Rotted ceilings, toilets that can’t flush and a shoddy electrical system are just a few of the problems plaguing the former executive residence for Montana’s governor. Oh, and it’s also full of asbestos.

The fate of the 67-year-old building could be decided soon. In a survey that closed last month, the state Department of Administration asked the public what they think should happen to the vacant house: 

• Demolish it and turn the land into a park.
• Remodel it for use as something else besides a home.
• Sell it off.

The DOA’s Capitol Complex Advisory Council will present the survey results and cost models for consideration at its next meeting. The date for that meeting isn’t set yet, according to DOA Communications Director Janna Williams. 

Years and millions of dollars worth of deferred maintenance have led to the sad state of the governor’s executive residence, located just up the road from the Capitol at 2 Carson St. It has sat empty for the last five years, after Gov. Greg Gianforte and his wife moved out of the home in 2021 just nine months into his first term to make space for renovations that never came. 

Last month, Misty Ann Giles, the director of the Montana Department of Administration, which manages government-owned properties within a 10-mile radius of the Capitol, laid out the “critical” condition of the residence.

“They [past governors] have prioritized other state infrastructure over their own house,” Giles said at a December meeting of the community group called Hometown Helena. 

Maintenance issues that need to be addressed include a roof replacement, asbestos abatement, repairs to rotting exterior fixtures and complete demolition and replacement of the entire electrical, HVAC and plumbing systems, according to a presentation from the Capitol Complex Advisory Council.

When Gianforte, who sold the tech company he founded to Oracle in 2012 for about $1.5 billion, vacated the Carson Street home, he and his wife purchased a home in Helena’s Mansion District on the other side of downtown from the Capitol. They lived there before purchasing the historic Samuel T. Hauser mansion in 2024, with plans to donate the property to the state after he leaves office in 2028 at the end of his second term. 

Gianforte’s two personal homes, plus the executive residence by the Capitol and the original governor’s mansion just off downtown that’s now used as a museum, mean that there are four homes in Helena that have been called the governor’s mansion at some point.

Montana Free Press was able to tour the now-decrepit executive residence on Carson Street, providing photos of the state of the home, and also collected photos of the other mansions that have housed governors.

EXECUTIVE RESIDENCE NEAR THE CAPITOL

The 12,000-square-foot Carson Street mansion was built in 1959 and designed by Billings architect Chandler C. Cohagen. The two-level property is meant to resemble a ship as the “Ship of State,” pointed towards the Big Belt Mountains, with the design described as “western, naturally,” by Cohagen.

In a 2007 Montana Quarterly interview with Cohagen, he said the design of the home was to “meet entertainment requirements.”

The property has six bedrooms, four bathrooms, a 350-square-foot kitchen, a ballroom, hosting and dining spaces and a three-car garage, with about 1.2 acres of green space.

The Executive Residence, built in 1959 designed after a ship as the “Ship of State,” is currently uninhabitable due to an array of maintenance issues including roof replacement, asbestos abatement, repairs to rotting exterior fixtures and complete demolition and replacement of the entire electrical.

THE ORIGINAL GOVERNOR’S MANSION

The Original Governor’s Mansion was built in 1888 by William Chessman, not with the intention of becoming the executive residence, but as a private property. The mansion, located at 304 N. Ewing St., has Queen Anne-style architecture that towers three stories high. 

The state assumed ownership of the mansion in 1913, when it became the first official governor’s residence, and it subsequently housed the families of nine governors until the Carson Street property was built, according to the Montana Historical Society.

The property is now partially managed by the DOA and the Montana Historical Society, serving as a museum. It is currently closed for renovations.

The Original Governor’s Mansion, at 304 N. Ewing St., built in 1888 by William Chessman is seen in photos provided by the Montana Historical Society as the mansion’s porch undergoes renovations.

HISTORIC SAMUEL T. HAUSER MANSION

The Hauser Mansion was built in 1885 by pioneer entrepreneur and Montana Territorial Governor Samuel T. Hauser. In 1913, the mansion, at 720 Madison Ave., was purchased by Bishop John P. Carroll and was the home of succeeding bishops. Then in 1969, the home was purchased by then-Gov. Tim Babcock, who restored the mansion to its original character. 

Gianforte announced the purchase of the mansion in January 2024 from former owner Gary Rapaport, for $4 million. 

“We purchased the beautiful and historic Hauser House to call our home here in Helena, and to provide a space for the people of Montana to come together,” Gianforte said after the initial announcement. “Following my service, we will donate this home to the State and the people of Montana.”

The DOA plans to take over management responsibilities of the Hauser residence for future governors and their families, Williams told MTFP.

The Hauser Mansion, at 720 Madison Ave, is the mansion Gov. Gianforte current Helena residence and is seen in historical photos from the Library of Congress.

GIANFORTE’S OTHER MANSION DISTRICT HOUSE

Gianforte also owns another mansion in Helena, 618 Madison Ave., which is for sale and currently listed for $1.25 million. According to Zillow, the property received a $100,000 price reduction earlier this month. 

The property has been live on Zillow, a real estate and housing company, for about a year and a half.

Gov. Greg Gianforte’s other mansion in Helena, 618 Madison Ave., is currently for sale for $1.25 million and is seen on Jan 9, 2026, in Helena.

The post What will be the fate of the governor’s mansion? appeared first on Montana Free Press.

The start of January will mark my first six months at Montana Free Press as the visual fellow. Before coming to MTFP, I worked at daily newspapers and much of my job was keeping up with the day-to-day grind — running here, there and everywhere for quick photos. 

At MTFP I still run here, there and everywhere, but without daily publication pressure, I have the gift of time. Throughout my six months here, most of my favorite images have come from longer-term stories I’ve worked on with reporters, including some reporting trips around the state. Together we can sink into a story, the people and the connection. That time allowed me to be more thoughtful in the images I created, ensuring that I am not only accurately and honestly portraying hard, traumatic stories but also doing so with respect, gentleness and care. Below are 10 of my favorite images from these last six months.

I wanted to start with this image because it speaks to where I’ve spent a lot of my time in my tenure at MTFP thus far. I made it while up in Libby in October as the sky faded into night and I was driving back from a run. I was up there working on a story about the asbestos lawsuits with reporter Mara Silvers. As the first visual staffer for MTFP, a big part of my job at the outset was building a visual archive to help illustrate the array of stories we tell across the state. While we cover the whole state, we didn’t have many images of it, so while I was out on reporting trips I would also get photos of places like the local courthouse, city council chambers, rivers and downtowns to use for future stories. Though this image isn’t directly about the story Mara wrote in Libby during that trip, it will be helpful for stories to come.

Nita Rowland sits in her La-Z-Boy with her dog on Aug. 25, 2025, outside of Laurel. Rowland’s home is filled to the brim with family photos, drying flowers, and craft items that reflect the life her family has built on their property outside of Laurel since 1962. I made this image while working with Eric Dietrich on his reporter residency story profiling the hotly contested NorthWestern Energy plant a year after it started running.

Another aspect I love about my job is the closeness it allows with not only people but also animals, even if sometimes that closeness comes with lots of poop and mud on my boots. At this moment, reporter Nora Mabie and I were up in Two Medicine visiting the Mad Plumes’ family home as dusk settled around us on Nov. 5, 2025.

This portrait is of Susan and Bradley Davidson holding a photo featuring their daughter, Amy Young, at upper right. Young was a nurse in a state-mandated addiction recovery program who died by suicide in January. Her family said she felt there was no path back to her career.

Attendees at the Turning Point USA event at Montana State University talk and play around before Ohio politician Vivek Ramaswamy takes the stage on Oct. 7, 2025, in Bozeman. The event also featured Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, who spoke about Charlie Kirk, who was shot a month earlier, and the life he lived.

Maria Pacheco, the wife of Christopher Martinez Marvan, holds her daughter’s hand while speaking to the media after her husband’s hearing at the Russell Smith Federal Courthouse on July 10, 2025, in Missoula. Marvan was detained by ICE agents in Helena.

I work with both the state team and local team at MTFP. Matt Hudson, the Great Falls local reporter, had been working on a piece about Toby’s House, a crisis nursery center that helps fill child care gaps for local families. He had the piece all but done so I drove up and spent the morning with him at Toby’s House and this image of a child sleeping upstairs during nap time came from it.

David Gwerder, owner of the Owl Bar, tends bar during a memorial fundraiser on Sept. 27, 2025, in Anaconda. The bar reopened after being closed for more than a month following a shooting that left four residents dead. Patrons filled the small tavern for a benefit to establish a fund for the victims and their families, including an effort to erect a memorial stone featuring photos of the victims.

As the summer wound down, I found myself in Missoula and decided to dip my toes in the Clark Fork, which we always need images of, to cool off. There I found the Schillhammer family skipping rocks and swimming as they enjoyed their final moments of freedom before the start of the school year on Aug. 20, 2025.

I collaborated with reporter Zeke Lloyd for one of our first photo essays at MTFP. Excited by the prospect of photographing a cattle auction and fueled by the knowledge of record-high beef prices, I jetted off eastward for a morning at the Billings Livestock Commission. Ranchers unloaded livestock, cattle mooed in intervals and the creak of the mechanical gates opening and closing intermingled with the syllabled spew of the auctioneer, all while Dustin Irgens held his sleeping granddaughter, Ember, waiting for his cattle to sell. 

The post My 10 favorite photos of 2025 appeared first on Montana Free Press.

On sidewalks across Uptown Butte the sun shimmers through translucent three-foot-tall blocks of ice. Business owners, teachers, construction managers and other ice artists ready their chisels and saws. 

Over the next six hours, 33 teams of people from Butte, Libby, Anaconda and Belgrade will chip, shave and ultimately transform the melting rectangles into glistening sculptures. It’s Dec. 14 and I’m here, camera in hand, because I wanted to capture it all for you before the sun melted the sculptures away. Along the way I thought I might also pick up some tips — for future contestants, like maybe even yours truly — on how to win.

Since the annual carving contest began 25 years ago, Butte has seen all types of animals, Santas and even a Marilyn Monroe disqualified for being “too risque.” Aside from family-friendly aesthetics, the rules are pretty straightforward. Teams of up to two people are allowed to use approved hand tools — as in nothing mechanical or electric — to carve whatever they want, however they want, so long as they do “not add elements that were not a part of the original ice block.”

“Torches can be used for finishing touches ONLY and may not be used to aid in the carving of sculptures,” according to the rules.  

Teams are judged in three categories: the master class, which includes previous grand prize winners; beginners, which includes anyone with up to three years of carving experience; and the adult class, meaning everyone else of any age.

According to Melanie Mangione and Chris Berryhill, two professional ice carvers who served as this year’s judges along with local business owner Carrie Fisher, great carvers think about the block from every angle: as a three-dimensional sculpture, not just a two-dimensional image. Most of the blocks are displayed on the sidewalk for that purpose, so onlookers can move around the ice. Judges look for form, craftsmanship and symmetry, and how much is taken away, repurposed or reused. But as with every powerful piece of art, it most importantly comes down to feeling. 

“When you’re doing ice, one of the best things you can do for a piece is consider a moment in time, right, something that is natural, that evokes emotion or motion,” Mangione, a former Butte Grand Champion winner, told me as she snapped photos of a sculpture to reference in judging later.

“For example, like a fish swimming in a sculpture is going to be more appealing than if somebody does a house, because, you know, a house is static,” Berryhill, Mangione’s teammate, added while trying to wrangle their excited cattledog. “It’s always going to be the same, but the fish is a moment in time, so it’s actually, you know, caught in a movement.”

Beyond that, there is no single way to ensure you get a medal. Even the masters profess vastly different approaches. 

Frank Hall, a graphic designer who has placed as Grand Champion multiple times, starts out by picking his design, printing the image as a reference and scratching a rough outline on the ice before carving. With higher than normal temperatures this year he decided to go with a more stable, less advanced design — an abominable snowman reaching for a star. 

“It was already in there,” said Hall, who has been carving ice since the competition’s inception. “I just got rid of everything else.” 

Justin DiShazo, who has also won multiple times, waits for inspiration to strike when he arrives.

“I get up here. I look at the ice,” said DiShazo, a painter by trade. “And sometimes I’ll just be able to see what’s there.” 

He used to plan more, but “every time I planned, it never worked out, and always was terrible, and I would hate the result,” he said while chipping away at the bottom of his sculpture. “Now I just try to show up and do a good job and hope that people dig it.”  

This year he saw an ouroboros— a snake devouring its tail, a symbol of infinity. To get a more realistic snake look, DiShazo used a sponge to smooth half of the creature and a chisel to make scale-like indentations on the other half. One thing DiShazo does especially well is create delicate pieces with different textures and fine details. The judges like that. 

“His piece was essentially the most delicate, the most challenging, because he had a very fine sculpture within it with those big holes,” said Mangione, the judge. “Not only that, but the circumference, the diameter of each snake as it continued through the body, was regular. It wasn’t lumpy … We really liked the stylization of the head and the fine detail that he put in the scales for, like, the top of the body.”

That commitment to detail earned DiShazo the grand champion prize: $500, a trophy and vouchers to spend at businesses in Uptown Butte. (First and second place also receive these vouchers.) While DiShazo retained his crown for another year, John Blanchard and Cody Powell, who carved a vulture and placed first in the adult category, were hot on his tail.

“They came very, very close to winning grand champion,” Mangione said. “He’s only been carving a couple years, so I expect he’ll bump up.”

DiShazo insisted that it’s not about winning, but spending a day outside, creating something temporary to share.

“As time passes and weather fluctuates, it melts, and it gets this really sort of beautiful sheen,” DiShazo said. “People can appreciate it and all the different stages as it disappears. And if that’s not a testament to the human experience — let’s just appreciate things as they disappear.”

The post How to win the Butte ice-carving competition appeared first on Montana Free Press.

A decades-long push to give Montana a modernized state history museum in Helena came to a wrap Tuesday with an official ribbon cutting on a new $107 million facility.

With a 70,000-square-foot addition to an existing 95,000-square-foot building, the revamped Montana Heritage Center will put a broader slice of the museum’s 60,000-item collection on display for public inspection.

“This isn’t just brick and mortar and steel. This embodies the soul of who we are as Montanans — where we’ve come from and where we’re going,” Tim Fox, the Montana Historical Society’s board president and a former state attorney general, said during the Tuesday opening ceremony.

Among the highlights of the expanded facility, which is located across the street from the state Capitol, are an extensive array of artifacts from Montana’s history, ranging from Ice Age relics to a nugget purportedly sourced from the Last Chance Gulch gold strike that resulted in Helena’s founding. The building also includes rotating exhibit space, classrooms, a cafe and an extensive gallery dedicated to prolific cowboy artist Charles M. Russell.

Both the history exhibits and the new Russell gallery include items from the museum’s collection that were previously kept in storage by space constraints.

Many treasures caught our eye Tuesday as the historical society invited reporters to roam the exhibits briefly in advance of the public opening. Here are five that stood out:

#1 —PIKUNI MOCCASINS

The entrance to the museum’s permanent Montana history exhibit includes an array of shoes intended to represent Montanans from many different eras. Among them are a pair of impeccably preserved Pikuni, or Blackfeet, moccasins donated to what is now the historical society in the 1890s.

A few feet away from the moccasins are a pair of combat boots once worn by Candice Griffith, who became the first Montana woman to lead soldiers as an officer in Afghanistan during a 2010 Montana Army National Guard deployment.

#2 — AN IMMIGRANT’S STEAMER TRUNK

The labeling on this steamer trunk indicates it accompanied a Helena-bound European immigrant as they journeyed toward what was then the Montana territory, presumably during the era when potential gold rush riches were a major draw into the state.

It’s a favorite of curator Aaron Genton, who said the trunk was actually found at an antique store, leaving the identity of its former owner a mystery. 

“We really wanted to do justice to the number and types of people who have called Montana home over the years,” Genton said. “And so, to me, it’s really compelling to think of somebody internationally who packed up their whole lives in a trunk like this and moved here, brought it here.”

# 3 — A YELLOWSTONE STAGECOACH

This Minerva stagecoach used by early Yellowstone National Park tourists is among the larger objects on display in the main history exhibit — and one that space constraints in the old building previously kept in storage.

“It’s a beautiful coach, but it’s also really interesting to think about how tourists traveled through Yellowstone on coaches like this, on extremely bumpy roads and extremely dusty roads,” said curator Amanda Streeter Trum. “It’s just kind of fun to think about how they experienced the park.”

While the stagecoach’s age means museum staff must take care when moving it, Streeter Trum noted it’s still “technically operational.”

# 4 — CHARLIE RUSSELL’S UNFINISHED SCULPTURE

Russell was working on this wax-and-plaster sculpture as a Christmas gift for his wife when he died in October 1926, said curator Jennifer Bottomly-O’looney. Among the incomplete details is a missing arm on the stagecoach driver.

#5 — A COVID-19 MASK

Museum staff said that they’re continuing to collect new artifacts as the present day is transformed into history. Among the newer items on display is a face mask from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“None of us really thought that the face masks we were wearing were going to be museum artifacts one day, but they’re literally historic,” Genton said. “You never know when you’re living through the moment that could become the past.”

The new museum building was funded with a combination of state and private dollars, including $60 million in private donations and more than $40 million in state funds, according to the historical society. The public dollars are primarily money from a percentage-point increase to the state’s lodging tax approved by lawmakers in 2019 after years of failed efforts to push funding for the museum through the state Legislature. 

The museum project was supported by philanthropic gifts from more than 1,300 donors, including a $25 million gift from the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, a $10.4 million gift from Norm Asbjornson and a $5 million gift from BNSF Railway. Dennis Washington, an industrialist who is Montana’s wealthiest person, and Asbjornson, who built a major heating and ventilation company after growing up in rural Montana, both spoke at Tuesday’s opening ceremony, as did Gov. Greg Gianforte.

The museum has free admission and is open to the public seven days a week starting Wednesday.

The post 5 Montana treasures to see at the state’s new history museum appeared first on Montana Free Press.

BILLINGS — At a 23-acre facility on the east side of Billings along Interstate 90, cattle trucked in from across Montana and northern Wyoming huff cloudy breath into the chilly morning air. It’s around 8 a.m. on Oct. 30.

Auction workers shuffle into a small, dusty building where a TV plays reruns of Western classics. They slide into chaps, shrug on well-loved Carhartt jackets, take final swigs of coffee and punch their time cards before venturing toward their horses. Outside, strands of sunlight warm the dozens of pens that make up the Billings Livestock Commission’s cattle yard. 

Throughout the ensuing 12-hour event, about 300 ranchers and their roughly 4,300 cattle will move through the pens and into the adjoining auction house, shuffling through a series of mechanical gates until they reach the dirt-, mud- and manure-covered floor where buyers’ eyes scrutinize the livestock. 

More cattle travel through this auction lot, and another in Billings owned by the same family, every year than any other in Montana, according to reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Local livestock commissions connect ranchers with out-of-state feedlots, large facilities that fatten cattle for three to 10 months before slaughtering them, through a competitive bidding process. 

In mid-October, cattle prices at auction regularly surpassed $4 per pound — marking their highest point in decades, according to Joe Goggins, whose family owns the Billings Livestock Commission and Public Auction Yards, another facility in Billings. The Federal Reserve indicates the prices for feeder cattle and replacement cattle — animals intended to repopulate herds rather than head for slaughter — have more than doubled since September 2021. We visited an auction at the end of October to try to understand how a 600-pound animal gets priced and sold.

Eric Belasco, a professor of agricultural economics at Montana State University, said the increased price of cattle can be traced back to the rising expense of maintaining a herd, including the elevated cost of hay exacerbated by a regional drought. 

The number of cattle currently in the U.S. has been in decline since 1973, partly tied to things like an enduring drought. The total is now about what it was in 1960. Over the last five years, the number of cattle in Montana has decreased by about 250,000 head, a drop of around 15%. 

Clint Johannes, who ranches near Worden, sold cattle at the auction on Oct. 23 and attended the auction the week of Oct. 30. He said that even with the increased sale price as a product of low supply, he’s not getting rich.

“All our margins are incredibly small. This is a business. We want to have a profit. My family, we do it because it is a lifestyle, because it is what I want to do, what I want my boys to do,” Johannes said.

Johannes calves at his family’s ranch from the beginning of March until the end of April. He said selling in late October gives him a lot of time to fatten animals and ultimately puts him up against a less competitive market.

“We’re selling against a lot of folks who calve a little later,” Johannes said. “They’re gonna be bringing in 550-pound steers where we’re bringing in 650- to 700-pound steers.”

But Johannes also said that a buyer values cattle based on the animal’s frame in addition to its weight. A “robust” cow, as opposed to an overweight one, is more appealing to buyers, according to Johannes. 

Johannes administers multiple rounds of vaccines and chemical treatments to his herd ahead of auction. A healthier cow can grow faster in the feedlots, where they are eventually slaughtered and sold to the meat-packing industry, giving purchasers an incentive to spend more on healthy animals.

“If I keep my herd in good condition and I buy quality cows — and quality bulls — and I have a good vaccination program, that should translate to a better price,” Johannes said.

Auctioneer David Johnson works to help the Billings Livestock Commission determine the starting price point for bidding on cattle.

The bidding process often takes less than a minute. A herd of cows, or sometimes a single animal, dances under the gaze of buyers while auctioneers maintain a rhythm of fast-paced filler sounds between words. When the bidding stops, the auctioneer announces the sale price and the cattle run out another door. 

The dozens of sellers — rural Montana and Wyoming cattle ranchers — sit on the edge of their seats. For them, the end of October can be a crucial time to sell so that they don’t have to keep buying food for the cattle when the snow blows in. 

The buyers at this sale — about 10 to 20 total — represent feedlots. The number of livestock sold varies by seller. Virtually all the cows are destined to become food, served in restaurants or sold in grocery stores about a year or two years after they’re sold at auction. 

Before they’re sold as beef, fattened cattle pass from feedlots into the beef-packing industry. Four companies control about 85% of the latter market. Concern that the ultra-powerful players might be artificially inflating prices boiled into an official investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice endorsed by Republican President Donald Trump early November. 

On the early end of the supply chain, Johannes makes his yearly income all at once on auction day, which ranchers call “shipping day.” 

“Do you enjoy when you get your paycheck? Every two weeks or every month, everybody gets a little euphoric feeling when they open up that envelope. We get that once a year,” Johannes said. “So is there stress involved? Absolutely.”

But the payoff is more significant to him than money, even when it’s as big as it was this year. 

“You’ve succeeded, you’ve made it across the finish line,” Johannes said. “I’ve done the best I can with what I had available and I gave those buyers the best product I could. So there’s pride.”

The post A morning at one of the state’s busiest cattle auctions appeared first on Montana Free Press.

The longtime local watering hole opened again last week, for the first time after four people were shot and killed there in August. Michael Paul Brown, the suspect in the killings, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of deliberate homicide, as well as arson, theft and intentionally evading law enforcement during a weeklong manhunt.

Patrons filled the tiny tavern for a benefit to create a fund to honor victims and their families, including an effort to erect a memorial stone with photos of the Anacondas who were killed: 59-year-old Daniel Edwin Baillie, 64-year-old Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 70-year-old David Allen Leach, and 74-year-old Tony Wayne Palm. 

The fundraiser was organized by Bonnie Murphy, Debby Dubois, Meagan Parker and Abby Hintz, and included donated food, a 50/50 raffle, a silent auction, live music, a memorial ceremony and lots of hugging.

In the neighborhood surrounding the bar, which Brown lived next door to, “Anaconda Strong” signs pepper the windows of homes. 

“Everybody here is family,” said Stacy Haldane. “Honest to God … if you’re born and raised here, you know everybody or you’re related to everybody.” 

“Everybody here is family… Honest to God … if you’re born and raised here, you know everybody or you’re related to everybody.” 

Stacy Haldane

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