Since 1981, the Jefferson County Recreation Park in Boulder, home to the annual county fair and rodeo this week and weekend, has played host to dozens of other events and groups throughout year, including long-distance cyclists, RV campers, weddings, concerts, meetings, elections, proms, holiday observances and youth events. The facility is well used and frequently improved in recent years, and Jefferson County is eyeing further expansions—but it wasn’t always that way. After serving a very different public purpose for most of the 20th century, what is now the Recreation Park was once a ramshackle former ranch succumbing to the elements after being disused by the state. An enterprising group of Boulder residents pushed a reluctant county government to lease the property from the state and let them begin to clean and restore it, largely themselves but aided by county and state funds. The group worked with the county to eventually acquire the property from the state and build it into the facility that is bustling with people and animals today.
The Boulder Monitor reached out to a few members of the original Fair Board to hear their thoughts and memories on the efforts that created the Jefferson County Recreation Park. The following history of the park contains reflections from board members. Terry Minow has served as chair of the Fair Board since its creation, and Alice Rieder and Dixie Rennie were on the original board with her. Historical information was drawn from “Jefferson County Recreation Park History,” compiled by original board member Marilyn McCauley in 2018. She compiled the history from land records, excerpts from The Boulder Monitor and Whitehall Ledger newspapers, the Montana State Training School’s historical records, and “Boulder: Its Friends and Neighbors” by Olive Hagadone.
Beginning in 1886 and continuing through the better part of the 20th century, various state institutions for physically and mentally disabled Montanans were established and expanded on land just south of Boulder along both sides of the Boulder River. Before that, in 1882, Avery Belcher began working land just south of that state land. S.F. Tuttle purchased the ranch in 1901, after he was elected county treasurer. The state bought the ranch from Tuttle in 1908—by then, many buildings and other improvements were 20 years old and dilapidated.
