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We’ve Moved!

17/06/16 at 1.34pm   /   by kanewyoming   /   0 Comment

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Good news!  The Lovell-Kane Area Museum has successfully moved!  Our new location is 354 Oregon Ave.  Turn the corner off Main Street and head past the Chamber towards the Lovell Library.  We are on the left.

For the better part of this past week Museum board members and volunteers have worked hard to box up and move items into our new Museum building!  Wednesday evening was a wonderful effort.  So many individuals came to our aid in moving our 6 large display cases!  Those cases were custom  built for the museum and were a source of concern in the move.  The Board members are so grateful for their help.

We cannot begin to tell you how happy we all are to have our “very own museum.”  We now have space to spread out and continue collecting and displaying valuable pieces of the local history.

Museum Display

17/05/26 at 8.58am   /   by kanewyoming   /   0 Comment

Queen Bee Window Display
In an ongoing effort to increase the visibility and existence of the Lovell-Kane Area Museum, we have contracted with Queen Bee Gardens for the use of their storefront windows. We had a Christmas display that was very fun. Currently we have some old fashioned woodworking tools and we have some old fashioned school desks on display. We appreciate the opportunity to have displays on Lovell’s Main Street. A big Thank you to Queen Bee.

2016 Museum Activities Recap

17/05/26 at 8.35am   /   by kanewyoming   /   0 Comment

Despite the fact that we haven’t had a lot of posts on our website of late, the Museum was very busy in the year 2016.  Some of those events were:

We published our annual Lovell-Kane Area Museum Newsletter: “Bridging the Past to the Future” 2016. Museum efforts and goals were outlined in our Spring newsletter.

The Great Western Sugar Factory celebrated its 100 year celebration in June 2016. The Museum worked with the sugar factory to showcase artifacts /items in their display window at Queen Bee Gardens on Main Street.

The Kane/Ionia Cemetery Cleanup was planned for June 2016. This annual opportunity to do some weeding and sprucing up of the cemetery has been supported and sustained by the efforts of a several dedicated Museum supporters.

The museum was open through the summer for all to drop in and visit. The afternoons were staffed by members of the Museum Board- Monday through Fridays from 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. Thank you to all who were willing volunteers.

The Kane Bus Tour: We had a very successful bus tour in October of 2016. We were able to presell tickets and fill up the bus we rented. Karen Spragg did an excellent job recounting the stories of the area.

Our Annual Museum Fundraiser was a big success in October of 2016. The High Country Cowboys of Red Lodge performed and were so delightful. An auction was held, and additionally a silent auction. Bumblebee Soup Designs provided amazing decorations for the event and for every table. A wonderful dinner was provided as well as a cash bar. We were so happy with the positive response from everyone who attended and for the support of many who were unable to attend. The Museum is very grateful for the continuing support of so many people, both near and far.

Halloween: The Museum joined the other businesses of Lovell in handing out candy to kids for the annual Halloween event. Western Sugar was one source of donated candy. Other individual citizens also generously gave us candy to share.

2017 Calendars: The Lovell-Kane Area Museum Calendar “Preserving the Past for Future Generations” was produced and sold as another fundraising effort. Through the diligent efforts of Sharie and Karen to find and reproduced old photos and advertisements, the 2017 calendar featured black and white photos of Lovell Businesses from the past. Slogans, advertisements, logos were also cleverly included with those businesses. Our calendars sold like hotcakes! What a fun way to walk down memory lane and honor Lovell’s past!

Throughout the year many individuals have graciously donated items to the museum. We are very excited to be able to share these items with you.

2015 Kane Bus Tour Report

15/10/29 at 11.00pm   /   by kanewyoming   /   0 Comment

The Lovell-Kane Area Museum’s Annual Kane Bus Tour was held Saturday, September 26th! Participants met at the Big Horn Visitor Center, National Park Service on Hwy 14A at 10.00 a.m.

This 4 hour tour visited the town site of Kane, the M L Ranch, John Blue’s Cabin, andthe Kane/Ionia Cemetery.  The Museum was able to rent a school bus to accommodate the pKaneBusTourIMG_1076 copyarticipants.  Linda Hitz drove the bus.  Karen Spragg served as tour guide.  Booklets with photos of previous inhabitants were used to picture “what used to be” in Kane.  Karen told stories and identified specific locations and activities.

Karen Spragg addresses the group at the ML Ranch.
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The John Blue Cabin was a favorite stop on the tour.

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The group stopped at the Kane/Ionia Cemetery.  Karen demonstrates dowsing– the use of a water witching rod.  Dowsing is the action of a person–called the dowser–using a rod, stick, … rod, or pendulum–to locate such things as underground water, hidden metal, buried treasure, etc.

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The day was hotter than we expected.  However, the group enjoyed seeing and hearing about these historic sites.  Thanks to everyone who assisted and attended another great Kane Bus Tour.  And thanks to Karen Spragg for her untiring efforts and devotion in making this tour possible.

Kane Bus Tour

15/09/14 at 7.40pm   /   by kanewyoming   /   0 Comment

The Lovell-Kane Area Museum’s Annual Kane Bus Tour* will be Saturday, September 26th!

This 4 hour tour will take you to Kane, M L Ranch, John Blue Cabin, and Kane/Ionia Cemetery.

We will meet at the Big Horn Visitor Center, National Park Service on Hwy 14A at 10.00 a.m.

Bring a sack lunch. Water will be provided. Bring a jacket and wear walking shoes.

Learn about the pioneers of the area on this fun and educational tour.  Come join us!

Tickets: $15.00

* A release must be signed before boarding the bus.

Tickets can be purchased at:

Lovell Chamber/Lovell-Kane Museum (307 548-7552)

Homesteader Museum, Powell (307 754-9481).

Or you may call Karen Spragg (307 548-7212 or 307 272-0959)

Rich Fink (307 548-2965 or 307 272-1931)

Sharie Loegering (307 548-7002)

Board Welcomes Two New Board Members

15/08/31 at 10.57pm   /   by kanewyoming   /   0 Comment

The board would like to welcome Shari Loegering and Dawn Hoffman as new museum board members. Both Shari and Dawn have been advocates of the development of the Lovell-Kane Area Museum and have given us a lot of support and encouragement.

Welcome Shari and Dawn.  We are looking forward to your input and participation.  Thank you for volunteering to help us with the growth and development of our museum.

Kane Bus Tour Planned

15/08/31 at 10.41pm   /   by kanewyoming   /   0 Comment

The annual Kane Bus Tour is coming up.  It will be Saturday, September 26. Put it on your calendar. Come and join us.

The Kane bus tour visits the town of Kane, the ML Ranch, John Blue’s place, and the cemetery.  It is a bus tour unlike any you have every been on.  You can expect information about Kane and  some of its interesting characters, and the best part of the tour is the sharing of personal stories and memories of Kane.  One  person commented: “You can still feel the community pride and sadness for the loss of homes.”

Reservations required, a limited number of spaces are available.  The cost is $15 per person.  Contact Karen Spragg or the museum to sign up.

We will have posters and flyers with more specific information out soon.  Watch for them.

Board Says Goodbye to Christy Fleming

15/08/31 at 10.15pm   /   by kanewyoming   /   0 Comment

At a recent board meeting, Christy Fleming, one of our board members announced her resignation. Christy has worked very hard with the museum. She has a full workload with the National Park Service and has given generously of her free time in service to the development  of a local museum.  When I asked Karen Spragg how long Christy had served on the board, she said — “Oh, since the very beginning.  In fact, it was Christy who told me I should put a museum together.”  Together, Karen and Christy visited many of the area museums to see how other communities had set theirs up.

The board would like to thank Christy Fleming for her almost 5 years of dedication, and encouragement.  Her experience with the Homesteader Museum in Powell and her knowledge has been such a tremendous help to us.  Ever the optimist, Christy has generously supported and assisted the board in its efforts to establish a local museum.

Christy, we will certainly miss you.  Thanks to you for all your hard work and service to the Lovell-Kane Area Museum.

Spectra Energy Donates $1,000

15/07/25 at 7.42pm   /   by kanewyoming   /   0 Comment

The first week of July Karen Spragg received a phone call from Kris Olmsted of Spectra Energy.  Kris is the Administrative Assistant for the Northern District and works out of Spectra’s Powell office.  Annually Spectra Energy chooses to donate to  several communities in Montana and Wyoming.  This year the Lovell-Kane Area Museum was chosen as one of 3 recipients!  What a nice surprise!

On Wednesday, July 8, 2015 Kris Olmsted met with Karen Spragg, Peggy Snell, and Rich Fink at the museum in Lovell.  She presented the museum with a check in the amount of $1000 in recognition and appreciation of the efforts to establish a local museum.  In her letter she stated: “We applaud the good work you do each and every day for the community.”

A big thank you to Spectra Energy.  We will put this money to good use in improvements to our museum.  We so appreciate your support and kind words.

Where is Kane?

15/07/25 at 2.22pm   /   by kanewyoming   /   0 Comment

by Joy Howe

Lately I’ve been volunteering at the museum on Mondays. When people come into the Museum office in the afternoon with questions, I feel like I should know the answers. Naturally, I want to be able to tell them where things are, what their significance is. Recently I have been asked “Where is Kane?” I generally get out a map and try to locate it exactly, but there really aren’t any maps that are that specific. Plus, Kane is no longer identified. It is rare to find it on any map. In the absence of something better, I grab a piece of paper and draw a very simple map to the causeway, with a line to the right indicating where to turn to find Kane–a most rudimentary map.

The sad thing is that people who have been out to the area which was once Kane do not know they are there. They look around for anything–any sign, any indication that they are standing in the place where Kane once was. There is nothing. One woman I spoke to told me, after I drew the aforementioned map for her, that she had taken that road and had read the sign about the wildlife habitat. She was actually standing in the vicinity. “Was that Kane? There should be a sign,” she said.

I spent this morning looking for a map I could cut and paste. But I was unsuccessful. If you were to draw a short line from the east set of railroad tracks over to and across to the west railroad tracks, this is approximately where the town buildings of Kane once were. The train depot sat to the left of the original railroad tracks. And across from the depot sat the commercial buildings of Kane, i.e. the hotel, the store, the bank, the post office, the community center, etc. Of course, there was more to Kane than the depot and the several buildings. The property farmed and the land upon which the homes of the farming families sat is mostly underwater now. A few farms and homes to the west of the lake were not actually flooded.

I never lived there. I never saw any of the buildings myself. The best indication that Kane was ever even there is a sign on the new railroad tracks to the west.  This sign is south of the townsite by several hundred yards and was erected after the demise of Kane for railroad purposes. I  took a picture of my husband and my daughter standing there to remind us that Kane even existed.

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