Next month when the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center (MCHF & WHC) hold their ceremony for the 14th class of inductions into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame on April 9, some art from Chinook, Montana, will be part of the event.

A resident of Lloyd and a three-year member of the Board of Directors for the MCHF, Clayton Hofeldt approached Ashley Liddle, a designer with Marie Laveau Creations who also works at Shores Floral, and Tomi Simenson, the owner of Shores Floral, about creating a piece that he would purchase and then donate to the Cowboy Hall of Fame Banquet.

"When Clayton commissioned the piece, all he said was that he wanted something with a cowboyish theme, so Tomi and I collaborated to create a sculpture of sorts with loops of lariat rope, a framed photograph of a longhorn, and a set of deer antlers with various silk accents," Liddle explained. "It's a Western piece with a little flare made possible with a King Protea as the focal point and surrounded by eucalyptus, twigs, berries, feathery pampas grass, and other filler vegetation."

Related to bamboo, rice, and wheat and cultivated worldwide, pampas grass is a flowering ornamental grass native to Argentina, Brazil, and other regions of South America. The two artists and floral designers saw the pampas grass at the Floral Convention in Great Falls as well as at the Las Vegas Market they attended in Nevada in January.

"Pampas grass is new right now and setting trends in 2022," Simenson said. "Favored for its soft, wispy quality, pampas grass adds instant texture to anything from a bouquet to a wedding ceremony backdrop."

The pampas grass used in the Western piece designed by Liddle and Simenson, however, is a silk likeness rather than the grass in its natural form.

Hofeldt explained how the piece will be used by the MCHF & WHC. "We have both silent and live auctions on Saturday in conjunction with the banquet, which itself is a fundraiser. The art created by Ashley and Tomi will likely go into the silent auction. The money raised will not only help pay for the induction ceremony but also support the development and eventual maintenance of our museum displays."

Initially, the MCHF had plans to partner with a museum in Big Timber to display their archives. When that plan didn't yield results, the organization partnered with the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls. Currently, they are working closely with Storyline Studio to plan their exhibits. "The vision is to have rotating displays featuring high-profile inductees and archives like the Cowboy Code and other artifacts connected to the Western way of life. We are also planning to have an interactive screen and a video that plays on a loop and explains the purpose of the Cowboy Hall of Fame. As the display grows-keep in mind this is an evolving plan that hasn't yet become reality-we'd like to have a kiosk where visitors to the museum can read inductee biographies and even search the archives to find information about their ancestors," Hofeldt stated.

Among those to be recognized at the MCHF & WHC gathering are Living Inductee: John W. "Jack" Young of Lloyd and Legacy Inductees: Jerome "Jerry" and Flora Kearful, formerly of Chinook. The MCHF & WHC plan to honor these inductees during the MCHF Annual Induction Ceremony and Western Heritage Gathering scheduled for April 9 in Great Falls at the Heritage Inn.

In mid-January, the Blaine County Journal-News-Opinion carried an article celebrating the lives of the area inductees. Any readers who missed that issue can find full biographies for these honorees, as well as for past inductees, on the MCHF & WHC's website: montanacowboyfame.org.