Montana Students Get Free Pass to History: $50,000 Grant Opens Capitol Doors Statewide

Sometimes the best classroom doesn't have four walls. Sometimes it has a copper dome and 125 years of stories to tell.

Thanks to a $50,000 grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana, the Montana Historical Society is launching a program that will bring students from every corner of Big Sky Country to Helena for free field trips to the Montana Heritage Center and State Capitol. For schools where a trip to Helena might as well be a journey to Mars (budget-wise, anyway), this changes everything.

"For too many Montana students and teachers, particularly those in rural communities, a trip to the State Capitol and the Montana Heritage Center feels out of reach," explains Darby Bramble, Education Officer with the Montana Historical Society. When you're talking about students who might face several hours of driving just to reach Helena, transportation costs alone can make educational experiences like this feel impossible for many schools.

The new History and Civics Education Program tackles that barrier head-on by covering both transportation and lodging costs. Students will get the full Helena experience: exploring interactive exhibits and artifacts at the Museum at the Montana Heritage Center, plus guided tours of the State Capitol where they can see Montana government in action rather than just reading about it in textbooks.

The impact goes beyond a fun day away from school. One 8th-grade teacher from Bonner recently shared how the Helena field trip transformed his classroom: "This trip, more than any other thing I did in the classroom, is what lit a spark for local and state history engagement among my students. Kids were eager to dive into our local history unit, and as a result of our trip, a lot more of them want to learn about local civics now too."

That's the kind of ripple effect the Historical Society hopes to create across Montana. When students can stand in the actual rooms where their state's decisions are made, history stops being something that happened to other people in other places—it becomes their story.

The program launches in early 2026 with applications accepted in two rounds. Schools can apply until October 13, 2025, for the first wave of funding, with a second opportunity running until January 4, 2026. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis as funding becomes available.

But the Historical Society isn't stopping at $50,000. They're actively building an endowment to sustain the program indefinitely, ensuring that geography and economics never prevent Montana students from connecting with their state's heritage and government. Because in a state where some schools are closer to the capitals of neighboring states than to Helena, removing barriers to civic education is especially important.

For Montana educators ready to give their students a front-row seat to state history and government, information about the History and Civics Endowment and program applications is available through Darby Bramble at [email protected] or 406-444-2412. Details can also be found at https://montanamuseum.org/historycivicsfieldtrips.

After all, every Montana student deserves to stand beneath that copper dome and realize that this place and this state belong to them too.