ENCHANTED forest

“Kevin had created a similar park in Midlands, Ireland, called Lough Boora Discovery Park, and after multiple visits here, he was inspired by Montana so much that he envisioned it happening here,” she says.

On one visit, O’Dwyer spied an iconic industrial artifact (formerly used to burn wood byproduct) known simply as the TeePee Burner, where Delaney Sawmill used to be. “He immediately said, ‘That’s the icon, that’s the beginning,’ and we brought it to the land and gave it a new home,” Garland says.

Known for modifying industrial artifacts to create contemporary art, O’Dwyer wanted to recreate the glow of fire at night seen in the TeePee Burner. He used photovoltaic cells to drive LED lighting, replicating the luminosity seen as wood burned.

Once O’Dwyer’s inaugural piece was finished, creative invitations were extended to internationally recognized environmental artists known for creating art in nature. After studying Lincoln as a location, artists proposed their concepts, requested materials were gathered and each was given three weeks to complete a sculpture. The myriad focus of work that emerged is both symbolic and esoteric, highlights human existence and memory and honors place, landscape, material and story.

THE SCULPTURE PARK IS AN ANOMALY, something that could be found in the pages of an East Coast art quarterly, yet it’s wild. On the surface, it’s one of those delightfully improbable places that makes the world better. At its depth, it’s a complex look at the fabric of a town and why it’s important to embrace change in order to preserve it. Now in its tenth year, select artists fly into Montana from all over the world—Ireland, Finland, Denmark—to add to the collection. Last year’s installation featured work by an indigenous Montana artist.

“Key to our model is an educational program for kids,” Garland says. Each September, more than 300 students visit the sculpture park over the course of three weeks to meet the artists, learn about art in nature and then create their own sculptures using found objects.

Lincoln, Montana, is among a handful of American towns named for President Abraham Lincoln, who created the Montana Territory in 1864 about 25 years before it became the 41st state. Montana was once at the epicenter of industry in early American history. Known for copper and gold mining and eventually timber, Lincoln may be among the most unlikely towns on any map to be internationally famous for art.

Yet, somehow, it is.

BLACKFOOT PATHWAYS: SCULPTURE IN THE WILD is situated on 26 timbered acres, leased from the Department of Natural Resources Conservation in 2014. It’s the brainchild of Kevin O’Dwyer—an Irish sculptor known for large-scale work—and Lincoln knife maker Rick Dunkerley, who met by chance at the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle.

Blackfoot Pathways board president and native Lincoln resident Becky Garland remembers the day O’Dwyer and Dunkerley proposed creating a sculpture park celebrating the cultural and industrial history of Lincoln. And though it seemed out of left field, she was excited.

While celebrating the town’s past, the sculpture park drives important discussions, from environmental stewardship to economic sustainability. The critical message? Even when industry is long gone, small towns trying to reinvent themselves can thrive via new economic initiatives.

Art stirs emotion. Emotion compels action. Perhaps this ode to a town, this intersection between art and nature, in a place with great historical significance, is an emotional love letter we all deserve.