Ellingson General Merchandise: This store is on the west side of Main Street and has been at this location since the early days of Epping and is now one of the seven museum buildings open for tours. The museum exhibits are designed artistically and arranged in chronological order to tell the story of regional history.
The images on this page were scanned from postcards available for purchase in the museum office.
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Homestead Log Cabin: Cottonwood logs from the Missouri River bottoms were used to build this sturdy homestead dwelling in 1908. It was the home of Andrew and Sophie Thorseth in Spring Brook township and is fully restored and furnished for viewing by museum visitors. In the foreground is a local petrified wood and huge boulder used by buffalo as a "rubbing rock"
TO BUFFALO TRAILS MUSEUM
Diorama: Assiniboin Indian Village - Cronstruction to scale is from a study of a site south of Spring Brook in the museum area. Temporary summer camps were erected on exposed sites to facilitate the hunting of the buffalo on their annual migration. Baths were taken in a low hut, the sweat lodge, where water splashed on heated rocks provided dense steam.
Diorama: Hidatsa Indian Village - Some hundreds of years ago the agricultural Hidatsa protected their village site on a high bluff overlooking the White Earth River with an elaborate fortification of upright poles. Construction to scale is based on the report of excavation by archeologists in 1939.
Homestead Shack Interior: These furnishings are typical of the one-room 'claim shanty' erected on the praire in the early 1900's. Newspapers pasted on the walls lightened the room and provided a degree of insulation.
Doctor's Visit - Theses life-size figures depict a typical sick-bed scene of the early 1900's. The doctor resembles Dr. W. Scott from the nearby city of Ray, who was a general practitioner in the pioneer days.
Blacksmith Shop: The local blacksmith provided indispensable services for the homesteader. He sharpened plowshares, shod horses, set wagon tires and became the Model T mechanic. The local shop, Epping Iron Works still stands.
These figures are constructed life-size. The father, holding a pipe and newpaper is about to reprimand the suitor for lack of restraint, resembles Ole Ellingson, an Epping storekeeper who began his retail business in 1905.
Diorama: Pioneer Home Christmas Eve. - The miniature figures and room furnishings are only a few inches high and have been constructed to scale by Elmer Halvorson, regional artist and curator.
