Location & Hours

facebook dark 30   youtube round 30   Instagram

sign bonner milltown history center museumThanks to your generous donations and the efforts of Andy Lukes who spearheaded the sign project, Daren Wicks and Brian Martin of Hellgate Forge who fabricated the mounting hardware, and Mike Heisey and Marla Frick who hung the sign, we have an eyecatching and welcoming invitation for passersby to stop by for a visit! Thanks to all!

grant provides new technology tvBMHC recently installed a flat screen TV and DVD-VHS player and converter thanks to a generous grant from Preserving Missoula County's History. The new equipment enables us to show programs at the Center, including Roundtables, Timberjack, and a recently produced video on cooking with a Dutch oven by the Hooligan Glenn Max Smith.

PastPerfect museum software logoIn the ten years since the Bonner Milltown History Center organized, oral histories, hundreds of articles, and thousands of photos have been donated. Keeping track of collections is a major responsibility of any museum and, over the years, BMHC has worked closely with both the University of Montana Archives and Special Collections department and the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula to ensure our recording methods are done appropriately.
 
Thanks to a Preserving Missoula County's History grant to purchase PastPerfect Museum Software, the task of collections recording will truly be up to professional standards. PastPerfect Museum Software is an application for collections archiving designed for museums. The cost of the software was over our budget, but now we will have the means of recording our collection and the ability to pair a photograph with each item. Once this step is accomplished, our dream making our collections available online and through the Montana Memory Project can be realized. Minie Smith and Judy Matson will head up the project to transfer our current entries and add the oral history and photo entries into the new software, a project which is estimated to take two years of volunteer time.

Bridge Endcap Design 1Three designs to decorate the endcaps on the new I-90 bridges are out for public vote. Which do you like?  Option 2: the bull trout, teepee, and saw teeth; or Option 3: bull trout, river and mountains, and saw teeth. A final decision won't be made until the deadline approaches for ordering the endcaps. The I-90 bridge project is slated to be completed in 2019. Send your vote to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or via the MDT hotline, 406-207-4484. 

Read the Missoulian story.

 

 

 

Option 1: the Confluence logo CanoeRiversLumberjackFish

 

 

 

 

 

TeepeesFishOption 2: the bull trout, teepee, and saw teeth

 

 

 

 

 

TwoFishOption 3: bull trout, river and mountains, and saw teeth

 

 

Milwaukee SwitchDennis Sain installed this Milwaukee switch behind the Bonner Milltown History Center and Museum on Wednesday, July 18, 2018. The switch was used to direct traffic over the Milwaukee trestle in the mill yard. This switch was on the highway side of the trestle. Thanks, Dennis, for providing this memory!

donations 2016 1000We continue to be lucky at the Center once again as we have received many gifts pertaining to Bonner-Milltown's past as well as donations of dollars which make it possible to continue operation. Chief among these is the donation of space and utilities from Bonner Property Development LLC, aka Mike Boehme and Steve Nelson. Reading this extensive list you can easily see the great variety of items that have come to the Center. We are grateful for all these gifts and hope that readers will continue to share more items with us.

books grass roots life at the confluenceA Grass Roots Tribute and Stories of the Confluence are available at the Bonner Milltown History Center.

Copies of A Grass Roots Tribute: The Story of Bonner, Montana are available for $20 at the River City Grill, Bonner School, and the Bonner Milltown History Center and Museum. All proceeds go to the Bonner School History Project to fund an update of the current history book. Need one mailed? Send a check for $27 to Bonner Milltown History Center, PO Box 726, Bonner MT 59823. Include the address of where you want the book sent. We will mail your book and remit $20 to Bonner School.

Life at the Confluence: Riverside Stories by Sam Berry is an oral history and art collaboration describing the Bonner-Milltown area. Featured are Lois Johnson, Richard Hamma, Chuck Teague, Jack Demmons, and Grant Higgins. Copies are $6.00 if purchased at the Bonner Milltown History Center and Museum (BMHC). Preview the book.

Need one mailed? Send a check for $8.50 to Bonner Milltown History Center, PO Box 726, Bonner MT 59823. Include the address of where you want the book sent. We will mail your book. All sales benefit the BMHC.

Group at summit WebWalking on the Road to the Buffalo links us to the area's rich history. Norman Jacobson led eleven intrepid modern explorers on a hike to and on the Road to the Buffalo traversed by Meriwether Lewis, eight members of the Corps of Discovery and 17 horses on July 5, 1806

Dennis Sain presented "The History of the Big Blackfoot Railroad" on Sunday, October 26, at the annual meeting of the Seeley Lake Historical Society.

Bonner Milltown History Center • 9397 Hwy 200 E. • PO Box 726 • Bonner, MT 59823
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Go to top