A free outdoor celebration of National Public Lands Day is scheduled for Saturday, September 26, from 2 to 5 p.m. on the Walking Mall outside Ten Mile Creek Brewery on Last Chance Gulch. Live music, food, and a reminder of what public land access means to people in this part of Montana.
The afternoon will feature music from Matt Strahan and The Hoot Owls, with Copper Queen Food Truck on site. The event is free and open to the public. National Public Lands Day, observed annually in late September, is one of the largest single-day volunteer events in the country, though this Helena gathering is framed as a celebration rather than a workday.
Helena sits surrounded by national forest, Bureau of Land Management holdings, and state lands that residents use year-round for hiking, hunting, fishing, and recreation. Events like this one tend to draw people who feel strongly about keeping that access intact. Ten Mile Creek Brewery's location on the Walking Mall puts the party in the middle of foot traffic on a September Saturday afternoon.