The Montana Pro Rodeo Hall and Wall of Fame has officially expressed “our support for the city of Boulder and Jefferson County, with their vision and pursuit of a Western Heritage Center, to be built in their community,” according to a letter dated May 17, signed by Bill Williams, the organization’s board president, and addressed to Jefferson County Commissioner Leonard Wortman.
The letter follows an April 5 visit by board members of the Billings-based organization. They met with Jefferson County officials in Boulder that day to discuss taking part in an economic development project proposed to be sited near the I-15 interchange.
The April 5 meeting wasn’t the first discussion between the organization and the county, but it was the first time the organization sent people to Boulder for a look around. The group also visited Jefferson County Recreation Park, where county officials have suggested the possibility of building an indoor arena as part of any development.
The project has been evolving out of the county’s unsuccessful bid to locate the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame here, near a site where a rest area had been proposed in 2017 and turned down in part for being too close to Helena and Butte.
After being turned down by the Hall of Fame earlier this year, county officials started exploring the concept of developing a Montana western heritage center at the site. Preliminary talks have suggested that the county would run it, possibly through a nonprofit. The county has also indicated a desire for other private or nonprofit organizations or businesses to participate. In addition to the Montana Pro Rodeo Hall and Wall of Fame, Wortman has said that the county has spoken with the Montana Historical Society, the Museum of the Rockies and the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association.
Before returning to Billings after the April 5 meeting, the Montana Pro Rodeo Hall and Wall of Fame board members said they would propose at their next meeting that the organization provide the county with the letter of support, a noncommittal gesture county officials hope will help boost the project’s momentum and encourage public and finding support.
“If this thing’s built, they will come,” board member Jay Linderman said at the time.
“The Hall of Fame, its advisory committee and board of directors share the common belief and pride in Montana’s rich Rodeo, Agricultural and Native American history, which makes the Big Sky Country truly the last best place,” states Williams’s letter. “The proposed Western Heritage Center will encompass and educate the general public to the legends, heroes and history of the Cowboys, Cowgirls and Native Americans who’ve woven the rich historical tapestry of Montana.”
The proposed development is still in its very early stages. In preparing its bid to attract the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame, the county had developed architectural concepts and a preliminary feasibility study. Those documents have helped to fuel ideas for what to do with the site, but to proceed would require a preliminary architectural report, or PAR — a CPA-certified feasibility and cost assessment required for financing and other decisions.
At their April 30 meeting, the commissioners approved spending up to $50,000 on a PAR following a discussion with more than four dozen community members who showed up to the evening meeting to ask questions and share concerns.
“If this PAR shows [the project] to be borderline or questionable it’s not going to happen,” Wortman said that night in response to questions about cost and other aspects.
The commissioners had previously approved funding the PAR at their Feb. 26 meeting, yet were subsequently advised by the county attorney that the decision item was insufficiently described on that meeting’s agenda.
“The Montana Pro Rodeo Hall and Wall of Fame firmly believes we can play an important part of the Western Heritage Center’s success, in our promotion and honoring of Montana’s pro rodeo legends through an onsite Museum and Hall of Fame,” Williams wrote.
Some ideas for the important part the organization believes it can play surfaced during the April 5 visit. In addition to promoting the site to its pro rodeo supporters, Linderman spoke of large quantities of donated rodeo memorabilia that’s “out there looking for someplace to go.” And when Wortman said that the county might model its management of the site after the nonprofit-run Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, the organization’s potential participation on the board was discussed.
