Kevin Kooistra honored with John DeHaas Memorial Award

Remarks by Kate Hampton at the Myrna Loy Center in Helena on May 16, 2025

The 2025 award for Outstanding Service to Historic Preservation—the John N. DeHaas Memorial Award - goes to Kevin Kooistra of Billings.

Kevin Kooistra loved Montana. He loved the landscapes, the wildlife, the built environment, the history, and most of all, the people. He travelled and documented places – through photographs, oral histories, archaeology, and visits with friends – from Alzada to the Ross Cedars, from Lost Trail to Scobey – and every back road in between. He delighted in hiking through the Pryors’ sandy dunes in search of fossils, and the foothills near Shepherd in search of frogs. We can still hear him say “there’s nobody behind us” as he threw his car into reverse to investigate a snake, geological formation, or historic homestead by the side of the road.

Kevin found himself in Gardiner the Spring of 1980, looking for adventure working in Yellowstone. His first night – a hilarious story involving newfound friends, snipe-hunting, and sleeping outside amid a springtime snowstorm – set the stage for decades of hilarity, learning, and great respect for this place we call home.

During his time in Yellowstone, Kevin fell in love with that magnificent place and Montana. Always curious and fearless, Kevin traveled throughout the US and Europe, but Montana was home. He graduated from MSU-Bozeman with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology focusing on Cultural Anthropology. While at school, Kevin worked as an archaeologist with legends Les Davis and Steve Aaberg on some of the most significant and iconic archaeology sites in Montana and Yellowstone, including:  Obsidian Cliff, Barton Gulch, Indian Creek, Eagle Creek, Lost Terrace, and Seline. On these adventures, his coworkers recognized not only his intellect and joy, but his boundless energy and talents. People often mention his love of photography – our friend Steve Aaberg described Kevin’s ability, saying: 

“It mentioned he was an amateur photographer - its hard for me to think of him as an amateur. ... Some photographers capture images, Kevin captured emotion in his photos.”

Kevin went on to study at Northern Arizona University where he received a Master’s Degree in Applied Anthropology in 1991. At NAU he met his former wife, Ann Kooistra-Manning. Together they relocated to Billings to work for Sherri and Ken Deaver at Ethnoscience.

As an ethnographer and cultural anthropologist, Kevin made lifelong friends with tribal elders throughout the west. The lessons he learned from Bill Tallbull, Janine Pease, Mardell Plainfeather, Haman Wise, and many others figured prominently in his perception of the world around him, the stories he told, and the history he wrote.

Kevin and Ann started their own firm, making documentaries. In addition to a zippy how-to video about trail maintenance, their classic Bannack: A Window in Time documentary, still available at the park gift store, presented an in-depth narrative about the rise and fall of that important place, added to his exhaustive knowledge base, and signaled his transition from gray literature documentation to serving a public audience.

His genuine love of people and history found its perfect match at the Western Heritage Center. That’s where I first met him – I was on one of my first cultural resource surveys, recording properties between Roberts and Red Lodge, and Kevin had just started as the Community Historian at the museum. He gave me everything he could find:  photographs, interviews, and insight. For the next thirty years, I knew if I needed any information having to do with Montana history, I could call him and he wouldn’t just help – he would do everything in his power to help. He did that for everyone.

Our friend Crystal Alegria – co-founder of the Extreme History Project, recalled that when she and Marsha Fulton began their research on Fort Parker - the first Crow Agency – Kevin gave them boxes of his original research, and encouraged them to take and use all of it. That information led them to not only save the Fort Parker as a historic site, but provided the basis for their documentation and forthcoming book.

When the Billings School District was considering McKinley School’s future, Kevin organized the community meetings and workshops that became the impetus for the school’s restoration.

Kevin organized exhibits on women’s history - Suffragist Hazel Hunkins was his daguerreotype girlfriend – on Native American experiences, homesteading, and irrigation. He loved art and artists – Ben Steele, the artist who overcame the trauma of being a WWII POW – was a friend and role model.

A mentor to museum folks throughout the state, the Museums Association of Montana recently honored Kevin with the Yegen Award for lifetime achievement. The Yellowstone Preservation Board honored him the Eugene Carroll Award. As a member of the Southeast Montana Tourism Board, Kevin preached the value of historic places from Baker to Fort Smith, and entertained his colleagues all along the way.

As consultant for the Yellowstone – Billings-Laurel-Crow Historic Preservation Board, he documented hundreds of properties. He prepared and contributed to dozens of National Register nominations, including the North Elevation Historic District, Pioneer Park Historic District, and Riverside Park Historic District in Laurel. His “Hoof it with a Historian” walking tours were legendary, his regular presentations at community events, senior centers, and at the “history factory” were always a huge hit. He continued to do all this and more once he became director in 2017. He lived and breathed Montana history and preservation, in every facet of his life. He was always a storyteller, a teacher, a consummate researcher. His encyclopedic mind held an unimaginable catalog of historic places and people, music, wildlife, geology, and literature.

Truly a renaissance man, and one with a huge heart and unmatched sense of humor, Kevin gave us his whole being. Well, almost – the dearest place in his heart he reserved for his remarkable daughters Emily and Lilly. His love for them is boundless and eternal, and through them his joy and appreciation for all of Montana’s places lives on.

For his decades long outstanding contributions to the identification, documentation, and celebration of Montana’s historic places, we are honored to present the award for Outstanding Service to Historic Preservation—the John N. DeHaas Memorial award - to Kevin Jon Kooistra, and we’re so happy to have his daughters here to accept it.