Charles Marion Russell (1864–1926) masterfully captured the art and soul of the American West as it was transforming before his eyes. While he fulfilled his dream of an authentic cowboy life in Montana, he was also gifting the world with an inspired visual record celebrating Indigenous culture, Western narratives, grand landscapes, and majestic wildlife scenes. While his art is considered historic, his spirit is timeless. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loren-alberts/message

A Kansas City tradition since 1899, the American Royal is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose mission is to be the nation’s leader for food and agriculture education, events, and engagement. The American Royal provides opportunities for nearly half a million youth and adults from around the world to engage in high-quality events and experiences, including nationally competitive livestock shows, the world’s largest barbecue competition, regional and national equine shows, youth and professional rodeos, and elementary and secondary education outreach. Support from partners, members, and volunteers help the American Royal achieve its vision of a world where food and agriculture are celebrated, and all generations are committed to its future. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loren-alberts/message

April 3, 1860: The first rider was to leave St. Joseph at 5:00 pm. However, the mail had been slowed up in Chicago for transfer to Hannibal, Missouri. A train was stripped down with no passenger cars at Hannibal. Once the mail arrived there, the train rolled across the state at a record speed to St. Joseph. It finally arrived around 7:00 pm and the mail was rushed to the stables where the first rider, Johnny Fry awaited. The mail was placed into the specially made mochilla saddle and at 7:15 pm a cannon was fired alerting everyone Fry was on his way to the river. Cheering crowds waived at Fry as he made his way through streets of St. Joseph. Once at the river, Fry boarded a ferry which took him and his horse Sylph across the river to Kansas where he rode at breakneck speeds for 90 miles before another rider took over. In Sacramento, at noon, the first rider, Harry Roff, took off with the eastbound mail. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loren-alberts/message

In the late 1870's, non-Indian settlers of Forks Prairie came by way of rivers and trails from the Pacific and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, as the overland route from the east was nearly impenetrable forest.  Trails were the main means of travel for early settlers along the coast and in the interior Olympic Peninsula.  The life of a settler was tedious.  "Proving up" on their homestead claims was a primary goal since improvements were required within a specified number of years.  Hunting and fishing were often pursued in fall and winter months to supplement the homesteaders' gardens and livestock.  Hay, oats, grain, fruit and vegetables grew well on the prairie.  The first dairy cows were brought in by schooner in 1870 via Neah Bay by Luther Ford.Though it was a center of commerce, growth came slowly to Forks.  A post office was established in 1884.  A newspaper was started in 1890, and the town was laid out in 1912 on a homestead - remaining barely a block of buildings into the 1920s.  Electricity came in 1923, and the first bank in 1930.  And, the town did not incorporate until August 7, 1945.Before 1900, timber in the West End was mostly cleared by settlers and small-time loggers using ox teams.  Companies logged at Clallam Bay and Port Crescent on the strait in the 1870s.  Timber baron Michael Earles, later developer of the first Soleduck hot springs resort, set up booming logging camps at the turn of the century at Crescent Bay and went along the strait - and many settlers from Forks worked in these camps.  Merrill & Ring would begin to log in the Pysht River drainage northwest of Forks in 1916.  World War 1 and its urgent demand for airplane spruce brought the West End into focus for its stands of Sitka spruce among the largest in the Hoko River drainage north of Forks.  In 1918 the U.S. Army built 36 miles of railroad track from Port Angeles west to Lake Pleasant.  This staged large-scale logging in the West End.  Disasters proved an unlikely road to Forks' boom years in the 1970s, when the town earned its reputation as "Logging Capital of the World" - through the '21 Blow, the Great Forks Fire in 1951 and the Columbus Day Storm of 1962.  In the 1970's you could "make a couple of calls and have a good job" in the woods.  The town's population doubled to over 3,000 that decade from a remote collection of farming homesteads into a booming timber town.Our museum offers a look into the rich history of homesteading, farming and logging in the Pacific Northwest, presented in a log cabin structure built by talented local volunteers and the High School Carpentry Class of 1989.  Come share this rich history with us and help to preserve the memory of those who have gone before us. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loren-alberts/message

Visit the world-famous Rubber Chicken Museum located in the Archie McPhee store in Seattle, Washington. As the home to the world’s largest rubber chicken and the world’s smallest rubber chicken, you’ll stand slack-jawed in awe in front of our display of plastic poultry. Open since 2018, this museum has set the rubber chicken world abuzz. Scholars from more than ten countries have visited in a quest to discover what makes rubber chickens funny. The exhibit features a scholarly essay by renowned rubber chicken expert Kirk Demarais that puts the rubber chicken in its correct historical context. You’ll laugh, learn and take your picture next to the world’s largest rubber chicken! As if that weren’t enough, we also have a rotating display from Archie McPhee’s owner Mark Pahlow’s amazing collection of novelties. Called the “Room 6” collection after the locked room where he keeps his treasures. There truly is no other place to see items like this. You’ll want to return when the next batch goes in. https://archiemcpheeseattle.com/rubber-chicken-museum/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loren-alberts/message

The International Mermaid Museum is dedicated to teaching ocean ecology from seashore to sea floor immersed in mermaid mythology unifying oceanic cultures. Three quarters of the world is covered with water. Yet the undersea experience is largely unavailable for most to explore. This exhibition offers unique insights into life between the seashore and the sea floor. Ocean ecology wrapped in the mythology of mermaids creates a vivid and inviting learning opportunity for all ages and abilities. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loren-alberts/message

See the treasures the ocean brings to our shores!'Treasure' from around the world!  Since 1976 the beachcombing museum has built up its exhibits until today where tons of items have been collected off of beaches both local and distant and put on display.   Email: [email protected] Phone: 360-640-0320 Address:143 Andersonville Avenue, Forks, Washington, United States 98331 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loren-alberts/message

Return and expanded visit. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loren-alberts/message

In 2012 I decided to open a museum called the Whale, Sealife and Shark Museum. I have been a collector of marine specimens ever since I was four years old. I want to share my love of the ocean with as many people as I can so I figured that this would be a perfect way and place to share them. On the outside of the museum, I drew whale cut outs, then my Dad cut them out and my youngest daughter, Ariel, painted them. Each of the ten whales on the outside of the building are summer residents that return year after year. They are painted to show their most distinctive characteristics. The inside mural done by Justin Sparks shows artwork of actual pictures I took along with an adoption wall. Around the first corner you will see a shark exhibit with actual taxidermied sharks that a professor had in his collection from the 1950’s. Each shark, jaw or picture gives you valuable information on that individual. Next you encounter the tropical exhibit with a number of organisms, insects, frogs and more embedded in the exhibit for an “I SPY” adventure. Anyone living in Oregon during winter can come and sit down in a lawn chair in front of this exhibit and pretend you are in the tropics! The next exhibit shows the 4 zones of the rocky intertidal with its characteristic organisms. I made posters that correspond to the actual specimens that you can see. Next you encounter 6 cubbies with the various phyla of animal groups in them. In each cubby I made an informative poster and labels. Every cubby shows fossil forms and modern day forms and you can visibly see there has been NO Change over time. Upstairs you have a theater to watch educational films I made. The next room is the pinniped room which includes life size artwork of seals, sea lions, walruses, river otters and sea otters. It also has an exhibit of manatees even though we do not have them here. I am working in the winter with a company in Florida where you can swim with manatees. Next you walk into the bird room with taxidermied local birds, bird sculptures and lots of information. The last room is the whale room which shows life-size whale tail flukes and a diorama of the gray whales with information and specimens from Alaska, Depoe Bay and Baja California. The mural on the wall in the whale room shows the migration route of the gray whale from Alaska to Baja California, Mexico and back. There is also the stopping point in Depoe Bay where we have our summer residents stay from June-October. Almost all the photographs are ones I personally took and the various black posters are ones I developed with the help of an awesome photo editor named Charles Hall. I have also written six books ranging from a Marine Biology textbook to field guides on Gray Whales, Seals, Sea Lions and Otters, Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, Seabirds and Shorebirds and more.Please enjoy! ~ Carrie Newell, CEO WREE,WSSM --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loren-alberts/message

About the Mansion St. Joseph is known for an extensive collection of beautiful mansions built in the late 1800s, and the Wyeth Tootle Mansion at the corner of 11th and Charles Streets is a prime example. Built in 1879 by William and Eliza Wyeth, this 43 room mansion was designed to emulate the castles along the Rhine River in Germany. The Wyeth family only lived in the home for approximately 8 years before the home was sold to Kate Tootle. The Tootle family remained in the home until 1947 when it was purchased by William Goetz (owner of Goetz Brewery) to be used as the St. Joseph Museums. With three floors, a tower and more than 40 rooms, it stands today as one of the best examples of St. Joseph’s late 19th century wealth and opulence, featuring stunning woodwork, hand-painted ceilings and imported stained glass. ​ The first floor of the Wyeth Tootle Mansion has been partially restored to its Victorian grandeur. Old photographs of each room help visitors visualize the interior as it was around 1900. Each room’s ceiling is impressively different, from the cherubs that float above the Louis XVI parlor to the dark rich colors that cover the Moorish room. Ornate parquet floors and walnut woodwork change from room to room. The upper stories contain museum exhibits. Exhibits Edifice:  The Architecture of E. J. Eckel. The architect of the Wyeth-Tootle Mansion and the founder of the firm responsible for 75 percent of the buildings in St. Joseph.  The exhibit focuses on his life and the lasting impact of his accomplishments. ​ Intersections:  Of Time and Buildings. This exhibit is housed in three renovated rooms on the second floor.  The exhibit explores the intersections of history, art, architecture, and humanities as well as the past, present, and future of the City.  Museum professionals, preservationists, scholars, and local artists all worked together on this innovative project.   Intersections is a combination art exhibit, exploration of St. Joseph’s history, and imagining of the role of historic preservation in the City’s future.   The exhibit was created by the St. Joseph Museum in partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Friends of St. Joseph. ​ Confluence: The Great Flood of 1993. An exhibit that chronicles flooding in the St. Joseph area, including the flood in 1952 that covered much of Lake Contrary Amusement Park.  The details on the causes and impacts of the 1993 Flood will be included as a cathartic remembrance of those trying months in the summer of 1993 when much of the Midwest was under water.  The name of the exhibit “Confluence” refers to the merging of rivers and flood waters, as well as the coming together of communities in the face of one of the costliest natural disasters in history.  ​ History of the St. Joseph Museum. Step back in time through the extensive history of the St. Joseph Museum. Founded in 1927 as the Children's Museum, the St. Joseph Museum has called five locations its home over the near century it has been in existence. The items displayed in this exhibit are some of the earliest donations which were on display when the museum first opened in the annex of the St. Joseph Public Library. Come learn how our organization has grown and evolved over the years and what the future may hold. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/loren-alberts/message