Crazy Mountain Museum is a really well managed museum, with a wealth of displays on nearly every imaginable aspect of the history, and prehistory, of the town of Big Timber and Sweet Grass County. In and around the museum are dioramas, heritage buildings, permanent displays, rotating displays, paintings of local scenes, photos, and on and on, not to mention an extensive research library and archives. Checking out
their website is definitely recommended, followed by a trip to the museum itself.
Just outside the entrance under cover of the roof overhang are a pair of old wagons, one of which was once pulled about the town of Big Timber by one or two teams of horses, possibly more. It is a large water tanker which was once part of the arsenal of the Big Timber Fire Brigade. According to a plaque on the side of the water tank it was used in the fight against the 1908 Big Timber Fire, when a fire that sparked from a passing train destroyed one third of the city, resulting in more than $400,000 in damages. (The plaque indicates the fire to have occurred in 1907 but all other sources note it to be 1908.)
CRAZY MOUNTAIN MUSEUM
The Crazy Mountain Museum mission is to excite and involve people of all ages and backgrounds in an effort to collect and preserve our county’s heritage. Our museum provides a historical look at Sweet Grass County with exhibits ranging from archaeological and geological finds and information to the Pioneer Room which features early settlers and their families, as well as exceptional rotating exhibits.
The 'Cobblestone City' is a diorama that features a miniature recreation of the town of Big Timber as it existed in 1907. The display is over twelve feet long and six feet wide. It is built on a 1/16” to a 1’ scale and shows Big Timber prior to the fire of 1908 that destroyed 1/3 of the downtown.
Jack Hines painted a series of seven pictures of places in Sweet Grass County called Historic Crossroads. The paintings show the changes from The Ice Age, The Pony Indians, Clark and Sacajawea on the Yellowstone, The Fur Traders, The Bozeman Trail, The Gold Miners and The Settlers...
Museum visitors also enjoy exploring a replica Norwegian stabbur, a tipi and our one room schoolhouse. Our gardens are widely acclaimed. The Lewis and Clark garden was planted as part of the 2006 Lewis and Clark Expedition Commemorative Celebration and is the only one left in the state. It contains the Montana plants that Clark named in his journals, when he went through our area in 1806. The Heritage garden at the back of the museum is equally beautiful, comprised in part of plants donated from old homesteads in the area.
From Crazy Mountain Museum