The Huntley Project Museum, which has shared the richness of Montana history for decades, is still in need of the public's help.
One month ago, a wind and hail storm ripped through the region, damaging the museum, with its 18 homestead buildings and more than 5,000 artifacts.
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The Treasure State landmark is now back open, but a lot of work must be done to realize it's original beauty.
“We had two weeks where we were basically shut down so we could make it safe,” said Neal Gunnels, the museum’s executive director.
The museum just reopened two weeks ago.
Gunnel says the museum had really just recovered from a 2019 hail storm.
“It took us three or four years to even get back to normal,” Gunnels said as he laughed about what normal meant. “Normal So we were there and then the storm kind of set us back to square one again.”
There is lots of damage here on the museum grounds and they are not going to get any help with insurance on any of this.
“We had to search and search to find insurance and we finally found one that would cover just the main building,” Gunnels said. “But basically, it didn't cover theft and it doesn't cover wind and hail.”
In 2019, insurance paid about $400,000 and that's about the amount Gunnels estimates it will take this time for repairs with a focus on about $120,000 for the main building.
They still want to preserve the buildings and that helps take care of everything on the inside as well.
He does say some buildings will not be repaired.
“Just beyond repair this time,” Gunnels said as he pointed to a building on the other side of the irrigation ditch.“The sides are torn out. The roof is gone, basically.”
But he wants to repair as much as possible to keep the artifacts inside protected.
“It's tremendously important,” Gunnels said about preservation.“That's our mission. If we don't do it, I don't know if anyone else will. We need to show our kids where they came from with this, why this is here, why this Huntley Project is here.”
They have raised some money from local donations and will also seek out grants to pay for the repairs,
“Something that we definitely need to preserve and protect for our future generations,” Gunnels said.
Information can be found on the museum's website and Facebook page.
