Smith Proposes To Bring Back Cowboy Hall Of Fame

House District 31 Rep. Frank Smith, D-Poplar, has introduced a bill in the Montana Legislature to bring back the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame to Wolf Point.

Smith introduced the bill on Wednesday, Feb. 5, and it was referred to the state administration on the following day.

“It might be coming back,” Smith said of the Cowboy Hall of Fame. “It’s tourism, and the license plates would bring $1,500 to $2,000 in a month.”

Smith added that he has the signatures of other Democratic legislators on the proposal.

“But I’ve got a feeling that the Great Falls’ bunch will go against it,” Smith said.

He introduced a similar bill in 2023 that failed.

House Bill 402 reads, “An act redesignating Wolf Point as the site of the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center; directing the Department of Commerce and the Department of Transportation to identify it as such on official state maps.”

The bill notes that Wolf Point is the oldest continually held rodeo in Montana and home of rodeo legend stock contractor Marvin Brookman, who was the oldest active Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association cardholder in the United States.

The hall of fame is proposed to be housed along U.S. Highway 2 in Wolf Point.

Smith worked to have the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame established in Wolf Point during the early 2000s. The program was founded in 2003 and designated by the Montana State Legislature as a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Wolf Point was the original site of the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame. Because of financial struggles, the Cowboy Hall of Fame was moved to Big Timber in 2012 and then to Great Falls in 2018.