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Dateline: BILLINGS, Mont. [image omitted]

In a stately, 26-room country home in central Montana, a trove of antiques from 19th century Europe, priceless Western artwork and American Indian artifacts are at the center of a battle of wills.

On one side is the legacy of two wealthy heiresses who hoped to share their collection with their rural, less-traveled neighbors. Their efforts culminated in the 1996 opening of the Charles M. Bair Family Museum outside Martinsdale, a dot on the map in the middle of nowhere where Alberta Bair lived many of her 97 years before her death in 1993.

On the other: trustees who have since closed the museum, at least for this tourist ...