Stearns presents 'Montana Towns and Rural Places: Then and Now'

Press release

Havre Hometown Humanities Faces of Montana will host the program "Montana Towns and Rural Places: Then and Now" with storyteller Hal Stearns Friday at 3 p.m. in the North Central Senior Center, 2 2nd Street.

This Humanities Montana Speakers Bureau presentation is free and open to the public.

Hal Stearns was born in Havre and raised in Harlowton. His family owned newspapers in Wheatland and Golden Valley counties.

His presentation explores the stories of Montana's frontier towns like Harlowton, Shawmut, Judith Gap, Hedgesville, Martinsdale and Rygate. Towns like these are shrinking in size but have stories worth keeping - stories of Montana's one-room schools, first high schools, the homesteading booms and busts of the past, and energy-driven booms and busts of the present.

Stearns uses history, philosophy, literature and sociology to explore the identity and future of rural Montana. He invites and welcomes the participation of the Hi-Line's senior citizens in the discussion and hopes they will share their personal stories of home and community.

An educator for 34 years, today Hal is an instructor for the University of Montana's Lifelong Learning Institute and Humanities Montana. He has a particularly fond interest in sharing his passion for Montana and the West and education with community members, students, teachers and administrators. He has led tours coast to coast and lectured in over 40 states, Germany, England, Japan, Korea and Brazil.

Partial funding for the Humanities Montana Speakers Bureau program is provided by a legislative grant from Montana's Cultural Trust. In addition to Humanities Montana, organizations supporting Havre Hometown Humanities include the National Endowment for the Humanities, Stockman Bank and the Havre Daily News.

For more information, call 265-5464.