What We Display

About Our Museum

Affiliations:
Seeley Lake Area Chamber of Commerce
Montana Associations of Museums
Montana Historical Society

Self Guided Tours

Old horse-drawn log haul wagon (orange)

        Used to haul skidded logs to a mill or train

Gravel haul and spread wagon (green)

       Used to spread gravel on roads and highways

Larch log cross section history pie

        Created by the boy scouts to show the history

Springboard stump

        Used to hold a board, stood on for cutting big trees

​Lewis and Clark botanical garden

        Native plants from the L&C journey diaries

Blackfoot Indian lodge

        Painted  under the guidance of their medicine man

Dugout canoe

        Found on the west side of Seeley on a homestead

Maloney Cabin - ​structure up and closed in for winter. Chinking the inside and furnishing it this winter.

Seeley Lake historical society

and visitor center​

Our self guided tours will help you enjoy the richness of our history. We currently have four self guided tours available and are working on others.

The Seeley Lake Historical Museum first reopened the barn doors in 2001 after it had been salvaged, dismantled and moved from its original location.

The Double Arrow Ranch barn, built during the winter of 1929-30, met its demise in the 100-year winter of 1996-97. Its beginnings sheltered gentle horses and pioneer men and women that worked and invested their lives to settle a corner of the retreating wilderness.

The historic barn, moved less than a half-mile from its original site in Trail Creek Meadow, now houses the Seeley Lake Historic Museum and Visitor Center. The old barn continues to serve the needs of its surroundings, recalling the past while looking to the future of the Seeley Lake Area.

Outside Displays

Seven double size (two horse) stalls are themed  displays about our local cultural and natural resources.

Each stall, named after a team of horses which  had occupied it, brings back memories for some and tweaks imagination for for others. .

JACK & JILL
Joe Waldbillig Homesteading Display

ACE & JOKER
Maclean Family history 


The Big Burn fire of 1910

POPCORN & PEANUTS
History of logging in Seeley

EGGS AND BACON

Logging tools

Local business history Display

NIP AND TUCK
Outfitting

THUNDER & LIGHTENING
Resource area

Seasonal displays

The glass doors on the east replaced the original large sliding door (still seen from the outside). Outside this door was the corral where the horses were kept before being turned out for the night. 

When it was breakfast or dinner time, the wrangler would open the door and all of the horses would come clomping  in, each to his assigned spot. As the names indicate, these were team horses and they were always used and fed in the same order. Left horse on the left ,right horse on the right, between them a small lodge pole chained to the feeder and dropping to the ground mimicking the tongue of a wagon or sleigh.