The museum began a second, three-year, $5 million capital campaign ("Trails to the Future") in 1997, which was intended to fund construction of yet another expansion. The museum completed a $76,600 restoration of the exterior of the Russell home the same year. The 1999, the museum had 46 permanent and temporary staff. The museum constructed a new parking lot on the north side of the museum that same year."Museum Lot Almost Done." Great Falls Tribune. July 25, 1999. The museum also sold the historic three-story brick Strain home at 825 4th Avenue North to local attorney Channing Hartelius for about $295,000.The Colonial Revival structure had been built in 1917 for noted state legislator W.K. Floweree, who sold it to Dr. Earle Strain (who helped discover that Rocky Mountain spotted fever was born by ticks) in 1928. Earle's heirs donated the home to the museum in 1998. See: Wilmot, Paula. "Great Falls Lawyer Buys Historic Home." Great Falls Tribune. December 24, 1999; "Guide to the Earle and Sara Wright Strain Family Papers, 1889-1953." Montana Historical Society Archives. January 24, 1994. Accessed 2011-07-31.
