博物馆 Meeteetse Museums

Meeteetse Museums is an umbrella organization that includes the Charles Belden Photography Museum, the Meeteetse Museum, and the Bank Museum. Its mission is to promote discovery and learning by collecting, preserving, and interpreting Meeteetse’s natural, cultural, and artistic heritage for the benefit of its local, regional, national, and international audiences. It accomplishes this mission by providing programming that is free to the public. This programming includes permanent and temporary exhibits, educational seminars, culturally-based entertainment, and organized tours to significant archaeological and historical destinations near Meeteetse. We also serve the public through our oral history collection program and by offering free archival research.

The Belden Museum features the photographic works of Charles Belden, many of which document daily life on the Pitchfork Ranch from about 1914 through the early 1940s. The Belden Museum also showcases the personal memorabilia of the photographer and his family. The exhibit “Little Wahb, the Grizzly Bear” and the Olive Fell Gallery are also located here.

The Meeteetse Museum contains exciting exhibits that tell the story of Meeteetse and the surrounding area. These include “Mike Crocker’s Wild Sheep of North America,” “Made in Meeteetse: the Black-Footed Ferret,” the Forest Service Cabin, the “Meeteetse Mercantile,” and the Saddle Room. Meeteetse Museum is also home to a number of important western sculptures by the late Harry Jackson.

The Bank Museum is located in the newly restored First National Bank of Meeteetse, which served as Meeteetse’s bank from 1901 to 1975. It is full of interesting artifacts from years gone by that tell the story of the bank, its founders, and employees. It also highlights the telephone switchboard used by the phone company that was housed in the top of the bank for several years.