The Bovey Collection
By Stan Rhine
An AP article, datelined Helena (11/16/96), says that a state task force has recommended that Montana spend $9.5 million to buy Virginia City & Nevada City to preserve them from sale on the open market. The state's option to purchase expires next June 1. Owner Ford Bovey says he cannot afford to maintain the properties & must sell them.
Not only are adjacent Virginia & Nevada Cities brimming with wonderfully preserved buildings, some dating back well over 100 years, they also house the Bovey collection. This includes not only the raft of stuff that former state senator Bovey bought from BAB, but a range of automatic instruments from around Montana. Violanos, orchestrions, a Wurlitzer harp, band organs & so on, are scattered in various buildings in Virginia City, while many others are in the Ozzie Wurdeman Music Hall in Nevada City.
Those whose vacation plans include Yellowstone, the Grand Teton or Glacier Parks, might try to allow a little extra time to see & hear a most interesting group of almost-original instruments while the collection is still intact. Virginia City is in Southwest Montana, a few miles east of Dillon on I-15 (South of Butte). Butte, by the way, has a Seeburg H rebuilt some years ago by Art Reblitz in the city's mining museum.
Stan Rhine, Albuquerque, NM
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(Message sent Tue 19 Nov 1996, 21:28:45 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.) |
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