Local logs grace new shop
The Montana Historical Society opened its new gift shop on Thursday, sporting a roomy interior that blends the warmth of a ski-lodge with the charm of a pioneer cabin.
Months in the making, the $21,000 remodel incorporates hand-hewn logs and mossy granite stones pried from the frozen earth in the dead of winter.
“Hauling the logs was the fun part,” said Todd Saarinen, museum preparator. “I did that with a snowmobile and a log arch on skis I used behind my sled. The hard part was hewing the logs. I had a short time to do this and, of course, a budget.”
Saarinen cut beetle-killed, lodgepole pines on his property. The remodel, he said, incorporated nearly 40 logs and six tons of stone, requiring 11 trips to the museum.
“I just wanted a small fireplace, the kind you can pick up and move,” said Sherry Jonckheere, the gift shop manager who oversaw the remodel. “I walked in one day and there were boulders all over the floor.”
Jonckheere, who praised Saarinen for his vision and craftsmanship, was asked during her interview last July what she might do with the space if given a chance to craft it.
The 1,000-square-foot room, which once served as the end of the Montana Homeland exhibit, sat empty for a while. The original gift shop filled the adjacent room, but at less than 500 square feet, it was overcrowded and difficult to navigate.
Now, visitors who pass through the Montana Homeland exhibit emerge in the new gift shop. With its Montana-crafted gifts and books, Jonckheere hopes it prompts shoppers to linger and spend some money.
