Choteau's Old Trail Museum Closed for the Season, Then Turned Into the Town's Halloween Headquarters
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
The Old Trail Museum's posted season ended on Labor Day, Sept. 7. From Oct. 28 through Oct. 31 its grounds on North Main are open again for the Old Haunted Trail, the museum's first event of this kind. It wasn't planned as a tourist draw. Local groups built it for people who live in Teton County, and it gives an early look at what the tourism-grant money headed for the museum grounds is meant to pay for.
Every summer the museum runs on a fixed schedule. On its website, full seasonal hours run from May 23 through Labor Day. It is open Friday through Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday from noon to 4 p.m., and closed Wednesdays. After Sept. 7 the posted schedule stops.
The Old Haunted Trail runs well past that date. The Choteau Acantha reported that the museum has teamed up with Teton County CARES, the Teton County Health Department, Montana State University Extension, the Montana Discovery Foundation and Choteau High School groups to run the trail through the museum's building and grounds Oct. 28-31. There's no set admission. Free-will donations go to the nonprofit museum.
Bonnie Griffis, a museum board member, told the Acantha that the trail is a new way for the museum to raise money. She also hopes it is the first of several more inclusive community events held on the campus with other local organizations. She said the event is also meant to help the board and Director Sean Doyle improve the museum's community and education outreach.
The trail comes in two versions. Families get one hour each evening. The scarier version runs only on the last two nights.
On Halloween, the family trail ends at 5:30, the same minute the Trunk-or-Treat starts a few blocks south on Main. Trunk-or-Treat vehicles need to be backed up to the sidewalk and set up by 5:20 p.m. Katie and John Adams are organizing it again this year. Lea Yeager, the Chamber president, has been putting together a list of private homes giving out candy. The Chamber plans to hand that list out at the Trunk-or-Treat.
At the museum, Hodgskiss told the Acantha that the Choteau High School shop classes are building some of the props, and the CHS Pep Club is sending volunteers to help with setup, guided tours and cleanup. Costumes are welcome but not required. There will be pumpkin carving, face painting, hair tinseling and games, and possibly a cider press run by the Teton Bear Smart group. The whole event is tobacco-free.
Fairfield and Dutton are also holding Trunk-or-Treats on Oct. 31. Choteau High School is hosting the Northern District 1B volleyball tournament that weekend, with teams from Fairfield, Choteau, Conrad, Cut Bank, Shelby, Chinook and Fort Benton.
The partner list shows who the trail is for. Claire Hodgskiss of Bynum, the CARES coordinator at the Teton County Health Department, told the Acantha that CARES is a behavioral health coalition of 20 agencies. "Our focus is to improve the mental wellness and resiliency of Teton County residents," she told the Acantha. She said the coalition wants to support a safe gathering place that isn't home or school, where people can come together and have positive interactions.
The funding mixes two kinds of money. The trail is paid for mainly by grants from the Central Service Area Authority, a behavioral health initiative, together with 3 Rivers Communications, Sun River Electric Cooperative, the Choteau Tourism Business Improvement District and Central Montana Tourism. So tourism money and mental-health money are paying for the same Halloween event, held for locals on the museum grounds in the off-season. That same mix is behind the bigger project planned for the site.
In 2025 the Choteau Area Port Authority won funding from the Montana Department of Commerce's Pilot Community Tourism Grant Program. One of the three main projects is a new 1,500-square-foot interpretive center at the Old Trail Museum. According to the museum, it will hold expanded exhibits on Rocky Mountain Front wildlife, ecology, climate and weather. It will also host community meetings, workshops and events year-round. The Acantha reports it will also serve as the hub of the Visitor Center. This summer, about 11 volunteers staffed the center from the museum complex, according to the Acantha's Chamber coverage.
The museum says a local contractor has been awarded the construction job. In a spring Acantha story, Doyle described a plan to build where the Carriage House gift shop and possibly the bear cabin now stand. The target was a summer 2027 opening. After the new building is finished, the schoolhouse on the grounds will be rededicated as "Choteau: Yesteryear," focused on the area's human history. The main museum will focus on the Old North Trail and dinosaurs.
Mary Sexton chairs the Choteau Area Port Authority board and sits on the grant steering committee. She put it plainly in an interview with the Acantha:
"We want more people to stop here and stay longer, but we don't want to become a Whitefish or a Big Sky or anything like that. We want people to come through and enjoy what we have."
In the same interview she said "visitors and the community go hand in hand," because both use the same facilities. The Teton Weatherbeater Arena renovation follows the same idea. That work started this summer and adds a new kitchen, bathrooms that meet the Americans with Disabilities Act, insulation, updated heating, pipes and fencing. The Acantha reports that the arena renovation will use $432,600 of the grant, citing the Chamber's website, with completion planned for 2028. The third big project, a gallery expansion at the Montana Dinosaur Center in Bynum, is set to start construction in 2028 and finish in 2029.
The grant has already paid for some smaller things you can see around town. They include the picnic shelter in the Bynum Civic Club Park, repairs and paint for the Choteau Lions Club Swimming Pool, and storage and brochures for the Choteau Arts Studio and Gallery.
The second year of small-project grants is open now. Choteau Community Tourism has $25,500 to award, and each project can request up to $10,000. Applicants must be area nonprofits in good standing with the Secretary of State. Eligible projects include infrastructure for year-round facility use, accessibility and visitor experience, plus events and attractions that bring people to town. Applications are due Friday, Oct. 30, at 4 p.m. Awards will be announced Nov. 12. Questions go to grant coordinator Sandra Dogiakos at [email protected].
"Year-round facility use" is written right into the eligibility rules. The Haunted Trail puts that phrase into practice, with local groups using a summer museum in late October.
After Halloween, most events move indoors to the Stage Stop Inn and the courthouse block:
The Get Your Kicks at 6 group is planning next summer's series, with four free concerts in City Park. It may also add one or two winter concerts at the Roxy Theatre, so the summer series could have a winter extension too.
If you're driving in from Fairfield, Great Falls or points south, the Choteau South project on US 89 is still active. On Oct. 14, the Montana Department of Transportation said paving was done for the corridor. Bridge rail, cable guardrail, topsoil and signs were still to come. Expect one-lane traffic, pilot cars, temporary signals and 35 mph speeds. The listed working hours are Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The detour bridge still has an 11-foot width limit. MDT's construction report tentatively lists bridge rail and guardrail installation for Oct. 26-30. Friday's 7 p.m. trail starts after the posted work hours end. All of the work depends on the weather.
Over the next few years, the north end of Main Avenue is set to change more than any other part of Choteau, and the Old Trail Museum grounds are where much of that work will happen. If you want to talk through what the grant projects mean for your corner of Teton County, Live In Montana Real Estate follows those plans closely. Connect with a Montana expert.
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