Huntley Project Museum celebrates past and looks to the future

Dignitaries from Yellowstone County and Senator Steve Daines office were present at Huntley Project Museum’s 110th celebration last weekend.
Dignitaries-L to R-Commissioner John Ostlund’s grandson, Commissioner John Ostlund, HP Museum Director Kelli Maxwell, Jenna Pearson McKinney, representative from Senator Steve Daine’s office, Commissioner Denis Pitman (Photo by Brian Biggers )

Originally published in the 6/30/17 print edition of Yellowstone County News.

HUNTLEY PROJECT — About 80 people turned out on Saturday to celebrate both history and progress.

Saturday’s events marked the 110th anniversary of irrigation on the Huntley Project, the transformation and dedication of the Mercantile and opening of the Dassinger Building.

Kelli Maxwell, director of the museum, said nearly 80 people attended. She said the celebration

The museum board of directors received a $10,000 grant from the Daughters of the American Revolution one year ago. With local matching funds and in-kind donations, they set to work renovating a dilapidated building that became a historical display of a traditional general store, or Mercantile.

Trudie Porter Biggers, who wrote the DAR grant, said it is the first grant ever received in Montana but she hopes it is not the last, because so many non-profit organizations deserve the kind of boost the museum got from the large award.

“IT was the very, very first grant I’d ever written,” she said. “We were just blessed” to receive it.

Saturday “was sure an exciting day,” Biggers said, noting the several DAR officers who attended. County Commissioner John Ostlund … Read full story in print edition of YCN newspaper.  

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