Shane Engeland

Prairie Village Museum’s new executive director geared up for a busy season even before his official start date on April 1.

Shane Engeland grew up near the spot where his great-grandfather built a sod house on land he homesteaded near Barton. Engeland brings a love of history and deep roots to his new job.

After attending schools in Rugby and Towner, Engleand earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Minot State University. He’s now enrolled at North Dakota State University where he’s studying for his master’s degree. Engeland teaches online social studies classes at the Center for Distance Communication in Fargo.

“It was traditionally a mail order school, so kids in Alaska would get an envelope full of books,” he said. “Now that it’s all online, they employ a few adjunct teachers so, I do that in my spare time more or less.”

Engeland said he had worked in rural schools “before COVID hit.” Since then, he has taught in the distance education program while taking online classes for his master’s degree, and he’s still found the time to restore an old farmhouse on his family’s land near Barton.

“Once this position opened up, I figured that was more or less what my degree at NDSU is in, so I might as well try it,” Engeland said, adding his thesis will focus on “public memory and the digital aspect of history.”

Using digital media to interpret the history of the Pierce County area would not only attract students from area schools, “It’s what kids are used to,” Engeland said. The digital ways of interpretation would aid students in learning history as well.

“One thing I’d really like to do is make it an augmented experience,” he said of museum visits. “With virtual reality, that’s really taking over your vision and showing you something. Augmented reality is where you use that connection to amplify your experience.”

Engeland said one way that museums give its visitors an “augmented experience” is through audio tours.

“What I’m doing for my thesis is building a podcast,” he said. “So, I’ve been mulling over the idea of something along those lines (for the museum) and also expanding the presence of the museum through a digital tour or something like that.”

Engeland said his plans were in the idea stage and would develop after he discussed them with the museum’s board.

“It’ll be a fun experience I think,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

Engeland said the opportunity to bring the museum’s focus to history appealed to him as well.

“It doesn’t seem typical for a museum director to have majored in history,” he said, adding he had noticed most museum directors came from business backgrounds.

“I want to focus on bringing history, the importance of history, and what it means for the community, such as the railroads, things like the Homestead Act, the Native American population before it was a town,” Engeland said.

“If you’ve driven east on Highway 2, there used to be a rest area near a lake,” he noted. “I’d never thought about it, but doing a little research, I found out it’s called Broken Bone Lake because Native Americans would herd bison over the edge of those steep hills.

“People don’t think about that – just over there is a little bit of history that goes unseen just down the road,” Engeland added.

“My great-grandfather got off the train in Barton and homesteaded,” he said. “So, I got to grow up surrounded by my own family history and a lot of people don’t get that. This museum can provide that for them.”