Southwest Montana Snapshots

By The Standard Staff - 04/07/2007

Fun run set today The Butte Family YMCA will host its 27th annual Big Butte Challenge featuring 5k and 11k runs, 1-mile fun run and 5k walk on Saturday, April 7. The race starts and finishes at the World Museum of Mining.

Race day check-in is between 8 and 8:30 a.m. with all events beginning at 9 a.m. The 9:30 a.m. Saturday weekend workout will not be held April 7 because of the run. The 9:30 and 11 a.m. Saturday classes will be held as usual. For more information, call 782-1266.

Butte lands architecture forum Butte and southwest Montana has been selected for the venue for the national conference of the Vernacular Architecture Forum in 2009.

On March 28, following a presentation by Dick Gibson, who was representing Butte Citizens for Preservation and Revitalization, and Rolene Schliesman with the Montana State Historic Preservation Office in Helena, the VAF Board approved Butte’s application to host the 2009 conference at its meeting in Savannah, Ga.

Approximately 200 architectural historians, architects, folklorists, historians, planners and preservationists are expected at the 30th annual meeting of the VAF.

“Many of them have never been to Montana before, and they are really looking forward to it,” said Gibson. In the 30-year history of the organization, only seven national conferences have been held west of the Mississippi.

Vernacular architecture is the study of the distinctive architecture of a place, usually non-mainstream and locally designed and built structures.

Butte will be the base for the conference and four day-long field trips are planned to Anaconda, Philipsburg, Helena, Comet, Bannack, Dillon, Virginia City, and Pony. The four-day conference is planned for June 2009, with final dates contingent on the schedule of the National Folk Festival.

Rodeo entries due April 20 Whitehall’s B-Y’s Youth Rodeo wil be held on Sunday, May 6 at the Whitehall Rodeo Grounds.

The event is open to youths ages 8 to 18 and events include steer riding, cow riding, calf daubing, breakaway roping, barrel racing, pole bending, goat tying, team roping and ribbon race. Entries must be postmarked by April 20.

For more information, call 287-3451 or 287-5493.