GMS Students Sign Their Names To Make History

During its state-wide tour, Sletten Construction made a stop at Glasgow Middle School on May 2 to allow the eighth-graders and a few lucky seventh-graders the opportunity to put their signatures on a beam that will be used in the Montana Historical Society's Topping Out celebration in Helena on May 17.

Topping out ceremonies are held to celebrate a major milestone in a construction project. When it's put into place, the beam will signify that the steel at the highest point of the new Montana Historical Center has been constructed. Often the workers, students and others connected to the project are given the opportunity to sign the topping out beams to be a part of history. These ceremonies also typically include putting a tree and a flag on the top beam, often hoisted to signal those below that the framing was complete.

"Sletten Construction, who is building the new heritage center, traditionally puts a small evergreen tree on top of the steel to symbolize the birth of a new building and also as a good luck reminder to protect the workers from accidents," said Sletten's project manager Colter Dahlstrom in a release.

In addition to Glasgow, the beam also made stops to 14 other schools around the state including Cascade, Browning, Shelby, Wolf Point, Boulder, Polson, Bonner, Butte, Livingston, Hardin, Billings and Helena, with the focus, depending on the size of the school, being mostly on fourth-grade and elementary students as part of the new fourth-grade Montana history textbook "Montana, A History of Our Home." Students were asked to sign the beam not only because they are leaning about Montana history but they are also living in historic times.

The signatures will be visible from the interior of the 66,000 square foot Montana Heritage Center, which is scheduled to open in late 2024 or early 2025.

The heritage center will be home to an expanded Montana Historical Society, where visitors can learn about Montana's history, from 14,000 years to the days of the wooly mammoths, through the present day. The new building will have two classrooms for students to explore Montana history and will also have expanded galleries so visitors will have the ability to see more of the art and artifacts held in trust by the Montana Historical Society, as part of it's goal to preserve, educate, and connect with Montana residents and visitors.

Though the full construction won't be completed right away, as the pens were passed around the students and staff of Glasgow Middle School who came out, there was certainly excitement in the air with comments being made such as "this is so cool!" and "I can't wait to see if when it's put up!"