About Us

The Yellowstone Gateway Museum preserves, studies, and shares the extraordinary history of Park County, Montana. Its collection of over 50,000 objects reflects more than 12,000 years of human experience as well as longer histories of local animal, plant, and mineral development.

Permanent exhibitions are geared toward audiences of all ages. They consider, among other topics, Park County’s role as the historic gateway to Yellowstone National Park; ancient and modern Native cultures; legacies of transportation, especially of railways, in the American West; and histories of local industry, including ranching and rodeo. Outdoor exhibits include a one-room school house, a historic blacksmiths shop, and an original Northern Pacific Railway caboose, complete with sleeping quarters.

Temporary exhibitions provide an exciting interpretive view of Park County. The museum also offers a flexible range of teaching materials for school groups to use at the museum or through outreach programs.

The museum houses a research room and numerous archives. Popular research tools include the full 1887-1940 voting records for the county; City of Livingston business registers; Polk Directories; a full, original index of proper names appearing in the early decades of the Park County newspapers. There is also a photographic archive containing more than 10,000 historic photographs. The Bill and Doris Whithorn photograph collection is available to view online.

The Yellowstone Gateway Museum was founded in 1964 by a passionate group of citizens. In 1977, the museum moved to Livingston’s historic, three-story North Side School building, purchased with funds from the community and Park County. Today it has a small full-time staff, a Park County Board of Directors, and Foundation Board of Trustees. However, many crucial tasks are still entrusted to a great corps of volunteers.  There are volunteer activities for all ages from 18 through 100 such as maintenance, docents, data input, collections care, interpretive development, exhibit fabrication, and more.