LATON ALTON (L.A.) HUFFMAN

Photographer Born near Castalia, Iowa October 31,1854, he learned the trade from his photographer father Perrin C. Huffman and noted photographer F.J. Haynes, Dakota Territory. Huffman arrived at Fort Keogh, Montana Territory, in 1879 to become the 3rd in succession to be contracted as Post Photographer. In 1880, he established the first of several photography studios in nearby Miles City, where he spent most of his professional career. His many subjects of the area document the sudden evolution from the Plains Indian era (especially Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Crow) to the westward settlement, largely, by European immigrants. His photographs became the most widely known and published of that area’s frontier photographers. Huffman served on the local school board, the county commission and in the Montana legislature. He died December 28, 1931 in Billings, Montana and was returned to Miles City for burial in the Huffman family plot.

THE CUSTER COUNTY ART AND HERITAGE CENTER

Established in 1977, is located in a park overlooking the Yellowstone River. Housed in the holding tanks of the old Miles City Water Treatment Plant, built in 1910 and 1924, the Art Center fills nearly 7,000 square feet of exhibit and work space. The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and earned a Montana Governor’s Historic Preservation Award and the 2003 Governor’s Arts Award.