Although the Livingston Depot Center serves today as a railroad history museum and community cultural center, the beautifully restored, century-old Northern Pacific railway station is almost an exhibit by itself.

The museum’s feature exhibit is “Rails Across the Rockies: A Century of People and Places.” Railroads were central to the opening of the American West, and the exhibit introduces visitors to regional and Northwest history through objects and photos. Video displays, a small train cabin mock-up and a live telegraph line bring alive the Yellowstone Park travel culture that first began in the 1880s and has been going strong ever since.

The main exhibit is rounded out by the additional displays: “The Livingston Depot in History and Architecture” and “Film in Montana,” which is a look at moviemaking under the “Big Sky.”

Making its debut appearance in 2010 is “Sweat & Steel,” a special exhibition of paintings by Livingston artist David Swanson. The exhibit, sponsored by the Livingston Depot Foundation in collaboration with the artist, will feature 18 paintings by Swanson. The artworks forcefully present Livingston images of railroad workers on Montana Rail Link and Burlington Northern Sante Fe lines. The exhibit is designed as an educational experience, and incorporates elements of music, poetry and historic railroad artifacts bridging the present to the past.

Swanson is a contemporary realist who captures and chronicles American life in its people and environments. He has done numerous paintings of subjects in and around Park County and Livingston, notably townscapes and grain elevators.

With this exhibit, the artist further explores the human form in the architectural/mechanical context.

“Men and women working on machines such as these mighty steel locomotives — holdovers from the steel and jet ages — are to me a compelling metaphor for the larger issue between mankind and technology,” Swanson stated.

This exhibit is supported with grants from Altria Group Inc. and The Montana Cultural Trust. It will tour Montana through 2012 under the auspices of the Montana Museum and Art Gallery Directors Association.

The museum plans to continue its “Third Thursday” summer program series with three monthly events.

The first will be June 17 at 7 p.m., with an evening of railroad poetry and music, as well as a reception for “Sweat & Steel” and artist David Swanson. The second, planned for Thursday, July 15, will feature Movies On the Lawn, a cooperative event with the Montana Film Center. The final “Third Thursday” program will feature an evening of railroad stories with railroad historian Warren McGee on Aug. 19 at 7 p.m.

"Yellowstone-bound train at the Livingston Depot," taken about 1904, is one of hundreds of railroad photos on display in the museum exhibit.

Photo courtesy of
Warren McGee

The Depot is an exceptional piece of architecture. Designed by Reed and Stem, the original architects for New York City’s Grand Central Station, it integrates the classic Northern Pacific yin-yang monad with lively terra cotta detail in an Italianate style overlooking Northern Rockies scenery and the active rail lines that carried visitors to their first introduction to Yellowstone Park. As daily reminders of the area’s history, trains pass not 60 feet from the Depot’s entrance, frequently drawing scurrying rail-fans to lean on the gates and watch them roll by.

“Moving a Truck” is one of artist David Swanson’s paintings in the Depot’s summer exhibit, “Sweat & Steel.”

Courtesy of David Swanson

The Depot served as the Northern Pacific’s central division headquarters and its showcase station between St. Paul and Seattle. Its rich ornamentation on the interior includes finishes of terrazzo and mosaic tile and 25-foot coffered ceilings. Years of local fundraising and restoration work transformed the once soot-covered structure in 1987 into a cultural and historic treasure now on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Depot Festival of the Arts takes place the weekend of July 4. Close to 100 artists and craftspeople will present their handiwork in the directly-adjacent Depot Rotary Park, ranging year to year from fused glass to oils, photography, fine jewelry, woodwork, furniture, fiber works, ceramics and more.

Also featured are nonprofit-sponsored food kiosks and the highly popular Depot Foundation pie booth. This year marks the 23rd festival since its inception. The event will run Friday, July 2, and Saturday, July 3, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, July 4, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Depot Museum will open Saturday, May 29, and run through Monday, Sept. 6. Admission is free for the 2010 summer season. For more information, call 222-2300 or visit the website www.livingstondepot.org.

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The Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County houses an array of nationally and locally significant artifacts in the former Northside School at 118 W. Chinook St. The 1906 school is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

This season’s special display features the Native Cultures Room. It covers pre-historic populating of the Americas, this area’s place in that picture, groups associated with the northern Yellowstone region, and an emphasis on the historic and modern-day Crow tribe.

Other collections reflect:

Yellowstone National Park

The early history of the park is represented by pre-1900 chromolithographs by W.H. Jackson, pre-1916 transportation carriages, items from homesteader Frank Bottler, Yellowstone Trail items from 1912-1930 and more.

Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery

See Capt. William Clark’s precise route through the area on July 15, 1806, with short biographies of the 12 others with him, including Sacajawea, her son Jean Baptiste (“Pomp”), Clark’s slave, York, as well as Charbonneau, Pryor and Shields.

Wild West

Calamity Jane highlights the cast of local characters, along with items related to Buffalo Bill Cody, the Plummer Gang, “Yankee” Jim, Texas Rangers and the Goodnight-Loving Cattle Trail.

Geology

Displayed items cover the 3.5-billion-year-old geology of the area, fossils, minerals and early mining.

Northern Pacific Railroad

The collection includes an 1889 caboose, pre-1900 artifacts, F.J. Haynes and Warren McGee steam engine photos from the 1880s through 1950s, a 1940s ticket station, and an extremely rare piece of railroad transportation equipment called a Casey Jones Railroad Cart, of which there are only four known in America.

Pioneer Living

View century-old to early 1920s household items, blacksmith and wheelwright tools, and a log schoolhouse. Early transportation in the area is represented by a sheep wagon and coaches, as well as firefighting carts, a 1936 La France Fire Engine and more.

Military

Items cover the first Crow Agency of Ft. Parker (1869-1874), the Battle of Little Bighorn, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, and World Wars I and II.

Hours at the museum are: May 17 to Sept. 8, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; and Sept. 9 to Sept. 26, closed Sundays and Mondays and daily hours 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For an off-season appointment or tour, call (406) 222-4184.

Admission — good for two days — is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors 65 and over, and $2.50 for children ages 6 to 12. Children under 6 are free. AAA and group discounts are offered.
On the Net: livingstonmuseums.org

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