Great Falls in Cascade County, Montana — The American West (Mountains)

Cowboys Bar and Museum

Great Falls West Bank Historic District

Photographed by Barry Swackhamer, August 19, 2019

1. Cowboys Bar and Museum Marker

Inscription. Former Great Falls “cowhands” held a reunion in 1938. Now grown men, as boys they had earned money herding local milk cows in and out of town each day or driving range cattle through the city streets. Membership soon expanded beyond Great Falls, and over 300 former cowboys attended the Montana Cowboys Association’s second annual reunion banquet in 1939. Association President Bill Shea donated the land for a meeting hall and museum dedicated to preserving memories of cowboy life. The Cowboys worked with the National Youth Association (NYA) to build the museum, completed in 1941. A New Deal program designed to provide work for youth between sixteen and twenty-five, the NYA intentionally adopted labor intensive designs and techniques to maximize employment. The result was a well-crafted stone and log building, whose Rustic style evoked the museum’s intention of glorifying the Old West. Later additions expanded the facility, which houses a bar, noted for its cowboy hospitality, and a museum of over 500 artifacts—from rifles and saddles to a Kimball-Reed organ, brought to Montana by steamboat in 1876.

Erected by The

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Montana National Register Sign Program.

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Education • Entertainment. In addition, it is included in the Montana National Register Sign Program series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1938.

Location. 47° 30.654′ N, 111° 18.989′ W. Marker is in Great Falls, Montana, in Cascade County. It is on 3rd Street Northwest near 4th Avenue Northwest, on the right when traveling north. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 311 3rd Street Northwest, Great Falls MT 59404, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in andspecifically entral Montana in Russell Country. It is also in the American Mountain West

and in the Lewis & Clark Corridor.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Rocky Mountains,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once Rupert’s Land

and also the Louisiana Purchase.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Great Falls West Bank Historic District (a few steps

Cowboys Bar and Museum and Marker image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Barry Swackhamer, August 19, 2019

2. Cowboys Bar and Museum and Marker

from this marker); William & Isabel Shea House (within shouting distance of this marker); Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Depot (approx. half a mile away); Boyd House (approx. 0.6 miles away); Northside Residential Historic District (approx. 0.6 miles away); T.E. Collins Mansion (approx. 0.6 miles away); Great Falls Civic Center (approx. 0.6 miles away); New Park Hotel (approx. 0.6 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Great Falls.

Photographed by Barry Swackhamer

3. Cowboys Bar and Museum and Marker

Not much of a museum but the bar is something else.

Credits. This page was last revised on December 22, 2019. It was originally submitted on December 19, 2019, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California. This page has been viewed 384 times since then and 31 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on December 19, 2019, by Barry Swackhamer of Brentwood, California.