I've been on a mission this week to visit each of the 4 country museums. On Tuesday I spent some time at the Yellowstone County Museum which is up on the rims adjacent to the airport. The artifacts are rich and the didactic panels provide plenty of context.
On Wednesday I visited the Western Heritage Center. While they have a new exhibition on the hosiery of beer in Billings, I was really interested in the Ben Steele exhibition as I had just finished reading "Tears in the Darkness," the history of the Bataan Death march and Ben Steele experiences in it. The display features lots of his original drawing and paintings. After the war he pursued an art career and taught at Eastern Montana College, now MSU-Billings.
On Tuesday I went to the Yellowstone Art Museum to participate in the Write-Along session. I think this was the 7th or 8th one I have gone to this year. We write about some aspect of Kent Monkman's "Death of Adonis." Afterwards I stuck around for the artist talk by Sean Chandler.
So, today I had one museum left to check out and it was a beautiful day to ride the 20 miles to the Huntley Project Museum. The ride was glorious in that it was reasonably warm out, no wind, and light traffic.
I arrived at 1:45 pm and park the bike just outside the main gate.
I went through the main building which had all sorts of artifacts from the homesteading period and after, everything from ribbons awarded at fairs to a player piano to objects related to the train that traveled nearby. The next room had information about sugar beets, local veterans, and more artifacts from the Homelife back then.
There are a half dozen or so out buildings, all moved to this site from Worden, Ballantine, or Pompey's Pillar. All were open to inspect and I went into a homesteaders home, a bank, a doctor's office, a general store and several others. At the other end of the property is a one room school house. All are well-preserved and show the dedication that local residents have for their history. Here are some random photos from my visit.
The ride home was uneventful and quite pleasant. Before heading back I went up the road a bit and di a tour through Worden.
I turned back onto Hwy 312 and went a bit faster than the train on the left.
It was a good day to be out.
It was a 59 mile day.
