Journey Stories opens at GEM

The Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibit “Journey Stories” had its grand opening at the Grand Encampment Museum (GEM) on Friday.

“Journey stories – tales of how we and our ancestors came to America – are a central element of our personal heritage,” the introduction to the exhibit says.

GEM is one of only six museums in Wyoming chosen to host the exhibit, making it a fairly exclusive event for Encampment.

Mixed with items and displays from the GEM collection the Journey Stories exhibit explores transportation and its impacts on immigration, migration, innovation and freedom.

“One of our responsibilities with our companion exhibits is tying our local history into it.” Rhytting said.

It’s not so much that the exhibit is tailored to the GEM, but it is a great venue for it according to museum staff member Christy Smith. Artifacts from the Saratoga Encampment railroad, the Riverside Garage facade, a covered wagon, a Ford Model-T and other transportation artifacts highlight themes described by the exhibits display panels.

According to Amber Horne, part of the GEM staff, the exhibit evokes questions of “how did you end up where you are? How did you end up coming to the United States?”

GEM is hoping for strong attendance at the exhibit this fall, which is usually outside of the operation year for the museum. According to Rhytting, Torrington had more people visit this exhibit in one and one-half months than they had in all of 2013.

The grand opening was well attended by local residents, visitors from out of town, and even Sen. Mike Enzi took time to tour the exhibit on Saturday.

More information about the Journey Stories can be found at http://www.museumonmainstreet.org/journeystories/.

 

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