Date:        February 4, 2025, 6 p.m.
Location: Great Falls Public Library, Cordingly Room, 301 2nd Ave North, Great Falls, MT
 
“BENEATH THE MEDICINE LINE: A NORTHERN MONTANA HISTORY BEFORE 1889” WITH AUSTIN HANEY
Journey back in time to discover some of Montana’s lesser-known tales and the people who made them possible. Though often overlooked in the retelling of our state’s history, Montana’s Northern frontier is a place rich with stories and a colorful cast of characters to go along with them.
 
From people navigating fast-changing worlds known since time-immemorial, newcomers pushing boundaries, and then setting those boundaries in stone, the diverse people that shaped Northern Montana have left a sometimes-complicated legacy, but one worth remembering today.
 
The purpose of this presentation is to present a broad look at the span of time and place in Montana History, with the intent to spark interest and curiosity in learning more.  The event will also include a brief update of BSCNHA’s accomplishments and the election of the Board of Directors.
 
Funding for this program “Montana Conversations,” is provided by Humanities Montana through grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Montana’s Cultural Trust, and private donations. Humanities Montana is funded in part by coal severance taxes paid which is based upon coal mined in Montana and deposited in Montana’s cultural and aesthetic projects trust fund. For more information, please call Mark Good, 406-799-5298.

This year was again very exciting in terms of area activities! Because of your financial support, we were able to work on the following projects fitting our mission:

• We made a Ken Burns-style documentary, The Spirit of the People: Black Eagle and the Anaconda Company. Richard Sloan, the last manager of the Anaconda Copper Smelter in Black Eagle, provided the oral history of his work, and then identified 350+ now digitized photos of work at the Smelter. He identified each photo, and we created an index of the people identified in the photos.

Sloan shared the long history of the Anaconda Mining Company, the back-breaking jobs that converted the molten metal into zinc ingots and copper wire. He noted that the wire from the smelter literally helped wire the world and helped the United States win the two World Wars because of its production levels.

The movie, produced by Erin Schermele Films, was well-received with over 230 people attending both showings at the The History Museum and the Black Eagle Community Center, in conjunction with the Black Eagle Civic Club. We plan to show it again in January 2025.


Housed at the The History Museum, the raw interview footage of the six hours of interviews, a transcription of the interviews, the name and photo index, and the actual photos are available for researchers and others to use. We will be making these available online for researchers nationwide. We have also had multiple requests to help others create their own film about subjects of interest.

• We were one of the sponsors of the Montana History Conference held this summer, which drew over 350 people from around the region to Great Falls and Fort Benton. We hosted a session titled Preservation and Politics with a panel of speakers, including the executive director of the Cache la Poudre NHA, the National Park Service Heritage Partnerships Program Manager, and the former Historic Preservation Officer. The speakers were able to offer a better understanding of what NHAs do and how they contribute to the social and economic well-being of communities.
• We are also coordinating an effort to improve signage for four area National Historic Landmarks (NHLs)-- the C.M. Russell studio and home, the First Peoples Buffalo Jump, the Fort Benton Historic District, and the Lewis and Clark Portage Route. We are asking the Dept. of Transportation to adopt the kind of distinctive signs used with other NHLs across the nation to help increase awareness and draw visitors to these landmarks.

With your help, we can continue our efforts toward national designation and other worthy projects. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to the BSCNHA, knowing that it will be put to positive use and strengthen our efforts to become Montana’s first national heritage area, bringing people together who wish to honor and celebrate our rich culture and share our unique history.

Each year, the community comes together through Give Great Falls to support the wonderful nonprofits in Great Falls that make such an amazing difference.  The Big Sky Country National Heritage Area will again this year be participating, hoping to raise money to support our ongoing efforts to tell all the stories of Central Montana.  Please consider donating!

Accomplishments
In the last two years, BSCNHA has supported 12 projects throughout Central Montana, in Black Eagle, Fort Shaw, Neihart, Fort Benton, and Great Falls. They supported 5 projects in 2022, for a total of $5,000. In 2023, they supported 7, for a total of $26,500.

Background on Heritage Areas
Congress designates NHAs as places where natural, cultural, and historic resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally important landscape. Consequently, National Heritage Area entities collaborate with communities to determine how to make heritage relevant to local interests and needs.
 
In 1984, the first National Heritage Area, the Illinois, and Michigan Canal National Heritage Area, was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. In his dedication speech, Reagan referred to National Heritage Areas as "a new kind of national park" that married heritage conservation, recreation, and economic development. As of 2023, 62 National Heritage Areas are designated. Heritage Areas have a proven track record of creating jobs, generating revenue for local governments, and revitalizing and sustaining local communities. For example, Senator Mitch McConnell is currently working to establish an NHA in Kentucky.  Remember to donate today!

The Boston and Montana Barn was built in 1901 to house wagons, horses, and construction equipment for the Boston and Montana Company, which pre-dated the Anaconda Copper Mining Company's smelting and refining operations in Black Eagle, MT.  Construction of the "Big" stack began in 1908, and by 1915, the properties of the Boston and Montana Company were acquired by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company.

The barn is a two-story, wood-framed, gable-roofed structure built in a T-plan oriented north-south on the south end of the Anaconda Hills golf course. The barn has a sandstone foundation and is situated on a small rise that slopes down to the east and the south. It is the only remaining industrial building on the former 405 acre ACM site.

The barn has served a variety of industrial support uses over its approximately 120 year history.  For an unknown period of time, it served as a fire station for the ACM facility.  Three finished bedrooms lined the northwest wall of the rear (west) wing, which housed the firemen.  According to the Sanborn map, the rear wing was protected by an automatic sprinkler system.  According to oral reports, firemen and others liked to play basketball on the second floor east wing. They removed the structural supports in order to have a clear-span, weakening the structural system.

Based on Sanborn maps, the barn was being used for automobiles and storage in 1929 and in 1950 the second floor had a gymnasium, while the first floor was still sued for storage and automobiles.  The City of Great Falls Parks and Recreation Department used the barn until it became too dilapidated; it was used for golf card and other storage to support recreational needs.

Today, the barn stands unused.  Each year the roof keeps out less and less of the winter weather, and each year the hop of saving some piece of its proud industrial beginnings grows smaller. If this piece of ACM history is to be saved, urgent action needed to be taken.

This past year the Big Sky Country NHA served the residents of Cascade County and a portion of Chouteau County by providing them with grants and supporting their work. Of course, we couldn't do it without your ongoing support!  Please review our Year End Letter and consider donating today. You can donate online at www.bigskycountrynha.org/donate or click on this QR code:

Documenting the history of Black Eagle is critical, so when the BSCNHA learned that Dick Sloan, the last operations director for the Smelter had digital copies of photos from an old Smelter scrapbook - plus more from his personal collection - we asked Sloan if we could take his oral history.

He readily agreed, and has now given an extensive oral history of the closing of the smelter. He has also identified and cataloged the photographs from the scrapbook and those photos he has.  These photos show the hardworking workers and the history of the Black Eagle smelting and refining operations.

We have since learned that the former River's Edge Trail Manager Doug Wicks gave the original scrapbook to The History Museum, so we have now identified those photos.





Sloan is now employed by the MT Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and works closely with the Black Eagle Civic Club's Technical Advisory Group, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ARCO, and many other stakeholders to determine what ARCO needs to do to cleanup the Black Eagle Residential yards and eventually the smelter site itself.

The unedited film of Sloan's oral history will be given to the Cascade County Historical Society. We will work with Erin Schermele Films to provide a short (approximately 1 hour) film using highlights from each interview.  Judy Ellinghausen, an archivist at the Cascade County Historical Society (dba The History Museum) is transcribing the interviews and creating a keyword index for researchers.

When the video is completed, the BSCNHA hopes to have Sloan discuss the work at The History Museum at one of their Second Saturday series.  We will donate the video, transcription, archival digital photos, and raw interview footage to The History Museum. The BSCNHA thanks The History Museum for their support, providing museum space for the interview sessions and allowing us to use their transcription equipment.

Are you working on a project or program that could use a grant of $500 to $1000? The BSCNHA still has some funding from the Project Partner Fund!  If your organization is interested in applying, contact us to see if your project fits within the funding guidelines.  We hope to get the remaining funding deployed by May 1, 2022, so apply soon.  Contact us through our online form.

It has come to our attention that opponents of the Big Sky Country National Heritage Area are receiving unsigned letters attacking them.  These letters are sent without return addresses, from people outside of Montana.  These letters contain abusive and otherwise inappropriate language. 

Big Sky Country National Heritage Area does not in any way, shape or form solicit, encourage or support any of these communications.  Furthermore, we totally disavow these communications, as well as any attempts to disparage our opposition in this manner.  Likewise, we also reject any effort by our opponents to attribute these letters and postings to our organization.