Fort Phil Kearny to Receive Addition, Amphitheater this Summer.

A Bird’s Eye View of the new Addition. Current Center is in Green, Addition is in Orange.

Fort Phil Kearny interpretative center will receive an update this summer. The current center and bookstore will be renovated, and there will be a new addition, and an outdoor amphitheater. The remodel will expand the bookstore and the area for interpretive materials.

At a Fort Phil Kearny/Bozeman Trail Association, (FPK/BTA) program held on Sunday, May 15, at Kearney Hall, Sharie Shada, Fort Phil Kearny Superintendent, presented an update on the new Shining Mountain Interpretative Center.

Shada said that in 2021,

She showed a slide of what the center would look like with the new addition and amphitheater. She said that Plan One/Architects from Cody are designing the addition. She said that the Medicine Lodge Archaeological Site near Hyattville, Wyoming, also received a grant for their center, and Plan One is working on designing their site as well.

She said the new addition will be two stories, with a ground floor and a basement level where you can walkout to the amphitheater. The amphitheater will have a view of the Big Horn Mountains, Shada said. There will be a wheelchair lift as well for handicapped visitiors. There will be a covered entrance to the new addition.

The amphitheater will seat 50 people, which is approximately the number of visitors on a tour bus. Both the ground floor and the basement addition will have 1000 square feet. The current bookshop and interpretative area will be renovated. There will be a breezeway to connect the two buildings.

The fort will remain open for tours during the construction, although the old visitor center, built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, (CCC), will replace the current interpretative center until the new one is ready. There is a diorama of the fort and the bookstore in the building.

Shada shared the program with Dave Mckee, president of the FPK/BTA who gave a talk titled, “The Bozeman Trail: A Journey to National Historic Trail Designation.”

A story on his talk will be posted later on sheridanmedia.com