A Mecca for the Gallatin Valley’s curious minds, the Museum of the Rockies is never in short supply of special events to accompany its many exhibits. Here’s a look at some upcoming happenings at your neighborhood museum.
The Gallatin History Museum Lecture Series continues with “World War I in 
Montana: The Treasure State Prepares” on Wednesday, May 1st in Hager Auditorium at 6pm. Author Ken Robison will share local stories researched during the writing of his latest book of the same name, which covers the dramatic first year of the war, as the U.S. and Montana mobilized and prepared for a decisive role in the Great War. This event is open to the public.
More than one hundred years ago, on April 6, 1917, the United States went into a war, a conflict that would have a profound effect at home and abroad. For Montana, this was a war of opportunity for many, trouble for some, and change for all. On that fateful day, the United States, at last, entered a European war, a war that had been raging since 1914. The oceans around us were shrinking, and the world, the U.S., and Montana would never be the same.
It is hard today to comprehend how vitally important, Montana, The Treasure State’s forestry, mining, smelting, and, refining were to the national war effort. It has been said, with a lot of truth to it, that every bullet fired in World War I was encased in Butte copper, and the world was “wired” by copper from Great Falls refineries. In addition, Montana’s amber waves of grain helped feed a starving world. And, Montana’s cowboys, miners, foresters, farmers, nurses, and other women, went to war to win, under the battle cry, “Powder River, Let ‘Er Buck” that would resonate on the battlefields in France. Montana men served in the Great War in a greater percentage than any other state.
To kick off another season of Hops & History, MOR will join forces with Fermentana for a Trivia Brew Party at Montana Ale Works. Set for Tuesday, May 7th, the event coincides with Bozeman Craft Beer Week and features sessions at 5:30pm and 7:30pm. Seats are $45 per person and include small-plate pairings and beer tasting. Advance tickets required. Must be 21+. Learn more about the Trivia Brew Party and all things Hops & History on page xxx.
Bozeman Art Museum, a local collective of skilled individuals dedicated to the opening of an official space, presents an evening with sculptor Deborah Butterfield at MOR on Thursday, May 9th at 6:30pm. Bozeman Art Museum’s mission is to inspire and foster creativity and the love of art through diverse and high-quality exhibits, programs, classes and lectures. It envisions a place where people of all ages can go to experience the transformational power of art.
On Wednesday, May 15th, the next edition of this season’s Science Inquiry Lecture Series, “Using Technology to Fight the Flu – One Cell at a Time”, will begin at 7pm in Hager Auditorium. This presentation is open to the public.
How can technology be used to combat stubborn viruses like influenza? Dr. Connie Chang, assistant professor in MSU’s Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, will discuss how creating and processing tiny droplets containing individual virus-infected cells can help to develop therapies to fight viral diseases.
Looking to Thursday, May 23rd, the Extreme History Project Lecture series returns with “People and Place: The Seasonal Round in the Old North Corridor” at 6pm. The lecture will be held in Hager Auditorium and is open to the public.
The Old North Trail, running along Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, was an indigenous transportation corridor central to a historic food system. Archaeologists are confident native people followed large game animals into this area between retreating ice sheets some 12,000 years ago. The unique topographic and botanical attributes of this windswept corridor created a vital landscape that nurtured native buffalo culture through the 19th century. As part of a larger indigenous environmental history, Jill Mackin’s research documents ancestral ties to this bioregion through foodways and examines the relationship between biodiversity and cultural diversity.
Also at MOR, NEW exhibit The Real Genghis Khan opens for the summer months on May 18th. Explore the culture, conquests, and heritage of one of the world’s greatest conquerors, when the treasures and stories of Genghis Khan’s 
Mongol Empire are presented in Bozeman for the first time. The Genghis Khan exhibition offers an adventure in the vast grassland of Central Asia, amid the relics of Genghis Khan’s reign.
Experience life in 13th-century Mongolia, entering the tents, battlegrounds, and marketplaces of a vanished world. Explore Genghis Khan’s life and those of his sons and grandsons during the formation, peak, and decline of the Mongol Empire. View rare treasures with more than 200 spectacular objects on display to illustrate this story, including gold jewelry and ornaments, silk robes, musical instruments, pottery, sophisticated weaponry, and numerous other fascinating relics and elaborate artifacts.
Enter the exotic atmosphere of ancient Mongolia and meet the man Time and The Washington Post named as “the most important person of the last millennium.” Visit this spectacular and uniquely interactive exhibition that tells the story of Genghis Khan – his life, his land, his people, his culture and his enduring legacy.
MOR members, please note: a special exhibition preview for The Real Genghis Khan is set for Friday, May 17th from 5–7pm.
For more information about these and other upcoming events, as well as the Museum’s exhibits, visit www.museumoftherockies.org.
