Senior Staff Writer

"What we have is a lifetime of the history of the Williston, both in written documents and in pictures. I doubt there is any community in the country that has anything like it," said Dr. Dean Strinden. He is referring to the Bill Shemorry Photo Collection. Strinden is a life-long friend of the multi-faceted journalist who is a story in of himself.

About 2,150 of Shemorry's estimated 35,000-picture collection goes up for display Monday at the Williston State College Library, thanks to multiple entities pooling their resources and funding. The collection spans some seven decades of history through his eyes and camera lens of this journalist, and before. In the late journalist's honor, the Williston Area Chamber of Commerce, along with Williston State College Foundation, will be hosting the Bill Shemorry Family 10 a.m. March 10 as the as special collection goes on-line. Lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. in WSC's Green Room. Invitations were sent. Those attending should RSVP at 572-9275.

Part of Shemorry's collection was categorized through the North Dakota Historical Society by intern Emily Eagen, a student at the University of North Dakota. It was her task to sort through thousands of photos, involving decades of work and photos collected by Shemorry.

"What you are going to see there are some discs where the public can go and access part of the collection," Strinden explained. "The portion of the collection sorted is intended for public use be able to access the photos for research and enjoyment. People will index it. It will be amazing. "It's going to be a living memorial to Bill," he continued. "There will be a computer specifically set up for the collection. Miss Eagan was able to put on a couple hundred pages of documents on discs."

Work will continue this summer on the remaining portion of the collection.

Shemorry is credited with working in the newspaper industry for 66 years. Born in 1914, Shemorry became personally acquainted with pioneers who started Williston which inspired many photographs, stories and books. Strinden said journalism appeared to be in Shemorry's blood in the very beginning. Shemorry was one of this city's first paper boys.

"He was interested in history. He was interested in the community. He was interested in people. He saved everything," Strinden related.

According to Strinden, Shemorry never left his hometown with the exception of going off to college and to serve in the Army.

In World War II, Shemorry was assigned as an Army photographer, shooting pictures of the construction of the Burma Road, the Allied Supply Line that connected China to India. His shutter also captured the first raid of U.S. B-29 bombers on the Japanese mainland.

He worked for the Farmers Press and Press Graphic. He served as managing editor of the Williston Press Graphic when the Clarence Iverson discovery oil well came in.

In his hip boots in cold water, Shemorry is famous for capturing historical Clarence Iverson Discovery Well on April 4, 1951, near Tioga, launching the dawn of North Dakota's oil history. Strinden said Amerada Hess purchased the rights to the photograph. It has been republished and reprinted many times, epitomizing how oil opened a whole new era here.

Shemorry and his first wife Corrinne founded the Plains Reporter in 1953 and continued in its publication until it was sold in 1978 to the Williston Herald.

In 1980, he married his second wife, Glo Mahar, and together, they spent many hours collecting and conserving the history of the region.

Bill Shemorry published multiple historically based books (with photos) about the region, including the "Lost Tales of Williston," "More Lost Tales," and "Mud, Sweat & Oil, the Early Days of Williston."

In his later years, he continued writing colorful historical columns that piqued the interest of many.

Health issues forced him to end his weekly feature for the Williston Herald in 2002. He passed away in May of 2004.

"Friends of Bill's got together to save his collection. He wanted the photographs available for the people of Williston. Mrs. (Glo) Shemorry decided the collection would be given to the Williston State College Foundation, and it would be kept forever for the community," Strinden said. "I interested the North Dakota State Historical Society archivist - Jerry Newborg. He came up and he looked over the collection in the Shemorry house. They were in the basement, in boxes and in piles."

Temporary storage was initially found in a room at Williston State College in a room determined suitable for storage of historical material. Photographs deemed fragile and in need of immediate care were tended to first. That material was transported to Bismarck and being stored in the Historical Records Building of the Heritage Center. It is designated as the Bill Shemorry Collection.

Funding to implement the project came from North Star Caviar, from Williston State College Foundation and the State Historical Society.

He hopes funding will continue to allow the classification of the photographs and material to continue so the whole collection can be available to the public.

Strinden said he is pleased with how things have fallen into place for the Shemorry photograph collection.

"We have had access to expertise for what it takes to work with historical documents," Strinden said. "We don't have the storage place here to properly store things. The State Historical Society people have agreed to be a part of this. It just couldn't be better."