566 - The Post

July 4th, 1968 marked the grand opening of the Great Plains Museum. The Old West-style false-fronted facility, owned and operated by the Beck brothers John, Michael, and Jim, housed an impressive collection of antique cars, historic and pre-historic artifacts, and a pioneer village complete with reconstructed blacksmith and barber shops. To create an old-timey atmosphere and engage visitors in a memorable experience, the Becks bought up several historic structures and relocated them to the lot behind the museum building. Those structures still stand today, though the facility–now “The Post”--is no longer a museum.

The most notable among the small collection of buildings is the O’Brien house, a two-story log cabin built from cottonwoods harvested on the Missouri River bottoms. The house originally belonged to Irish immigrant farmers Matthew and Alice O’Brien and their children. The family had moved from Portland, Maine to Rosebud, Minnesota before settling in Bismarck in 1872. For the first few years, they lived in a temporary dwelling but in 1877, they completed construction on this 18-by-20-foot house, considered at the time one of the finest and largest in the community. It stood at the corner of 4th Street and Broadway (formerly known as Meigs Avenue) in Bismarck until, in 1880, Matthew O’Brien sold the downtown lot to the Brown Land Office for $3,000. He had the log house moved to present-day 13th Street and Boulevard, where the O’Briens lived out their days. Alice died in 1912 and Matthew O’Brien died in 1914 at the ripe old age of 98.

For many years, area residents knew the O’Brien House as the oldest building in town. When, in 1971, the owners planned to tear down the nearly 100-year old building, the Becks stepped in and saved it. They carefully dismantled the log building, labeling each log and assessing its structural integrity. It was reassembled at the Great Plains Museum that year, prior to the facility’s grand opening.

The Post is now an events venue owned by the Missouri Valley Heritage Alliance, also known as the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation.