UPDATE: Sioux Falls City Council passes Brockhouse Collection resolution – Dakota News Now

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The Sioux Falls City Council has voted to pass the resolution on the fate of the Brockhouse Collection.
UPDATE: In a unanimous vote Tuesday night, the council agreed to declare the Brockhouse taxidermy collection “surplus” and authorize gifting it to the University of Notre Dame, Institute for Natural History Arts, Inc. and The Oddities Museum, Inc.
Sioux Falls City Councilors held a press conference on Tuesday morning to discuss the proposed Brockhouse Collection gifting to Notre Dame University before the vote to make the collection surplus.
The Great Plains Zoo announced in August of 2023 that the Delbridge Museum of Natural History, where the Brockhouse Collection was housed, would be closing. Arsenic detection on some of the 152 taxidermy mounts was cited as a reason for the closure.
Despite the efforts of advocacy groups to keep the collection together and in Sioux Falls, an application process led to the recommendation that the majority of the collection would go to the University of Notre Dame with smaller amounts going to institutions in Georgia and New Jersey. The mounts would be gifted, not sold, to the organizations.
The collection of Henry Brockhouse’s rare taxidermy animals was bought by C.J. Delbridge and donated to the city by the Delbridge family. Last week, the Delbridge family gave their blessing for the collection to be moved.
LIVE: Sioux Falls City Councilors discuss the Brockhouse Collection gifting to the University of Notre Dame ahead of the surplus vote tonight.
During the press conference, Northeast District Councilor Miranda Bayse said honoring the gift the city received decades ago is important as the collection is close to her heart.
“I’m a fourth-generation Sioux Falls resident, and so I have some pretty vivid memories of this collection. My sisters and I would go there on cold days like today,” said Councilor Bayse.
Bayse said the best way to honor the collection is to allow its story to continue to be told by allowing the collection to live on where the resources to preserve it are available.
Bayse said she plans to bring an amendment to the resolution before Tuesday night’s vote that would create a Delbridge Wildlife Legacy exhibit at the Great Plains Zoo. The interactive exhibit would honor the Delbridge and Brockhouse family legacies and their contribution to wildlife conservation and education in the community.
“Is it really the animals and the collection and the mounts that mean so much, or is it the story behind it? Is it the memories that I just shared?” said Councilor Bayse.
At-Large Councilor Richard Thomason said he is also in agreement to send the collection elsewhere. He said the interest in the exhibit from visitors at the Great Plains Zoo has decreased over the decades.
“While I understand that there was a lot of history and that there is a lot of history with the collection… it’s just one of those things where the time has come for it to move on,” said Thomason.
Building housing large enough for the collection elsewhere in Sioux Falls proved to be too expensive, and the councilors say the city didn’t receive many calls pledging financial support.
“When you think about what things would cost, there hasn’t been the vocalized investment or donor base to potentially support with an investment like that, not just in front in an appropriate facility, but then in ongoing care,” said Bayse.
Councilor Thomason said during the application process, options that kept large portions of the collection together were favored. The panda taxidermy mount would stay in Sioux Falls, but the rest of the mounts would be relocated to the three selected locations.
City councilors will voted Tuesday night on designating the collection as surplus, which would enable the mounts to be moved.
That was passed unanimously.
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