Posted on 10/14/2008 1:57:19 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Maybe it’s a trick of the mind. Maybe it’s conditioning from too many Indiana Jones movies, but Flathead County’s records building has the same feel as a rare books collection in a library or a grandparent’s attic.
The gathering of history somehow reaches out from the stacked boxes and emits a feeling of mystery and depth.
In less dramatic terms, the building is just a shell filled with metal shelves and white boxes. But standing in an aisle, surrounded by documents that date back to the late 1800s, the place does feel like Jones’ warehouse.
Harrison Ford, however, has never been here.
This cramped historical kingdom is the domain of Jan Hardesty, the county’s records manager, and she may have the most diverse job description of any county employee.
Hardesty helps with elections, works on historical projects, processes document requests and is working on properly mapping the Demersville Cemetery.
In 2003, Hardesty became the first records manager in the county’s history. Being the first, she said, is both good and bad.
“No one has ever thrown anything away so we have a complete history of the Flathead Valley,” Hardesty said. “On the other hand, no one has ever thrown anything away. We have all the junk from the last 100 years.”
The records building, located near Stillwater Christian School, was built in the 1960s as a computer office, but it became a storage building. When Hardesty became the records manager, her first task was redesigning and cleaning out the building.
“There were cubby holes filled with stuff,” she said. “Some of them were built with two by fours and chicken wire.”
So Hardesty brought in metal shelving.
“State of the art in records is to have metal posts with wooden decks,” she said. “But the friction makes it tough to slide boxes that weigh 55 pounds.”
To make box retrieval easier, Hardesty uses metal decks that she wipes with car polish.
Hardesty’s role of dealing with the county’s historical documents is a natural fit for her. Maybe even genetic.
“My grandfather was a historical documents dealer,” she said. “I’ve actually held a letter that was written and signed by George Washington.”
Hardesty spent her early years in and around Glacier Park. Her father worked as a park ranger until he moved the family to Michigan, where he worked as a college professor.
Hardesty went on to earn a master’s degree in archaeology, which took her to places such as Guatemala, England, Florida and Massachusetts. She wanted to live in Montana, but job opportunities were scarce.
“You don’t do a lot of archaeology in Montana,” she said. “Archaeology in Montana is being paid to hike.”
She eventually got a job working for the Parks Service in Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park, where she stayed for 12 years. In 1985, she transferred to Glacier National Park. She also tutored math students in Columbia Falls.
When Flathead County created the position of records manager in 2003, Hardesty applied but had low expectations about getting the job. Sixteen people applied; she got the job.
The past five years have been a labor of love for Hardesty. She and two other staff members have been diligently recording every scrap of paper the county has on record since it became a county in March 1893.
Maintenance workers are still finding boxes of documents that were forgotten in basements and closets.
She also has to keep up with current documents generated by the Sheriff’s Office, the County Attorney’s Office and myriad other county departments.
“Every single file from every single office is logged,” she said. “It takes quite a while.”
In spite of the work load, Hardesty’s love of history can be a significant distraction when surrounded by 120 years of records.
“It’s fascinating,” she said. “Sometimes, the biggest problem is to keep yourself from sitting on the floor and reading old cases.”
The old files are a treasure trove of interesting history - from court cases to homestead paperwork to police evidence.
In the spring of 1896, documents show that Flathead County’s sheriff transported six people up to the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs.
“I want to know what was going on in the winter of 1895,” Hardesty said.
Chances are, she’ll find out.
A log book from the old hospital in Kalispell is still very legible. Hardesty turned to a page that showed the name of patients, the date and what medical problem brought them to the hospital.
Apparently, syphilis was a common problem in 1921.
Hardesty also has a box of returned letters from 1902, the original land patent for Fortine, census records from one-room schoolhouses and homestead records for Flathead and Lake counties, including the two original homestead grants for Hungry Horse.
Another fascinating, leather-bound book next to her desk contains the burial records for Demersville Cemetery. Burials cost $10 in the early 1920s. Records were accurate and clear until 1927.
“Someone else must have taken over the records of the cemetery,” Hardesty said. “If they weren’t already dead, I’d like to shoot them. We have all these people, and we don’t know where they are buried.”
Whoever kept the records didn’t accurately list where each person was buried. The sloppy record keeper also seemed to have a negative bias toward dead indigents.
“They wouldn’t even record them in the cemetery book, but they are shown as dead in the hospital records,” Hardesty said.
There is now a moratorium on burials at the cemetery. This spring, Hardesty will use a remote sensor to map where people are buried.
Last year, the cemetery gave her a chance to use her archaeology skills, which she had used when working on a cemetery in Massachusetts. A family exhumed a relative from Demersville to bury him with the rest of his family at a different site.
“It’s amazing what people were buried with,” Hardesty said.
The liner for the man’s coffin had been padded with old newspapers. He was dressed in a nice suit but wore no shoes. Hardesty realized that he had been buried during the Great Depression, and shoes were of such value that the man had been laid to rest without them.
Hardesty’s department will continue to be consumed with work. The election is just around the corner, and Hardesty is the county’s chief runner. A 20-month cooperative project between the Montana and Utah Historical societies is coming to an end.
The people from Utah took digital images of all the county’s birth, death and marriage certificates and gave Flathead County copies of the 400 DVDs the society made.
In the coming months, the Records Department will try to find four years of missing birth and death records from 1893 to 1897.
“We became a county in March 1893, but our birth and death records start in 1897,” Hardesty said. “Where are the ones in between?”
Maintaining records is a never-ending job, but Hardesty has found a home within the metal shelves, the white boxes and the limitless history.
“I love this,” she said. “This has been just great.”
Ping
That'd be mine too. Anytime I'm sorting through old, written materials I end up getting side tracked.
They are now all Mormon. At least those who baptized them think they are. Don't get me wrong, the LDS does some great work, and providing the records for free to all. Just as long as those who give up the records know what is going to happen with them.
Doesn’t hurt to cover all the bases you can :-)
Having worked, many years ago, in a 1-year historical records receiving and archiving position contract job, at a major state historical society headquarters, I can assure you that what you have said is true. They have been added to the ‘rolls.’
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Thanks nickcarraway.>br> |
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