Welcome to the Glasgow, Montana Picture Tour

There are two Montana museums you have to visit when you make the effort to ride the “Hi-line.”  If you are new to the country on either side of Highway 2, you will have a better understanding of the passing scenery if you stop at the Valley County Pioneer Museum in Glasgow and the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning Montana.

The two venues have the best exhibits of life in Northern Montana.  The museum in Glasgow does an outstanding job showing you how important Glasgow is in the history and future of Montana.  You will see exhibits on Glasgow’s pre-history, the Railroad Age,  the Homesteader Boom, the construction of the Fort Peck Dam, the strategically important WWII Glasgow Air Force Base and the role the community of 3,200, plays in Montana’s future.

Valley County Pioneer Museum Exhibits

Want to be an expert naming the animals you will pass as you ride across Montana on Highway 2?  Then you need to see the Stan Kalinski (1908-1979) Collection of wildlife mounts housed at the museum.

We talk about “Catalog Houses” in our picture tours of Deer Lodge and Butte, Montana. At the museum in Glasgow, you can walk through a beautifully restored “Catalog House” from 1924.

The Milk River Valley is full of Native American campsites, Buffalo Jumps and artifacts.  You will be amazed at the one-of-a-kind artifacts you can discover in the museum exhibits.  It’s like actually being at a Milk River campsite without the mosquitoes and gnats.

Glasgow Air Force Base (St. Marie)

We were fascinated by the decommissioned Glasgow Air Force Base (St. Marie) located 17 miles north of Glasgow.  The air base was a refueling stop for brand new Boeing B-17 bombers being shuttled during WWII, from Seattle to the East Coast.  When we made the trip to the old air base in St. Marie, Montana we half expected to hear music by Glenn Miller in the background, as we looked at a B-17 parked in front of a hanger. As you’ll see in the St. Marie Picture Tour the base is nothing like we expected.  Thankfully, a visit to the Valley County Pioneer Museum  really helped explain what the Glasgow Air Force Base was like during the 1940’s.