The local museum is asking the public to share any stories it has about Original Humboldt that go past the historic site’s 80-acre boundaries.
Over the last decade, the Original Humboldt committee has focused on finding out what happened on the site. It’s expanding its scope further before valuable information is lost to the mists of time.
“Now we feel that we've reached the point where we don't know the whole story, but we're ready to now say, ‘okay, what is the what is the bigger story?’ because we don't plan to really put a lot more physical features on that site,” said Jennifer Fitzpatrick, the Humboldt and District Museum’s director.
For example, it’s next to impossible that the activities of the 460 soldiers occupying the telegraph station during 1885’s North-West Rebellion were limited just to the 80-acre site.
“What we'd like to do is just find out from people if they have stories connected to the site, if they have artifacts that they found in surrounding areas, if they have areas on their land where you can actually see the Carlton Trail,” Fitzpatrick said.
The museum aims to collect that information, preserve it and map it out.
“What we're trying to do is just create a large community map,” Fitzpatrick said. “We are not looking to to take over people's land or to go into places that are not part of our purview.”
One opportunity for the public to share any information is at a meeting at the Jan. 24 from 1:30 to 3:30 pm, where specific maps will be out and facilitated conversation will be held
“We have always asked the public because we know that that the knowledge is out there in the community,” Fitzpatrick said. “We've been very fortunate with people who are willing to share that knowledge with us and so we we just want to continue that.”
Those that want to share information aren’t just restricted to the public meeting.
“It's not a one time thing,” Fitzpatrick said. “It's not like if you don't make it to the museum on Jan. 24 that the conversation is over. We just want people to talk to us about what they know.”
