Blaine County MT Museum

Established in 1977, our museum is home to Blaine County’s long, storied, and thoroughly western past. From our exhibits to our archives, our institution exists to retell and preserve the legacy of those who have inhabited this land, from the mighty Gorgosaurus who lived nearly 80 million years ago, to the evolving Plains Tribes, to the farmers, ranchers, and businesspeople who created lives for themselves here during the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

Historically, this land was part of the Blackfeet tribe’s hunting territory, and was populated as far as the eye could see with herds of bison. The French Canadian fur trader Pierre Gaultier de Varennes is thought to have been the first Caucasian to visit this area, having explored Montana between 1731 and 1742. Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery would pass through the southern border of Blaine County in 1805. Ranching operations in this area began following the Desert Land Act of 1877.  Settlements for farming and ranching would begin to grow in numbers during the late 1880s, following the construction of the Great Northern Railroad in 1887. Large scale homesteading would begin around 1910.

The Blaine County Museum offers a full exhibit relating to the Bear Paw Battlefield, the site of the last battle of the four-month Nez Perce War of 1877. The battlefield, located 16 miles south of Chinook, is part of the Nez Perce National Park and the Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail. Our exhibit houses displays of artifacts found at the Bear Paw Battlefield, time-period photographs, and the twenty-minute multi-media presentation “Forty Miles from Freedom”. Centered around Lorenzo Ghiglieri’s paintings of the conflict, the presentation recounts the events leading up to the battle and siege of the Bear Paw which ended one of the most remarkable and tragic retreats in this nation’s history.We also provide Bear Paw Battlefield cancellation stamps for the National Park Service’s Passport to Your National Parks® and Bear Paw Battlefield activity books for the National Park Service’s Junior Ranger program.