HELENA – The Montana Historical Society Board of Trustees has overcome a turf battle between delegates of Butte and Helena involving the location of two museums.
At the board’s quarterly meeting on Friday, participants agreed that Butte will get a museum of mining and reclamation, and that Helena will get the new Montana Heritage Center.
The deal worked out requires the Helena delegation to help Butte make its case for using natural resource damage funds to build the mining and reclamation museum.
The Butte delegation in return will help gain bipartisan support among Montana lawmakers to approve millions in bonding for the Montana Heritage Center.
“We’re very excited about this,” said Jim Murry of Clancy, the chairman of the board of trustees. “We can get going with a long-delayed plan and an official fundraising effort for a new museum here (in Helena).”
The board and delegates from the two cities have pledged to begin fundraising efforts for their respective projects.
“I feel strongly that both of our projects can move forward and move forward together,” Sen. Steve Gallus, D-Butte, said at Friday’s meeting. “I pledge my support to you and your (Helena) delegation in the bonding bill that’s forthcoming.”
Plans for the mining museum are in the early phases and the cost has not been determined, but fundraising efforts have started.
“We’ve identified some private dollars that are serious in giving — they’re on board,” said Ron Ueland of Butte’s museum delegation. “I think there’s a complementary strategy here that needs to be played out. We don’t want to undermine anything you folks are doing in Helena. We have to synergize off of each other. We want to take the high road, and we want to take it together.”