Jefferson County’s planned Western Legacy Center could be open as soon as Memorial Day in spring 2022, and a multi-million-dollar fundraising drive is underway to try to make it happen.
On Oct. 14, at what Jefferson County Commission Chairman Leonard Wortman deemed a “groundbreaking and fundraising kickoff,” Wortman said that communications firm Loma Media would oversee a $1.8 million fundraising campaign for the nonprofit Western Legacy Center, which will combine a visitor center with a retail space specifically for products made locally and around Montana. Another $2 million would come in the form of a grant “that I feel very comfortable about” getting, he said, for a total of $3.8 million. According to the company’s website, Loma Media’s clients include Google, the Department of Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency, Direct TV, AAA, the Department of the Treasury and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, commonly known as DARPA.
But while leaders from Jefferson County, the Jefferson Local Development Corporation, the city of Whitehall, and the Montana Pro Rodeo Hall and Wall of Fame—which will be featured in the center—kicked-off fundraising on Oct. 14, they didn’t actually have to break ground: The event was held in the Roberts Building, on Whitetail Road and on the northwest corner of Whitehall’s interchange with Interstate 90, and the building is slated to transform over time into the Western Legacy Center.
