The Greater Bonney Lake Historical Society has found itself in the desirable but unexpected position of curator to a small historical fortune.

The executor to the estate of Alfred and Elma Milotte, a documentary filmmaking power couple from Bonney Lake’s early history, has given the historical society possession of more than 60 boxes of the couple’s personal possessions and records.

The Milottes were nature documentarians who produced films for Walt Disney Studios. Their projects ranged in subject matter from the Yup’ik Eskimo tribe to the lions of the African plains. Many of their documentaries required years of filming before completion. The couple lived on an estate in what is now the Sky Island neighborhood of Bonney Lake.

The historical society came into possession of the materials in the process of organizing a film festival for nature documentaries.

“The executor was somebody I had contacted when I was doing research for my book on early Bonney Lake history,” Wynona Jacobsen said. “Over the course of time, I learned more about the Milottes, this couple who lived in Bonney Lake, worked with Walt Disney and had this amazing impact on documentary films. Yet most Bonney Lake people today probably wouldn’t recognize the name.”

The historical society set out to educate the public about the Milottes. One idea was to establish a genre film festival in their names.

Jacobsen contacted the estate executor for permission to use the family name, and he mentioned he would like to donate some of the personal effects he had been keeping in storage.

“There are lots and lots of documents, diaries, lecture notes,” Jacobsen said. “They had some genealogical things. They were both prolific notetakers.”

Also included are photographs, 16 mm films, souvenir masks and statuettes from travels, and family Bibles. There are also the more mundane items, like back issues of their magazine subscriptions.

“We’re still in the process of sorting through things,” Jacobsen said.

The Washington State History Museum, the City of Ketchikan, Alaska’s Tongass Historical Museum, and the Alaskan Department of Education & Early Development have all tendered advice to the historical society regarding cataloguing procedure. The Alaskan agencies wrote letters of support for the society’s project, addressed to the City of Bonney Lake.

As much as the Milotte collection is a find of historical value, the sheer number of items have also proven to be a challenge for the historical society to overcome: a challenge of space, a challenge of labor hours, and a challenge of proper preservation of aging and unmaintained paper items.

For the time being, the City of Bonney Lake is allowing storage of the unsorted items in an unfinished room of the Justice Center. But, as Jacobsen pointed out the room is unlit — windows notwithstanding — and lacking in climate controls vital for the onset of the cold and damp season.

“The city has indicated they would welcome a permanent display for the Milottes,” she said. “What we are actually hoping for is to find a permanent location for the important items in the collection. A place for people to come and research this couple’s lives and work.”

To that end, the historical society has applied for a Pierce County Historical Preservation grant. The society hopes to bring in at least $5,000 to complete the archival process.

If that cannot be done, and no other options pan out, the society may donate its collection to an established museum.