IDAHO FALLS — Westmark Credit Union has made a $500,000 donation to the Museum of Idaho that will be used to create a permanent exhibit telling the history of eastern Idaho. The donation was announced during an event at the museum.
The new exhibit, called Way Out West, will be part of an expansion taking up two floors. The exhibit will cover the prehistory of the region up to the present. It’s expected to open in late 2020, according to the Post Register.
“We’ve got a region that has some fantastic social, cultural and environmental history that has sometimes gone unappreciated, even within our own state,” museum spokesperson Jeff Carr told the Post Register.
Westmark President and CEO Rich Leonardson presented a ceremonial check to the museum in front of a 14-foot-tall replica mammoth called Bia-Dekape, meaning “Big Meal” in the Shoshoni language, the publication said.
“Giving back is important to us, and we are truly honored to be ... (a) long-term sponsor to Way out West,” Leonardson said during the ceremony.
The exhibit will include information about now-extinct animals such as mammoths and giant bison. There will also be information about the Shoshone-Bannock people and European settlers, the report added.