One of my many goals for 2013 is to publish a book about some of the historic, rotting buildings that are hidden deep inside Montana’s interior. I got the idea after learning the sad news that a beautiful, old grain elevator in the small town of Lothair, Montana (just east of Shelby) was torn down last summer. To many who were accustomed to seeing it, I suppose, it was an eye sore. But to me that grain elevator stood vigil over Montana’s plains and the distant Sweet Grass Hills…and deserved a much better fate. Fortunately I managed to capture a beautiful iconic photo of that once proud structure before it was torn down and its weathered, aging barn boards used to line the inside of a trendy condominium or bar somewhere back east.

Take a journey through the National Register of Historic Places and you will see that many of Montana’s truly historic gems are not at all included. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of historic, architectural gems rotting away in the fields and small towns of rural Montana that deserve to be saved. And these are just the ones I know about. My goal is to spend much of my time photographing as many of these locations as possible.

I have a map I began maintaining several years ago. It includes those aging Montana buildings I hope to photograph in 2013.

If you know of any other exceptionally old buildings that contain a certain architectural flair and/or historic significance please be sure to let me know. I would love to add them to my map.