FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Sept. 14, 2007
CONTACT:  Jeff Mammenga, (605) 773-6000; Jeff.Mammenga@state.sd.us

History bus museum visiting Pierre on Sept. 19

PIERRE, S.D. – A traveling history bus museum is coming to Pierre on Wednesday, Sept. 19.The TRACES Center for History and Culture in St. Paul, Minn., will be bringing the exhibit “Behind Barbed Wire:  Midwest POWs in Nazi Germany.” The free exhibit, through panel stories, artifacts and videos, includes stories of 34^th Division members (from armories in Aberdeen, Brookings, Deadwood, Edgemont, Hot Springs, Huron, Lead, Madison, Mitchell, Pierre, Rapid City, Sturgis and Watertown) and other men captured by the Germans and kept as prisoners of war until April or May of 1945.

The bus-eum will be at Riggs High School (sponsored by the South Dakota National Guard Museum) from 7:45-10:15 a.m., then go to the Cultural Heritage Center from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., before finishing up at Rawlins Municipal Library from 5:30-8:30 p.m.

The stop at the Cultural Heritage Center will include a brown-bag discussion from 12:10-12:50 p.m. in the Education Room, coordinated by the South Dakota State Historical Society, where veterans and others will be encouraged to share their World War II stories.

TRACES is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and telling the stories of the men and women from America’s heartland, and Germany and Austria, who encountered each other during WWII. For more information visit www.TRACES.org.

The State Historical Society, in addition to information in the “Changing Times” gallery of the Cultural Heritage Center, also has a traveling exhibit dedicated to South Dakota during World War II. The exhibit, “Home and Abroad:  South Dakota in World War II,” documents the state’s experiences overseas and on the home front during the war. This traveling exhibit includes a recreated scrapbook of images and clippings from the WWII era, and a resource guide with information and activities pertaining to the exhibit. Call (605) 773-4373 for more information.

The State Historical Society archives also has WWII information available on the society’s Web site at www.sdhistory.org.