UPDATED Museum fighting for its life

NINEPIPES — Bud Cheff Jr. found his first artifact when he was just a kid.

His wife, Laurel, said a flat tire on a family trip led to the discovery.

“While his dad fixed the car, Bud went exploring and found a cave,” she said. “In the cave, he found a war club.”

The war club sparked young Bud’s interest in history, and the club became a point of pride for the Lake County boy. Unfortunately, Bud’s boyhood treasure was destroyed in a house fire in the 1960s.

“After that, it became his goal to build a place where artifacts would be safe from fire and theft,” Laurel said, sweeping her arm toward the first room of the Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana. “He never imagined the economy would be the thing to take it all away.”

Ninepipes, which first opened in 1997, is closing in what Bud describes as a heartbreaking turn of events. Unless, that is, enough money can be raised to save the museum building.

In an e-mail on Tuesday, Laurel said the response and support from all over the country has encouraged the board of directors to raise funds to save the museum.

She estimates it would take about $1 million to keep Ninepipes Museum’s doors open.

The downturn in the economy hit the museum and Ninepipes Lodge, a sister business owned by the Cheffs as well, hard and made it impossible for the Cheffs to keep up on the note payments.

“We weren’t sure it was going to happen, but it looks like it is,” Laurel said.

In a letter to the members of the museum, Bud explained the financial situation facing the museum.

“The museum building is owned by the Ninepipes Lodge LLC and leased to the museum. When we bought and remodeled the lodge, we included the cost of the museum building into our lodge construction loan. This tied the two entities together, which now has the museum in jeopardy,” the letter said.

“The Lodge has not been able to keep its note payments current this year,” he wrote. “[And because of that, the bank] has notified us they are going to foreclose on the property.”

A final foreclosure date has not been set, and despite an encouraging “Closed ’til spring” sign on the Lodge’s reader board, Laurel said neither the museum or the Lodge will reopen unless the money can be raised.

The museum includes a large collection of artifacts including photos, beadwork, firearms and period clothing.

“We probably have the largest collections of pictures in the county,” Rod Wamsley, president of the museum board, said.

Every piece in the museum is so full of stories, Laurel said.

The artifacts in the museum, many of which are on loan from private collectors, are not part of the foreclosure, Bud said.

“So many people have donated, it makes my heart hurt to not be able to continue,” Laurel said.

“All items on loan to the museum will be given back to the owners, and some items donated or owned by the museum will be sold to pay the museum bills and legal fees,” Bud wrote in the letter.

The remaining artifacts will be donated to another non-profit museum, Laurel said.

“We don’t know which one yet,” Bud said.

The Cheffs have been trying to sell Ninepipes Lodge for a number of years, but are still without a buyer.

“If we sold the Lodge in a private sale, we would be able to save the museum,” Laurel said.

Laurel said there has been a little bit of interest in the last few months, but nothing solid.

“We just want to thank all the people who have been involved in the museum over the past years,” Wamsley said.

The hardest part of the museum closing for Bud is not the financial aspect. Rather it is knowing he “will no longer be able to share the treasures and mysteries of past histories.”

So many locals drive by the museum and think ‘I should stop in there,’ Laurel said. “But they’re quickly losing their opportunity.”

While the future seems grim for the Ninepipes Museum of Early Montana, the board’s decision to try and raise money gives a glimmer of hope for the floundering museum.