Bair Family Museum - Martinsdale

This house museum is a monument to beauty, hard work and luck. Charles M. Bair came to Montana in 1883 as a conductor on the Northern Pacific Railroad and went into the ranching business in 1891. He made his fortune in the Alaska gold rush and went on to invest in mining, oil and real estate. Bair was one of the most successful sheep owners in the world, at one time running over 300,000 head. Among his friends were Will Rogers, Chief Plenty Coups and many U.S. Presidents.

The Bair home was built around an old homestead house, finished in 1936, in time for Mr. and Mrs. Bair's Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary. Bair's daughters, Alberta and Marguerite, who were the last to live in the house, purchased many of the antiques and works of art on their frequent trips to Europe. A few of the Native American artifacts are displayed in the Pine room, the Bair's favorite, including a small beaded vest given to Alberta Bair at about age six by Chief Plenty Coups.

A trip to the Bair Home would allow the visitor to step into the home of one of Montana's most prosperous families. A collection of Paul Storr Silver fills the former dining room that also contains a Duncan Phyfe table along with an 18th century British sideboard.

One bathroom features gold fixtures and Norwegian rose marble. The Pine Room was the room in the house where the Bair Family lived and informally entertained. The walls and ceiling of the room are adorned with knotty pine that reportedly took two years to acquire from California.

The living room is dominated by a Crystal chandelier and features two urns or 'perfume burners' purportedly from the royal summer palace in Holland.

The Charles M. Bair Family Home is located one mile south of the Martinsdale turnoff on Highway 12 between White Sulphur Springs and Harlowton.