The 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn occurs on June 25, 2026, and a tribally owned construction company is hoping to complete work on a new $14 million visitors’ center at the national monument south of Crow Agency, Mont., according to bozemandailychronicle.com.
The new 9,000-sq.-ft. building at the Little Bighorn Battlefield is rising on the footprint of the prior visitor center, which was torn down in late 2024. The new building will feature environmental controls, a contemporary design that blends with the landscape, large windows and a roof terrace that provides an elevated battlefield view.
Nomlaki Technologies LLC of West Sacramento, Calif, is building the visitors center, bozemandailychronicle.com reported. That company is owned entirely by members of the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians.
It is uncertain whether the new visitors center will be finished in time to mark the anniversary of the 1876 battle between the U.S. 7th Cavalry and the Crow scouts and Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.
Visitors to the National Park Service’s website are advised to plan on limited access and parking through June 2026.
Completion of the work in time for the anniversary would be a boon to the region’s economy, according to bozemandaily-chronicle.com.
The University of Montana’s Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research said in 2025 that the national monument is the most-visited site by nonresidents who travel to eastern Montana, according to a 2025 study by the University of Montana’s Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research.
Site visitation peaked in 2002 at more than 425,000 visitors, but only 111,800 tourists stopped by in 2024. That was the lowest total since 1953, excluding the 2020 pandemic year, according to bozemandailychronicle.com.
And in 2025, attendance dwindled to approximately 42,700 because the site is only open Friday through Sunday.
Building a new visitor center has been a lengthy process.
May 2011 flooding at the old visitors’ center prompted the removal of millions of dollars’ worth of artifacts, documents and rare books — including documents President Abraham Lincoln signed and items from Lt. Col. George A. Custer’s uniform wardrobe — that were relocated to a park service storage and conservation center in Tucson, Ariz.
When the new building is complete, the park services has promised to return the artifacts, according to bozemandailychronicle.com.
Before the flood, there were nearly three decades of stalled negotiations caused by a standoff between the Custer Battlefield Preservation Committee and the Crow Tribe, according to bozemandailychronicle.com.
In 1982, the committee started buying Crow Reservation land with the intention to donate it to the park service. More than 3,000 acres were acquired, but the park service needed congressional approval to accept it. Plans weren’t approved for decades.
A $4.5 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust in 2020 is helping to pay for the project, with the remainder coming from donations to the Centennial Challenge program and the National Park Foundation, according to bozemandailychronicle.com.
Source: www.constructionequipmentguide.com
