GREAT FALLS — After months of being off campus, the History Museum in Great Falls was able to bring back their Second Saturday program in-house this weekend.
“It’s so awesome, we love having our Second Saturdays,” said Kristi Scott, director of the Cascade County Historical Society. “This summer we went out to Belt and to Fort Shaw, we even did a downtown tour, but there’s nothing like being home.”
Construction on the second floor of the museum meant that numerous artifacts had to be relocated.
To keep them secure, they were kept in the Ozark Club room, where they host the Second Saturday events.
Four months later, the construction is nearing completion, and Scott could not be happier.
“We were able to clean out the room and welcome back a Second Saturday program,” Scott said.
Saturday’s event was a full house for the premier of the new film “Spirit of the People,” which discusses the history of the Black Eagle Smelter.
The film features an oral history from Dick Sloan, the last operations manager of the smelter.
“I think the real key here is emphasizing the history of this facility, starting from about 1890,” Sloan said.
The film could not exist without the History Museum, Big Sky National Heritage Area, and Erin Schermele Films.
“And this is one of those projects where primary materials were brought to the Museum and research was done,” Scott said.
The primary material in question? A scrapbook full of photos from the smelter.
“Turns out [photos] were from a scrapbook that the History Museum did not realize they had,” said Carol Bronson, a board member for the Big Sky Country National Heritage Area.
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Bronson assures that the source material will be available to the public at the Museum.
“If people are interested in learning about the original scrapbook, they need to contact the History Museum and come use their new visible vault,” Bronson said (details).
The opening of the new research center and visible vault will be the History Museum’s Second Saturday event on September 14th.
A more in depth look at the film can be found here, and if you missed the viewing of the film at the History Museum, you can still catch the film at the Black Eagle Community Center on October 2nd.
The History Museum is at 422 Second Street South. For more information, call 406-452-3462, or click here to visit the website.
