License plates raising funds in Beaver Creek's 100th anniversary

One year after the creation of a license plate commemorating Beaver Creek Park - and in the 100th anniversary of the recreation area's formal dedication - the funding foundation for the park has seen a significant boost in revenues from sales of the plate.

Anastasia Burton, spokesperson for the Montana Department of Justice, said last week that sales of the license plates, which went on sale Jan. 31, 2015, had generated $2,820 in revenue for Friends of Beaver Creek Park.

A $30 donation to Friends is included in the purchase, and yearly registration, of the license plates.

Lesley Zellmer, board secretary of Friends of Beaver Creek Park, said no specific use for the money has yet been set, but will be included in the organizations donations to projects on and purchases for the maintenance and improvement of the park.

"We have received great feedback from the community regarding the design," Zellmer said. "Everyone seems to really find the plate attractive."

Friends also has commemorative, decorative versions of the plate available for purchase. For more information, people can call 945-7315 or email [email protected] or visit Friends online at Facebook.com/FriendsBCP.

The creation of the specialty plates was spearheaded by Robbie Lucke of the Hill County Park Board, who told the board several years ago he had seen the success of the plates commemorating Glacier National Park and wanted to see the same for Beaver Creek Park.

A contest finally selected a shot looking at the Bear Paw Mountains across Bear Paw Lake in the middle of the park for the image on the plate.

Friends took over the job of submitting the request to the state and acting as the recipient of the donations, to be used for the benefit of the park.

Zellmer said the group has not set many specific activities for the 100th anniversary of the park, but added that a spring community barbecue being planned by Friends will be a birthday celebration.

"We would love to hear what the community would like to see us do to celebrate," Zellmer said.

Use of the land that includes Beaver Creek Park actually goes back thousands of years with Native American tribes passing through and staying there.

In more recent years, the federal government started using the land more than 130 years ago with the creation of Fort Assinniboine in the tail end of the Indian Wars. The fort included a massive military reservation that stretched from the Milk River to the Missouri River, including what is now Beaver Creek Park.

That area was used for camping and picnicking by soldiers and civilians at the fort and by people off the fort.

The federal government decommissioned Fort Assinniboine in 1911 and turned the land over to the U.S. Department of the Interior, then, in 1916, Congress made "Beaver Creek Playground" official.

In the same act that turned some of the former Fort Assinniboine military reservation into Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, Congress also shifted control of 8,880 acres of land along Beaver Creek from the Interior department to be "set aside as a camping ground, the same to be kept and maintained without cost to the Government of the United States."

In the 1950s, the county took over from Havre the operation of the park, eventually adding to its boundaries to create the 10,000-acre, 1-by-17-mile park now in use.

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Online: Beaver Creek Park: http://bcpark.org.