To the left (south) of the library's east entrance stands the dedicated tree. Beside it is a large lichen covered boulder, on the east face of which is the following plaque. Tree and plaque were donated by American Legion Post 19 of Big Timber, likely in 2014, the year of the library's centennial.
One of seventeen in Montana and 1,679 in the country funded by Andrew Carnegie between 1886 and 1917, the Big Timber Carnegie Library was designed by the architectural firm of
Link and Haire of Butte and Billings and built beginning in 1913 at a cost of about $8,500. Of the $8,500, Carnegie supplied $7,500 and the town was forced to raise the remainder when a request for further funds beyond the $7,500 initially pledged by Carnegie was denied by Carnegie's secretary, then director of the library program.
Used as a library from the time it opened, the building remains the
Big Timber Public Library to this day.