Farm Credit Services donates to Fort Assinniboine repairs

Havre Daily News Staff

The Fort Assinniboine Preservation Association is one step closer to making crucial repairs on the Officers' Amusement Hall roof at Fort Assinniboine.

Northwest Farm Credit Services presented the association with $2,000, which Fort Assinniboine Preservation Association President Ron VandenBoom said puts the project to within about $10,000 of what is needed.

The project is estimated to cost about $100,000.

The association works to preserve the fort, once one of the largest military installations west of the Mississippi River, and provides tours of the facility.

Construction on the fort started in 1879 following the Battle of The Little Big Horn and The Battle of the Bear Paws in Montana and it was mainly completed by 1881. It had a military reservation of some 700,000 acres and at one point housed almost 1,000 enlisted men, officers and civilians, the association web site says.

The fort was decommissioned in 1911 and in 1915 became home of the Northern Agricultural Research Center of Montana State University, using the building there.

In the last decade, new facilities have been built to house the research center, and the association oversees most of the remaining original structures at the fort.

VandenBoom said he discovered the leaks in the Amusement Hall two years ago and they potentially threaten to damage the last remaining painting in the building.

The amusement hall was built by enlisted men using stones from the Missouri River Breaks.

The building was primarily operated by the officers' wives and, in its time, was fully decorated with tapestries, brightly colored walls and chandeliers.

The building would hold dances, a regimental band on its stage and had a kitchen that would be used to cook food for holiday banquets until the fort's decommissioning in 1911. Both of those areas are in need of repairs, although less urgently than the roof.

The amusement hall features a stage where officers, including Gen. John J. Pershing, then a first lieutenant, would put on plays using paintings as a backdrop.

The remaining painting, depicting an unknown building and a gate, is in danger of having irreversible damage done if the leaks go unattended for too long and water gets through the drywall behind it.

The Northwest Farm Credit Services donation is the latest in the fundraising effort, which includes Montana State University pledging its support and the Montana State Historic Preservation Office providing the association with a $60,720 Revitalizing Montana's Rural Heritage Grant.

Part of the funding includes an anonymous donor pledging a dollar-for-dollar $4,000 match.

The Montana Historical Foundation also provided a $10,000 grant.

The Fort Assinniboine Preservation Association also raised another $17,000

People willing to support the repairs should get in touch with Association Secretary Treasurer Lynda Taplin at 406-265-7670 or VandenBoom at 406-262-7656 and donations can be mailed to PO Box 863, Havre, MT 59501 or submitted online at https://fortassinniboine.org/donate .