Welcome! Visitor’s Guide – 11
ZooMontana The Surging, ZooMontana is a 70-acre wildlife Thundering Herd park located in Billings, Montana. The Yellowstone Art Museum announces the opening of a new exhibit entitled The Surging, Thundering Herd: Vintage Bison engravings, 1758-1910. These early artworks, drawn from the Lee Silliman Print Collection, are on a statewide tour under the aegis of the Montana Art Gallery Directors’ Association. The exhibit features a cornucopia of 51 original engravings depicting the iconic mammal of the American frontier West—the buffalo. The engravings, spanning 152 years of art, were created by European artists who never saw the animal (they copied shamelessly), and by artists who witnessed these massive beasts in the wild before their near extinction in the 1880s. The media include early copper plate engravings, wood engravings, chromolithographs, and early 1900s color lithographic postcards. Some images are beautifully handtinted. Many images were drawn from poplar 19th century American periodicals, such as Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, as well as from other lesser known American and European publications. The prints are mounted in handsome hardwood frames and are annotated with historical commentary. Prominent frontier painters whose derivative prints are featured in the exhibit include Frederic Remington, George Catlin, and Karl Bodmer. Many aspects of the bison story are illuminated in this exhibit: the animal in its wild state amongst Frédéric Theodore Lix, Indiens des Prairies its natural enemies; techniques Chassant le Bison, 1892, chromolithograph. Photo courtesy of Lee Silliman. for hunting the bison by Native Americans and whites; the centrality of buffalo in Native American culture; and the nearly total extermination of the bison in the late 1800s. Images and commentary unite to paint the story. The exhibition is on view August 16 – October 14, 2018. In lieu of the museum’s usual opening reception, the public is invited to a lecture by Lee Silliman 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Thursday, September 6th. Lee Silliman is a retired educator and museum employee living in Missoula, Montana. Since early childhood he has nurtured a strong interest in the art and history of the frontier American West. His interests have spawned many articles and the editing of five books. He has presented conference lectures, taught workshops, and led four educational group tours. Since 1988 Silliman has assembled and circulated numerous fine art exhibits which have been displayed in one hundred venues throughout Montana and ten other states. The exhibition and reception are free to museum members. The general public is encouraged to become members, but may also take advantage of all the museum’s exhibition offerings and other programs for a single admission fee. Check the museum’s website for more details, www.artmuseum.org.
As Montana’s only zoo and botanical park, they focus on wildlife native to Montana, the Rockies, and other cold temperature regions at or above the 45th Parallel. Indoor habitats include animals from around the world. Canyon Creek runs through the center of the zoo’s grounds, creating a natural and tranquil park-like setting.
Animals at the zoo: • Eastern Screech Owl
• Golden Eagle
• Red Panda
• African Pygmy Hedgehog
• Gray Wolf
• Red-Tailed Boa Constrictor
• American Mink
• Great Horned Owl • Green Aracari
• Rubber Boa
• Green Iguana
• Sichuan Takin
• Grizzly Bear
• Sonoran Gopher Snake
• Amur Tiger • Bald Eagle • Ball Python • Belgian Draft horse
• Laughing Kookaburra
• Bison
• Leopard Gecko
• Canada Lynx
• Madagascar Day Gecko
• Cane Toad • Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula • Chinchilla • Corn Snake • Domestic Goat • Flemish Giant Rabbit
• Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches • Milk Snake • North American Beaver
• Swainson’s Hawk • Three Banded Armadillo • Three Toed Box Turtle • Tiger Salamander • Turkey Vulture • Uromastyx Lizard
• North American River Otter
• Western Hognose Snake
• Peregrine Falcon
• White’s Tree Frog
