The
Huntley Project is an irrigation project in southern Montana that was established by the United States Bureau of Reclamation in 1907. The district encompasses the towns of Huntley Worden, Ballantine, and Pompeys Pillar.
Huntley United Methodist Church is a member of the Yellowstone Conference of the United Methodist Church, which includes all of the United Methodist churches in northern Wyoming, Montana and two parishes in Idaho. Organized in 1909, their church was built in 1910 and has changed little since.
A well maintained Gothic Revival building, the church is a simple rectangle with a steeple/bell tower set back from the streetside corner, attached to the side of the nave. Of wood frame construction, it is clad in shiplap siding with wood shingles covering the belfry and spire. Vents in the belfry are rectangular, covered with metal or plastic grilles. The short spire is topped with a wooden cross and surrounded by four squat finials, one at each corner of the belfry.
Windows in the nave are all Gothic arched and filled in part with stained glass. The double wooden doors in the front of the steeple are surmounted by a Gothic arched transom with lancet windows. It is matched by a large window in the centre of the nave of the same style and scale.
At the rear northeast corner of the nave a hall has been added, lower than the nave and larger in footprint.
Huntley United Methodist is the second oldest faith community on the Huntley Project. It was organized in 1909 by a band of 28 homesteaders with Rev. C. E. Fenton as the first pastor. The present building was erected in 1910. The pastor served both the Huntley and Worden Methodist Churches for many years, until the congregations merged in 1968. Huntley was then yoked to the Ballantine UCC church from 1968, with the two churches sharing a pastor, until 2000, when it became a part-time single point charge, as it remains today. In many ways, the 21st century church is more like the 1st century church.
From the Billings Gazette