Living History set for this Saturday

The annual Living History Day will take place Saturday as history comes alive at Havre’s many historic attractions.

The event is sponsored every year by the attractions themselves and the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce.

Here is a look at the list of events this year.

Havre Beneath the Streets

The history of Havre will come to full life Saturday as 40 to 50 volunteers will play the roles of people from Havre’s early era.

Re-enactors will bring the stories of the early days to life, said Christy Owens, office manager at Havre Beneath the Streets.

Candy like that from the early 20th century will be available for kids, and P.E.O. AZ chapter has baked goodies for visitors to enjoy.

Gram’s Ice Cream and Candy Shoppe will have samples of traditional ice creams.

Tours will be offered every half hour.

“There will be family fun for one and all” Owens said.

Tours will be given for the discounted rate of $8.

At the adjoining Frank DeRosa Railroad Museum, members of the Pacific Junction Railroad Club will run the model trains all day — upstairs and downstairs.

P.E.O. AZ chapter will have a bake sale all day with special treats.

Wahkpa Chu’gn Buffalo Jump

For almost 2,000 years, various Native groups used stone boiling as the method of preparing bison meat, and people will get a chance to do the same on Saturday.

In front of the interpretive center at the top of the Wahkpa Chu’gn Buffalo Jump, Anna Brumley, the co-founder of the buffalo jump, will demonstrate how the process works.

A fire is started in a hand-made pit. Stones are placed in the fire. The hot stones are put in a 1.5 gallon container of water. The water will come to a full boil in 60 to 90 seconds, she said.

People put a skewer with buffalo meat into the water.

Soon, the buffalo meat is ready to eat.

People will get a chance to try out the process and eat the buffalo meat, Bromley said.

The stone boil demonstrations will take place between 1 and 2 p.m.

“People can get a taste of history,” Brumley said.

Tours of the buffalo jump will take place every half hour during the day. Tours will be discounted by $1, she said.

But people can attend the stone boil and partake in the eats for free, Brumley said.

“People are free to take the tour too,” she said. “Or they can just join us for the stone boil.”

High Line Heritage House Museum

“Tea with Mrs. Mathews” will be presented in the High Line Heritage House Museum’s new location at 124 3rd St., the historic Mathews home. Museum owner Emily Mayer will portray Catherine Mathews preparing her home for her friends to come for tea, do their needlework and socialize.

The setting is that the servants are out for the day, the children are in school, her husband is at work, leaving her free to entertain on a late spring day in 1914. She will discuss the happenings of the time period and customs of the day.

This will be the first opportunity for the public to tour the circa 1898 historic home. Visitors will learn some of the history of the home and its occupants during the tour. Due to the special programming just for Living History Day, this will not be the normal tour offered to visitors.

“During a regular tour, visitors learn more about the home, its occupants and their role in Havre society,” Mayer said. “Also, during a regular tour, the public rooms of the Boone/Dalrymple home, the first location of the High Line Heritage House Museum, are also shown, but will not be a part of this tour.”

The historic Mathews home is a “work-in-progress” museum, and visitors will be informed of the various historic preservation projects needed in order to bring this historic Havre treasure back to its former glory, as well as needed historic preservation projects for the Boone/Dalrymple home.

Tours will be offered Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost is $10 for adults, $5 for children 6-12 and under 5 are free with accompanying adult.

Fort Assinniboine

The Black Jack touring wagon will give visitors rides around historic Fort Assinniboine Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The wagon will show the areas where, beginning in the 1880s, up to 800 soldiers were stationed.

Visitors will be able to see where they lived, where they ate and where they were jailed.

Bullhook Bottoms Black Powder Club will be on hand to set off a large cannon every half hour.

There will be a special display of hides and guns, and singers will perform songs from that era.

H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum

The highlight of Living History Day at the H. Earl Clack Memorial Museum will be a talk by Ann Foster.

Foster is an expert in Montana history, especially women’s history.

She will speak at 2 p.m. at the museum on “Alcohol, Corsets and the Vote.”

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in Montana, Foster will hold a conversation with journalist Mary Long Alderson on the suffrage movement and its connection to feminism and the move toward Prohibition.

Foster will be dressed in era attire.

She will explain the benefits of votes for women as well as “the evils of drink and tight dancing.”

Foster grew up in Bozeman and after many years of moving around the West finally made it home to Montana when she moved to Gardiner in 2010 to become Yellowstone National Park Park's archivist.

North Central Montana Everything Antique Show

Organizers of the North Central Montana Everything Antique Show have joined efforts with Living History Day to give visitors and residents alike a unique opportunity to see history in action and talk to enthusiasts from tractor, car and stationary engine rebuilders to blacksmiths, houseware and toy collectors, and more.

Everything Antique Show, at the Great Northern Fairgrounds, is open Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a rolling relics parade at 1 p.m. and a threshing demonstration at 2 p.m. This event runs Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. as well, with the parade both days and a blacksmith demonstration Sunday at 11 a.m.

Admission is free, and Hill County 4-H clubs will have provide concessions all three days.