Bozeman Magazine

The Living History Farm represents a homestead typical of those found in southwestern Montana in 1890 – 1910. The exhibit area includes the Tinsley House, outbuildings, and surrounding gardens and fields. The house is an original 1889 homestead. The milking barn was built in the early 1900s. The other outbuildings were recreated on-site to complete the farmstead and include a blacksmith shop, outhouse, root cellar, granary, chicken coop, and shed. Surrounding heirloom gardens and fields contain examples of vegetables, flowers, and grains that would have been grown in northern agricultural areas.

The farm gives visitors an insight into the daily lifestyle of the people who settled in Montana in the late 1800s and an appreciation for its agricultural history. Homesteaders used the resources they had or could acquire, to build their homes, provide food and clothing, and create a sense of community. Their lives were inseparable from labor. Daily chores included cooking, water hauling, wood chopping, and milking while washing clothes, baking bread, and churning butter needed to be done weekly. 

Seasons brought another round of specialized labor:

• Sowing crops and shearing sheep in the spring
• Harvesting crops and preserving food in the autumn
• Mending clothes, tack, and equipment in the winter

Even social activities centered on useful work, such as quilting, sewing, and barn-raising.