R. D. “Mac” MacCurdy had a passion for seashells. Oh, he collected stamps, coins, minerals, arrowheads, and, being a good Republican, elephant figurines, too. But the short, stocky man who homesteaded near Broadus collected so many shells that even today it would rate as one of the largest private collections in the western U.S.
All 22,000 of Mac’s seashells and marine life specimens are not only housed at the Powder River Historical Museum in Broadus, they are displayed. That fact sets the museum apart, because large museums generally display only a sampling of their collections. The upshot is the public can see more shells at Broadus than in many museums known for their shell collections.
“Blown away” is how curator Lee Hubbard describes the typical visitor’s reaction upon entering the 24- by 62-foot building that was constructed in 1992 for “Mac’s Museum.” “They just step back and say “‘Whoa!’”
There’s a lot to take in. Iridescent colors dance on the abalones, a helmet shell looks to be the size of somebody’s head, and other shells have many flat spines that give a feathery look. Within cabinet drawers sit shells that range right down to pinhead size. These tiniest ones are stored in vials. Bright colors, corkscrews, geometric patterns, it’s all here. Look long enough and you’ll find shelled critters from Montana, too, plus shark’s teeth, sea stars, and coral.
Thomas Eichorst, editor of American Conchologist, studied detailed photos of the collection and remarked, “There is a shell museum in Lake Jackson, Texas that has an impressive number of shells on display, but I think not quite as many as your small county museum.”
He complimented Mac’s accuracy as well. “His identification does look very good. He had a cone (Conus cordigera) correctly identified that is still misidentified (as Conus nobilis) today by many collectors and dealers.”
Mac got started in sea shells during an 18-month stint in Delaware. In 1928 he’d finally given up on the homestead, and took the family East where he started a construction job. When they went beachcombing, his collecting gene kicked in and he started gathering sea shells. His son Bob, who was 6 years old at the time, recalled, “We spent every weekend out on the beaches looking for arrowheads and shells.” Bob particularly remembered a trip to Chesapeake Bay, where his father collected a horseshoe crab. “It was smelling so bad we put it in a box on the top of the car,” he said, wrinkling his nose at the memory.
But Mac decided he preferred Montana and shortly moved the family back. His interest in shells slumbered for over a decade until Bob, in Korea just after the end of World War II, sent home some random shells from a beach he visited.
Soon Mac was making scientific identifications of the shells, a daunting task given that there are 100,000 mollusc species recognized by malacologists today.
Folks he knew began giving him shells from their travels. A brother who was a missionary in China shipped shells, too.
Companies would mail shells “on approval” in those days. Mac picked out the ones that were new to him, paid for them, and sent the rest back. A letter writer of the most prolific sort, he also wrote to people as far as the Philippines, where he paid a leper at a colony to send him bushel-sized boxes of shells.
As time went on, the boxes and approvals had nothing but duplicates. Luckily, retirement from his job as county clerk and recorder in 1957 meant Mac and his wife could winter where the shells were, in Florida, California and Mexico.
His collection, meanwhile, had migrated from his home to his gas station to a room at the high school. Mac spent many a happy hour at the school, researching his shells and giving tours. Area youngsters on field trips were among the visitors, and each student received one of Mac’s duplicate shells to take home.
Mac passed away in 1986, actively working with his collection until his final two months. He’d be pleased to know that at the collection’s current home in the historical museum, children still visit on school field trips, and that for the last four years they’ve each taken home a shell, thanks to two hunters from Washington.
FYI:
Powder River Historical Museum & Mac’s Museum, 102 W. Wilson, Broadus, 436-2977, Memorial Day to September 30, Monday — Saturday.