SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Tuesday, the Sioux Falls City Council will decide whether to send about two-thirds of the Brockhouse Collection to the University of Notre Dame Museum of Biodiversity.
On August 17, 2023, the Great Plains Zoo announced the closure of the Delbridge Museum of Natural History. The museum was home to the Brockhouse Collection, which includes about 150 taxidermy animals hunted by Henry Brockhouse.
City officials said there was detectable arsenic in nearly 80% of the collection.
Not long after the announcement, an advocacy group formed to save the collection.
“We’re not in this for anything. We’re not looking to gain anything out of this. There is no personal gains, no monetary. We don’t want any of the items within. That collection needs to stay together as a whole,” Jason Haack said on August 23, 2023.
Brockhouse’s daughter, Beverly Bosch, shared the same opinion.
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“They’ve got to be put kept together. This is the world’s largest privately owned museum. There isn’t hardly one animal that’s missing in that thing,” Bosch said on August 29, 2023.
In September of 2023, officials entertained the idea of constructing a new building to safely house the collection. It was estimated to cost $13 million at that time.
Then, we fast forward to March of 2024 when then Governor Kristi Noem signed House Bill 1100 into law. It allowed the collection to be sent to any non-profit, including out-of-state organizations.
Nine months later, the Brockhouse Work Group, which was formed to develop a surplus plan for the collection, discussed proposals from six non-profits. Notre Dame was the clear favorite.
“Just seems to make the most sense when you look at all of these proposals, so certainly, I would move that Notre Dame would be the one that I would recommend based on the six proposals that are here,” committee member Jeff Scherschligt said on December 18, 2024.
Last month, the Brockhouse Work Group recommended to the city council to send 117 of the animals to Notre Dame, 33 to the Oddities Museum and two to the Institute for Natural History. The recommendation has also received support from the Delbridge family.
