American Flags Displayed on Montana Tech Campus

Highlands College of Montana Tech Construction Technology/Carpentry students recently finished a combined research, design, and manufacture project for a local not-for-profit educational project.

Mr. John Thompson, whose family owns and manages the Copper King Mansion, inherited an educational American flag display from a retired Montana State University professor who researched and collected American flags, one-by-one, in the 1970’s as part of his leadership of a Boy Scout troop in Bozeman. He felt that the youth needed to understand that flags that represented what is now the United States of America were not always red, white, and blue. The collection has grown to over 40 flags. These flags are displayed, free of charge, by Mr. Thompson all over the state of Montana.

The original display stands were heavy, bulky, and required a lot of clear space in order to display, limiting the available spaces for display. In addition, they did not easily fit into Mr. Thompson’s pick-up truck. Mr. Thompson contacted Highlands College Interim Associate Dean and Lead Construction Instructor, Bill Ryan, regarding a solution.

Highlands College students: sophomore Jase Galt (Malta, MT) , sophomore Kade Woodhall (Stanford, MT), sophomore Tim Kitchell( Butte, MT), freshman Dan Milmine (Butte, MT), and freshman Nate Korb (Havre, MT) were tasked with developing five working prototypes that are low-cost, collapsible, easily transported, and easily repaired for Mr. Thompson to consider.

The students are now developing easy to follow plans for construction for these displays using the architectural software REVIT.

The flags were recently on display in the Highlands College Commons. Please see the compact, collapsible, transportable and informational flag displays at the Student Union Building in the main dining hall at the Marcus Deli.

For more information, please contact Bill Ryan at (406) 496-3700.