Livin' Large in Lavina

Lavina lies on Highway 3 about 45 miles north of Billings. On one Saturday each June it opens its old buildings. At the 2026 festival, held Saturday, June 20, the Bank, the Slayton Mercantile and the Lavina School were open to visit all day. The Adams Hotel was shown on guided tours at 9 in the morning, again at 11, and a last time at 1 in the afternoon. The 2026 hosts were Kimberly Bayne Kopetzky, Derek Thomas and Mary Peters.

Main Street on a June Saturday

The hosts’ 2026 schedule ran by the hour. Breakfast trucks began serving at 8. At 10 vendors opened their sales in the park and musicians started playing there. Lunch trucks arrived at 11, the same hour the car show began. At 1 a climbing rock wall came to town, and the hosts’ schedule marked it with “(woohoo).” Vendors and car show entrants finished at 4. At 5 visitors were sent up to Vigilante Gold to hear Mallory Morgan, whom the hosts called “very talented.” Their announcement opened by looking back: “Last year’s event was one for the books!”

Pancakes at the fire hall, steak at the school

That year, 2025, the celebration fell on Saturday, June 21, and Michael Foth of Cat Country 102.9 in Billings described the day. The Lavina Volunteer Fire Department served a pancake breakfast from 7 to 10 at the fire hall behind the old Adams Hotel. Local landmarks were open for self-guided exploring from 9 to 3. Foth wrote that these would include “(hopefully)” the long-shuttered Bank of Lavina. From 10 to 4, more than 60 vendors filled the Marketplace in the Park with locally made and Montana-made goods. 4-H and the Lavina School Association held fundraisers with activities for children from 11 to 2. Food vendors stayed all day. The school served appetizers at 3 and a steak dinner at 5. From 6 to 10 The Cimarron Band played while people danced in the street. The 2025 festival also hosted Lavina’s 2025 All-Class & Community Reunion.

The 2026 notice promised vendors, tours of the historic buildings, food and family fun “just like the past two years,” so the hosts count the event back two years before 2026.

From stage stop to the Adams Hotel

According to Golden Valley County, Lavina began as a stage stop in 1882 and was fully incorporated in 1920. The county lists its population as 153 and its mayor as Diane Buroff.

The Adams Hotel went up off Main Street in 1908, between those two dates. It has served many uses in the century since. Foth described its period furnishings and turn-of-the-century rooms, with “maybe even a ghost story or two.” The building has a library and a dining room. It now belongs to the Golden Valley Community Foundation.

Catherine Thayer sits on the board of Friends of the Historic Adams. “My grandfather was the original owner, had this hotel built,” she told KTVQ. Lisa Blomquist, a senior art student at Montana State University Billings, has worked with her on a plan to turn the hotel into a cultural center for artists and musicians in Golden Valley County and beyond. “We have many artists who have (and) who are producing art and selling art...and musicians as well,” Blomquist said. Thayer foresaw “shows and classes.”

The building needs several repairs before it can host events. Funding is the main obstacle, and grants were in process when KTVQ reported the story. “We were working on it. And we got some grants in,” Thayer said. “We’re hoping...we can do the ceiling and the floors and get some heat.”