About the Carbon County Historical Society

Mission Statement:

“The mission of the Carbon County Historical Society and Museum is to preserve, communicate, and educate the population on the treasured history of Carbon County, Montana and its surrounding areas.”

 

About Us

 

Carbon County Historical Society & Museum was first established in 1959 by Alice Greenough to house the collection of her world-renowned rodeo family. The Carbon County Historical Society was formed in 1974 and took over the museum facility in 1980. In 1990, the three-story Labor Temple building was gifted to the Carbon County Historical Society by an anonymous donor. The Labor Temple was built in 1909, entirely by the Red Lodge Miners Local No. 1771, and put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The historical society reopened the museum's doors with a newly remodeled basement and first floor in 1999.

Alice Greenough

Alice Greenough

 
 
Bill Greenough riding “Frisco,” 1941

Bill Greenough riding “Frisco,” 1941

The museum is the home to the Greenough and Linderman rodeo collections, the Waples family gun and projectile point collection, an immersive coal and hard rock mine exhibit, the Carbon County archives, and much more. The staff assists with family genealogy and historic research. The gift shop has a large variety of Carbon County, Montana and Old West historical books and gifts.

 
 

We are funded, in part, by coal severance taxes paid based upon coal mined in Montana and deposited in Montana’s cultural and aesthetic projects trust fund.