support from the state because of its staff's willingness to "think outside the box" and come up with a unique concept that blended history, science and technology. "This is going to be a destination spot," he added.
Several of the speakers talked about Mitchell's role in getting the project off the ground and seeing it through to this day, but she said, "This isn't 'Celebrate Becky' day," adding that she had tremendous support from her staff, the board and the community "from day one."
Peterson also spoke at the opening. "What they've done here is amazing," he said, adding that his friend, the late Roger Engstrom, a strong supporter of and advocate for the museum, "would be so proud of what's going on here today."
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Both he and Mitchell talked about how, when he was planning to vacate his Congressional offices in Washington, D.C., last January, he basically packed almost everything up and donated it to the museum, where it will become part of a permanent exhibit.
After the ribbon cutting, the public swarmed into the new science center, where they had opportunities to try on some virtual reality headsets, a giant "Pixel Pegs" board, an augmented reality (AR) sandbox and AR game board, a wind tunnel, giant Lego and K'nex building stations, a "calming room" decorated to look like a comfy indoor campsite, and about a half-dozen other stations set up around the facility.
