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Article: The Montana traveler: The Charles M. Bair Family Museum, little palace on the prairie
- Article from:
- Montana; The Magazine of Western History
- Article date:
- October 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Montana Historical Society Autumn 2002. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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On the wind-swept grasslands of central Montana is a prairie palace, its rooms brimming with Louis XV and George III furnishings, crystal chandeliers, and gilded mirrors. The sprawling ranch house near Martinsdale, once the home of Charlie Bair, a prominent sheepman and entrepreneur in the early 1900s, is now a museum. The Charles M. Bair Family Museum, the vision of sisters Marguerite and Alberta Bair, offers a peek into the opulent life-style of another era while retelling the history of the Bair family and the wool industry of Montana.
An Ohio farm boy, Charlie Bair took a job with the railroad as a young man. The Northern Pacific Railroad brought him to Montana in 1883, first to ...