Public Memory and Historic Preservation in Western Mining Museums

MontanaHistoricalSociety

As an integral and formative part of the Rocky Mountain West, mining helped shape public attitudes toward the land, labor unions, cultural and social mores, and community development. The ways in which mining history is preserved and presented does the same. Dr. Dayle Hardy-Short, professor of communication studies at Northern Arizona University, provides a preliminary overview of topics, organizational structures, and historical approaches used in mining museums in Montana and elsewhere across the West.