On July 11, Steve Stunes began his work as museum director at the Moody County Museum in Flandreau.

Stunes grew up in Artesian, S.D. and currently lives in Madison with his wife of just under one year, Ann.

He obtained his bachelor’s degree in education, with a major in history, from Dakota State University. He also has a master’s degree in U.S history from the University of South Dakota.

Stunes said he first learned about the open position from an ad in the Madison Daily Leader newspaper.

“I’ve never had a job that I could work in something directly related to history, which I spent six years in college learning,” Stunes said. “Having a job that directly relates to my major interest sounded really intriguing.”

Previously, Stunes worked at Inter-Lakes Community Action Partnership in Madison for 22 years as the director of planning, where he helped with program planning, design and grant writing.

For about the last year and a half, he was doing some consulting work, but wanted something more consistent.

As the museum director, Stunes will maintain records and membership of the museum, manage the museum and historical society property, handle exhibits and work with the museum board, which he said has been a highlight so far.

“The board of directors is wonderful,” Stunes said. “They’re a great group of volunteers, that’s been a high spot.”

An interesting project he has coming up is placing a donated claim shanty onto the museum property and preparing the building for people to tour.

Moving forward, now that school has started, Stunes said he’s hoping to see some kids and classes tour the museum and the other historical society buildings.

Between Stunes and his wife, they have three grown children. His son lives in Bellevue, Wash. while Ann’s daughter lives in Lansing, Mich. and her son in Austin, Texas.

In the middle of September, the pair will travel to England for 10 days for their honeymoon.

“That will be fun,” Stunes said. “Neither of us has ever been out of the country before.”

They will go on a tour called the English Murder Mystery Tour where they will see a Sherlock Holmes museum, possibly an Agatha Christie museum and several set locations of different British murder mysteries on Netflix.

Stunes replaces Ginger Gaylor who resigned earlier this summer after accepting a position at Dakota State University in Madison.