Public viewing of Holm auction starts Thursday

Event runs Friday, Saturday

MOSES LAKE - In the midst of moving things out of Monte Holm's House of Poverty Museum during the weekend, a family showed up Saturday.

"We couldn't have people in the yard because it's dangerous. We've got lots of things moving," recalled Steve Rimple, Holm's grandson. "They had a couple of little kids and they were standing outside the gate. I saw these two little kids and they were looking at the train. We had to get to a certain point where I just stopped everybody with what they were doing and I said, 'Those kids need to go see the train.'"

Rimple walked the family through the yard to see and touch Holm's locomotive.

"That's probably the hardest part," Rimple said. "I hear a lot of stories about, 'When I was in third grade,' or 'My son went down there.' I think those are really great stories and that's probably the hardest thing. My grandpa always wanted the kids to see the trains."

Holm, a beloved iconic Moses Lake businessman, died in 2006. Citing financial necessity, his family has decided to put the majority of the museum, which is now closed, up for auction.

Public viewing of the items up for bid is Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the Ardell Pavilion at the Grant County Fairgrounds.

The auction begins Friday in the pavilion at 10 a.m., and continues Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. The auction will be online as well. Approximately 1,000 items are available.

"Basically, it was financially difficult on our family," Rimple said in May. "It cost a lot of money to keep the museum open for free. And my grandfather never wanted it to be a burden to anybody. It's become a financially difficult thing to maintain."

Rimple noted at the time Holm had left very clear directions to his grandchildren about what to do with the museum.

Since then, response from the community has been mixed, Rimple said Tuesday.

"I think a lot of people say, 'What do you do? What can you do?'" he said. "Some people are disappointed, some people understand. There's been some negative, but we don't need to talk about that."

Rimple said his family's goal is simply to have a good time.

"We have full trust in the Yarbro family, the auctioneers, that they're going to do a great job," he said. "We're kind of looking forward to seeing people, seeing friends. You know, we have to say good-bye all over again. It's hard for us to do this … We're just kind of hoping everybody has a good time. There's going to be a lot of stories and there's going to be a lot of people. We just really look forward to talking to people."

Even in the midst of moving items out of the museum, Rimple said, people have stopped by, jumped out of their vehicles and ask what they can do to help.

"People we've known, people that my grandpa had known," he said. "It's been a lot of fun moving things just because you look at it and say, 'How are we going to get that out of there?' And these guys are the kind of people to say, 'No problem, we've got it.' And they just do it."

A police escort helped move some heavier items from the museum to the fairgrounds during the weekend.

"I encourage anybody, if you've ever wanted to see my grandfather's museum, you need to go out Thursday," Rimple said. "You'll see it in an area where it's really big and you can see absolutely everything. It's not the same environment, it's not him showing us. The building was always really neat, it's a very classy place, but for people who just wanted to see everything, you'll get a chance because it's really spread out."

The locomotive is not part of the auction.

"We're really hoping the people who are talking to us, we're hoping we can make something happen," Rimple said. "It would mean good things for the train. I don't want to put anybody's name out there because we don't have a deal yet."

Grant County Fairgrounds Manager Bill West said auctioneer Chuck Yarbro Sr. and Rimple contacted the grounds to ask them to house the auction.

"They asked us to be quiet about it, which we did do until after it broke," West said. "In fact, there was very few people around here who even knew anything about it."

For West, the auction is another event for the fairgrounds.

"We knew it was going to draw a lot of people," he said.

Even Holm's family members are getting to see some of the items in a new light.

"Some of those engines, I've never seen the other side of them," Rimple marveled. "Because they've been tucked against a wall or something. It's been really interesting. We've loaded a lot of things out of (the museum)."

For more information, call Chuck Yarbro Auctioneers at 509-765-6869.