Historic butterfly collection at Budding Rose

A portion of an historic butterfly collection will be on display at the Budding Rose Gallery in Rosalia during the fall festival Saturday. The collection derives from a stretch of the Columbia River which was once a major center of Northwest butterfly studies.

Jim Nebel’s link with the collection dates back to his boyhood days when he resided at Pateros with his maternal grandparents while his dad served in World War II.

Nebel became acquainted with Andrew and Alma Anderson, who lived across the street from his grandparents. Mr. Anderson was a well-known collector of butterflies which thrived on milkweed habitat where the Methow River flowed into the Columbia.

Nebel and Anderson shared an interest in butterflies and in 1961, Mr. Anderson, faced with relocating his home because of an approaching dam development, donated his entire butterfly collection to Nebel. In 1965, Nebel loaded up the collection of 61 butterfly display cases and took them to Belt, Mont. At that time the collection was the second largest in the state of Washington.

Nineteen years later, Nebel decided to donate the collection to WSU’s Department of Entomology which added 45 cases of the Anderson collection to WSU’s Janes Collection.

Saturday, the remaining cases of the Anderson collection, plus some of the 500 specimens which Nebel added while in central Montana, will be on display at the Nebels’ Budding Rose Gallery from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.