'Doc' Hubbard gets his day

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MEDORA — Medora will commemorate the life and achievements of Ralph “Doc” Hubbard Sunday when the town renames a street after him and the City Council officially proclaimed July 11 “Doc” Hubbard Day during its Monday meeting.

Medora officials have already named a street after Hubbard but city officials will rename South Third Street as “Doc Hubbard Drive” during a ribbon cutting and street dedication ceremony at noon at the Harold Schafer Auditorium in the Medora Community Center, according to a press release.

Mayor Doug Ellison asked the Medora City Council at a Monday meeting to pass a resolution proclaiming July 11 as “Doc” Hubbard Day. Ellison sees Hubbard as “a local touchstone for many of the major events of the 20th Century.” And council members agreed.

Hubbard, who died in Medora in 1980, was the creator and director of Medora’s Gold Seal Nature and Wildlife Museum, which housed an extensive collection of Indian artifacts, according to a press release. There is also a 1979 book about his life, “A Man as Big as the West.”

Born into a wealthy publishing family in 1886 Ralph “Doc” Hubbard paired the advantages of fine schooling with rugged living earning the name “Sagebrush Socrates.” As a 17-year-old, Hubbard visited Medora for the first time in 1902.

In 1910 he homesteaded in Montana and drew on his Mohawk roots to learn as much as he could about Indian culture and customs. After serving in the U.S. Cavalry during World War I he became active in the Boy Scouts.

Hubbard’s section in the 1927 Boy Scout manual “American Indian Craft,” introduced millions to the art of constructing and creating native art. Hubbard organized and led a group of young Native Americans to travel to reservations and demonstrate Indian dancing and singing as part of Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933, according to a press release.

Hubbard also created a museum at the Wounded Knee Reservation in South Dakota.

“Hubbard’s importance to Medora and the preservation of the West has been overlooked in comparison to the popularized historical figures that are familiar to visitors of Medora,” said Billings County Museum Director Leona Odermann,

The event is open the public. For information, contact the Medora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau at 701-623-4829 or bcm@midstate.net.

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