The MonDak Heritage Center – Sindey, Montana
Come and visit the MonDak Heritage Center where you will be presented with a premier museum and a fabulous art gallery. The mission of the Center is to preserve the regions cultural heritage and to support its artistic development through traditional museums exhibits and art shows. Here you will be able to take a walk back in time as you gaze upon the wide variety of exhibits to familiarize yourself with how life was in the earlier years.
The Center is preserving the artifacts and heritage of the MonDak region (which is 7 counties in eastern Montana as well as part of North Dakota. The Center began in 1967 and has continued to grow since that time.
Visit an early 20th century MonDak Pioneer Town in the basement of the center. Here you can actually walk down the boardwalks, visit the first Post Office in Dore, ND and get some 23 cent gall at the station. Be sure to check out the train schedule to see if you are leaving on time. Although only a fraction of the collections are on display you will get the feel and idea of what it was like in the early 20th century. When the MonDak Heritage Center was built in 1983, the Donald Baue homestead shack was moved from Sioux Pass and placed in the Center’s lower level prior to completion of the main level above. The shack, built in 1907, is all original with a few exceptions…wooden flooring, new tar paper and interior paper….but even those items were put on as they would have been in 1907. The homestead’s dimensions are 12 feet by 14 feet the minimum allowed and the size which more than 90 percent built to “prove up their claim.” Under the original Homestead Act passed in 1862, any person 21 or older who was head of a family and a citizen could obtain title to 160 acres of public land if he/she lived on the land for five years and made improvements to it in that time. The big influx of homesteaders to the MonDak area was from 1906 to 1910, with over 3,000 homesteads filed in Richland County, Montana. Visit the church while you are in the village too. It is a display which incorporates items from many of the area churches.
Stop in at the bank and see the safe that is on display. There are also receipts, bookkeeping ledgers, checkbooks, file boxes, coin dispensers and some old school warrant books. Go to the hospital display and see if you aren’t glad you live in this day and age with modern medical equipment vs. that which was available in those days.
The art center consists of several galleries which host upwards of 18 different shows every year. You will always be able to see something new and exciting when you visit. The Permanent art Collection shows native some and famed western artist J.K Ralston’s works. There is also the Charlotte Rees Gabisch Art Library which is said to be the most complete art library in the region. There are oils, watercolors and acrylics for your viewing pleasure. There are also works done in pastels, pen and ink, charcoal and pencil along with wood engravings, weaving, silkscreen, scratchboard, aquatint, felt tip, lithograph and some crocheted needlework. Each will give you a sense of the talent and the joy that the artists present to you.
If you are interested in historical paintings you will enjoy the work of Barbara Schaffner, a former local artist who comes to the Center periodically to conduct art classes for those that are interested.
Open: Tuesday – Friday 10 am to 4 pm (except for Thursdays when they close at 7 pm) and Saturday from 1 – 4 from February through December. Closed for annual cleaning in the month of January.
The MDHC houses the MonDak Pioneer Town, Lillian Anderson Jensen History Library, Genealogy Library, Charlotte Rees Gabisch Art Library, a permanent art collection, large regional photo archive, an ever-growing collection of Heritage Cards for genealogical research, a dinosaur and fossil collection, and public meeting rooms.
Phone: (406)-433-3500
Email: mdhc@richland.org
Location: 120 3red Ave. SE, Sidney, Montana 59270
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Did you know there is a National Park site devoted to telling the story of the Homestead Act of 1862? To learn more about what may be the most influential piece of legislation this country has ever created go to http://www.nps.gov/home or visit Homestead National Monument of America. Located in Nebraska, the Monument includes one of the first 160 acres homestead claims but tells the story of homesteading throughout the United States. Nearly 4 million claims in 30 states were made under the Homestead Act and 1.6 million or 40 percent were successful. The Homestead Act was not repealed until 1976 and extended in Alaska until 1986. Homesteads could be claimed by “head of households” that were citizens or eligible for citizenship. New immigrants, African-Americans, women who were single, widowed or divorced all took advantage of the Homestead Act. It is estimated that as many as 93 million Americans are descendents of these homesteaders today. This is a story as big, fascinating, conflicted and contradictory as the United States itself. Learn more!