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Idaho State Museum holds grand reopening ceremony in Boise

Posted at 2:21 PM, Oct 12, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-12 16:21:47-04

The Idaho State Museum held their grand reopening ceremony after years of hard work and a team effort to come up with $17 million in funds.

It was a special day for Governor Butch Otter who visited the museum as a child and remembers the two-headed cow that is in the new museum, a ribbon cutting officially reopened the museum to the public.

"I've watched the history of the historical museum as it has grown," said Otter. "It has become a larger part of Idaho's history."

Students from Adams Elementary sang "Here we have Idaho" and then got to tour the museum themselves and they had a lot of energy.

The ceremony also featured drum tribal drum groups from all five federally recognized tribes in Idaho who also had a part in coming up with content to respect the past in regards to Native Americans.

"The origin story is amazing from all the tribes it is really great to have that all out there," said Gary Aitken Jr. a chairman for the Kootenai Tribe.

The museum was funded through $9 million from Idaho's permanent building fund, $4 million from the legislature and $4.2 million in private donations.

"They wanted $8 million when they first came in to talk to me," said Governor Otter. "I said I'll put up half you got to get the other half and they did."

Here is a linkto a previous story we did when 6 on Your Side took a tour of the museum.

The museum is open seven days a week, except for most holidays, admission cost ten dollars for adults, five for children and eight for veterans, seniors and students.