by Robert Nolte
HUNTLEY — Students will be combing through the grounds next fall to continue their assessment of the Huntley Project Museum of Irrigated Agriculture.
Their hours of research will likely result in site improvements and help the museum snag valuable grants that could result in new exhibits, a picnic area, improved landscaping that would include new tree plantings and ADA-approved walking paths.
Tracy L. Livingston, director of the museum, said last fall two students and Prof. Tim Urbaniak made five visits and drove a total of 250 miles to assess and photograph exteriors of the buildings on the museum grounds to prepare notes for a site plan. Among the many tools they used was a GPS unit to locate longitude and latitude of buildings.
The project was part Urbaniak’s drafting and design class at MSU-Billings. A total of 267 hours was spent working on the museum assessment. And a new group of students will return to the museum in the fall to continue the assessment.
“They designed a detailed site plan using legal notes as well as surveying notes,” said Livingston. “They created 3-D models of each building on the site and then placed them into a virtual environment in the position they are on the property. They created a virtual walk-through of the grounds, and then burned all of the information and documentation onto discs.”
To win grants, detailed and specific information is needed — and that’s where the students’ efforts will pay off for the museum.
Their detailed analysis of the museum have resulted in blueprints for the main building, the museum center completed in 2002 — and all of it has been converted to digital. The class has digitized their assessment survey and managed to obtain a copy of the Subdivision of Osborn from the County Assessor’s office that has legible numbers on it for replication, which will be used for valuable boundary information. It will be put into an AutoCAD computer program and overlaid the subdivision with satellite images as a comparative reference. The class also documented all the individual buildings on the museum grounds and prepare a 3-D site plan.
Livingston said she got the original information regarding MSU-B’s search for what is called a Capstone project from a preservation listserv she is on. “These Capstone projects can go from two semesters to two years easily,” she said. “They have almost 20 years of experience assisting non-profit entities by creating digital support material for outside projects.”
Past projects include applications of architectural documentation, mapping applications, mechanical applications or combinations of disciplines. Their successful past projects include: the Belgrade emergency response documentation that includes floor plans, mapping and graphics; Babcock Theater in Billings, including architectural documentation and 3-D scanning; a parks study in Glendive; the Moss Mansion in Billings that included architectural and civil documentation; a welding lab remodel for MSU-B; an architectural conceptual for the Pictograph Cave Visitor Center in Lockwood; and work at Fort Custer, where students did a historic civil and architectural digital reconstruction.
“The class has access to programs and technical equipment I can only dream about,” said Livingston. “I am expecting these students to be of help with the site planning for ADA accessible walkways, building and overall site access, picnic areas, benches, possibly even bridge design as the complex is grand-fathered in for a second access walking bridge across the main canal that dissects the site.”
On its website, the Huntley Project Museum of Irrigated Agriculture is described as a venue that “tells the unique story of the homesteaders who transformed this valley from prairie desert to lush farmland. From an early homestead, complete with barn and outbuildings, to the Museum Center’s exhibits, visitors can immerse themselves in the history of the homesteading era and life on the Project.”
The museum includes a typical small-town Main Street, a restored 1908 homestead cabin and a 1920’s farm, where visitors can watch the harvesting of traditional crops.
The Museum Center houses everyday items of the homestead families as well as records and photographs of the Huntley Project communities. There are displays of quilts, dresses, dishes and cookbooks, hand tools, saddles and farm machinery and children’s handmade toys.
