County museum plans flame out

The building donated to house the Flathead County Museum is about to go up in smoke.

County land on which the building sits has been bought back by its original owners, and the county has until April 1 to convert the property back to its original state - in this case a field.

So firefighters from several departments are going to burn the building to the ground Saturday as part of a live-fire training exercise.

The increasingly dilapidated building and some property were donated to the county in the mid-1980s by Henry Siderius on the condition it be used for a museum. The county also purchased some land to make up the 15-acre museum campus on U.S. 93 south of Four Corners.

But the facility has been falling into disrepair for some years, with peeling paint, a leaky roof, outdated electrical wiring, weak flooring and other structural issues.

And it would have cost about $200,000 a year for five years to turn the dilapidated structure into a museum, according to one former member of the Flathead County Museum Board.

The board, which receives little financial support from the county, was unable to raise money to fix the building. Until the county commissioners scraped together $1,000 in 2005, the board had operated completely without county funds.

"The decision was made that it would be best if the land went back to the family," Commissioner Joe Brenneman said.

The Siderius Family limited partnership and Josephine Siderius already own 220 acres on the west side of U.S. 93, bordered on the south by Ashley Meadows Road. They plan to develop that land with 60 acres of commercial properties, about 120 acres of residential properties, and a bike path.

The acreage purchased from the county is located near the terminus of the future U.S. 93 bypass.

Money made in selling the land back to the Siderius family is to be used for future museum activities, Brenneman said.

The museum board is looking for another site to house the museum, but one has yet to be found, museum board member Alan Quimby said.

"As a board, we'd like to see the museum activated again, but without funds it's pretty hard to do that," he said.

Part of the museum's collection has been loaned to the Museum at Central School, part is sitting in metal containers at the county shop on Willow Glen Drive, and another portion has been reclaimed by the original donors.

"Of the 56 counties in Montana, we're the only county that doesn't have a museum," Quimby said.

On Saturday, firefighters from four rural fire departments will ignite the building to conduct training exercises.

South Kalispell Fire Chief Jim Carl said he hopes to have the building fully engulfed and on its way to a pile of ashes by about 1 p.m..

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com