Created: Thursday, March 1, 2018
Vol. 67, No. 4
Art, Agency, and ConservationA Fresh Look at Albert Bierstadt’s Vision of the West
by Peter H. Hassrick
John Owen’s Worst TripA Journey across the Columbia Plateau, 1858
by Sally Thompson
The Piikuni and the U.S. Army’s Piegan ExpeditionCompeting Narratives of the 1870 Massacre on the Marias River
by Rodger C. Henderson
“Enriched by the Vitalized Pictures”The Moving Image Archives at the Montana Historical Society
by Kelly Burton
Created: Friday, December 1, 2017
Vol. 67, No. 4
“Ho for the City of Angels and Sunny Skies”The Union Pacific’s Midwinter Excursions to California
by Nancy Cooper
An “Undesirable Station”U.S. Army Soldiers at Fort Yellowstone and the Creation of the National Park Service Ranger Program
by Thomas C. Rust
Tie Hackers on the Front Range, 1886–1887Building the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba and the Montana Central Railroads
by John A. Vollertsen
Redefining CitizenshipCurriculum Reform and the Changing Politics of Education in World War I–Era Butte
by Cody Dodge Ewert
Montana Book Roundup
by Aaron Parrett
Created: Friday, September 8, 2017
Vol. 67, No. 3
Cheyenne and Lakota Women at the Battle of the Little Bighornby Leila Monaghan
“Please Send Me Some Medecine”Dr. Charles A. McNulty’s Medical Practice in Madison County, Montana
by Todd L. Savitt
Buffalo Soldiers in Big Sky Country, 1888–1898by John P. Langellier
A Copper King’s Mysterious MarriageThe Peculiar Pairing of William A. Clark and Anna LaChapelle
by Keith Edgerton
The Great WarFrom the Vaults of the Montana Historical Society
by Martha Kohl
Created: Friday, July 7, 2017
Vol. 67, No. 2
All-American Indian Days and the Miss Indian America Pageantby Gregory Nickerson watch the video
Operation Skywatch The Montana Ground Observer Corps, 1952–1959
by Jon Axline
The Most Dangerous Man in Montana Corruption, Communism, and Bill Dunne
by Vernon L. Pedersen
Exposing the Work of Albert Peale and Charles Loughrey United States Geological Survey Photography in Montana and Wyoming
by Marcy Flynn
Created: Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Vol. 67, No. 1
“We Had to Start Treating Them as Human Beings”
Dr. Philip Pallister, Clinical Genetics, and the Montana State Training School, 1940s–1970s
by Linda Sargent Wood
More than Mourning Dove Christine Quintasket: Activist, Leader, Public Intellectual
by Laurie Arnold
Working on the Railroad A Memoir by Immigrant Laborer Poet Antonio Andreoni
by Maria Bendinelli Predelli
Created: Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Western Montana’s Christmas Tree Boom, 1926–1969by Rich Aarstad
From Forest to Market
Work in Montana’s Christmas Tree Industry
by Darris Flanagan
Picturing Indian Health
Dr. Ferdinand Shoemaker’s Traveling Photographs from the Crow Reservation, 1910–1918
by Rebecca S. Wingo
Alberta’s Special Areas
Drought and Adaptation on the Canadian Plains
by William N. Holden
Becoming Herders
Basque Immigration, Labor, and Settlement in Nevada, 1880–1910
by Iker Saitua
Montana Book Roundupby Aaron Parrett
Created: Wednesday, September 21, 2016
“Realizing the Chance of Your Life”A Wisconsin Doctor Moves to Missoula, 1905
by Todd L. Savitt
Nurse, Mother, MidwifeSusie Walking Bear Yellowtail and the Struggle for Crow Women’s Reproductive Autonomy
by Brianna Theobald
After the West Was WonHow African American Buffalo Soldiers Invigorated the Helena Community in Early Twentieth-Century Montana
by Anthony Wood
Fraud at Fort ParkerHow Corruption and Contracting Built Early Bozeman
by Crystal Alegria and Marsha Fulton
“I was smitten with the West”The Montana Historical Society celebrates Brian W. Dippie
by Charles E. Rankin
Created: Tuesday, June 21, 2016
State of ChangeWomen and the 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention
by Kelly Kirk
“One Page at a Time“Early Printing in Territorial Montana
by Aaron Parrett
“Dead Work,“ Electric Futures, and the Hidden History of the Gilded Age
by Jeremy Zallen
Expanding Digital Access to Historic Montana Newspapers
by Tammy Troup
Created: Monday, March 21, 2016
Creating “Staunch Hearted, Bright-Eyed Sportswomen”The Montana Legacy of Ina E. Gittings
by Pamela Stewart
A Cross in the WildernessSt. Mary’s Mission Celebrates 175 Years
by Ellen Baumler
Rocky Mountain RadicalsCopper King James A. Murray, Senator James E. Murray, and Seventy-Eight Years of Montana Politics, 1883–1961
by Bill Farley
Manufactured Housing in Twentieth-Century Montanaby Zoe Ann Stoltz watch the video
To purchase this issue, email tryan@mt.gov, call (406) 444-4708, or fill out and mail this form.
Created: Monday, December 21, 2015
Cowboys and CapitalistsThe XIT Ranch in Texas and Montana, 1885–1912
by Michael M. Miller watch the video
“Failure to Protect”Legal Interpretations of Rape and Wife Assault in Butte, Montana, 1900–1920
by Natalie F. Scheidler
“There When We Needed Them”Harriette E. Cushman and the Birth of Montana’s Turkey Marketing Cooperatives
by Amy L. McKinney
Yellowstone’s History, Lost and FoundThe Tangled Provenance of the Gustavus Cheyney Doane Papers
by Kim Allen Scott
Where Did I Read That?A Guide to Montana’s Comprehensive Index and Databases
by Christy Eckerle
To purchase this issue, email tryan@mt.gov, call (406) 444-4708, or fill out and mail this form.
Created: Monday, September 21, 2015
Remove the Dam, Restore the RiverHow Public Participation Redefined Superfund Law at Milltown, Montana
by David Brooks
Surviving MontanaWomen’s Memories of Work and Family Life, 1900–1960
by Laurie Mercier
The Traditional Worldview of the Kootenai People
by the Kootenai Culture Committee
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Created: Sunday, June 21, 2015
Going PublicChildbirth, the Board of Health, and Montana Women, 1860–1920
by Jennifer J. Hill
Pack Mules and ParachutesFirefighting Partners at Montana’s Ninemile Remount Depot
by Janet Ore
Forgotten PioneersThe Chinese in Montana
by Ellen Baumler watch the video
Daphne Bugbee JonesA Modernist Architect’s Legacy
by Hipólito Rafael Chacón watch the video
Montana Book Roundup
by Aaron Parrett
To purchase this issue, email tryan@mt.gov, call (406) 444-4708, or fill out and mail this form.
Created: Saturday, March 21, 2015
When Jeannette Said “No”Montana Women’s Response to World War I
by Mary Murphy
“Upward Ho! Or, The Way of The Better Life”The Circuit Chautauqua Movement in Montana
by Nancy Cooper
Bob & CharlieA Montana Pair to Draw To
by Kirby Lambert and Jennifer Bottomly-O’looney
Firefighters in the Sky75 Years and Still Smokejumping over Montana
by Lincoln Bramwell
The Montana Historical Society Celebrates 150 Years
by Bruce Whittenberg
To purchase this issue, email tryan@mt.gov, call (406) 444-4708, or fill out and mail this form.
Created: Sunday, December 21, 2014
Women, Wobblies, and the ‘War of Grays Harbor’Finnish-American Women and the 1912 Grays Harbor Lumber Strike
by Aaron Goings
In the Winner’s CircleHow Montana Thoroughbreds Upset the Nineteenth Century’s Racing Establishment
by Catharine Melin-Moser
John Mix StanleyAn Artist’s View of the 1853 Pacific Railroad Survey and the Far Northwest
by Peter H. Hassrick
Authenticating Chief Joseph’s ShirtRevelations from Comparison of Digitized Photographs
by Jeffrey Baitis and James S. Brust
Becoming Chinese in MontanaThe Chinese Empire Reform Association and National Identity among Montana’s Chinese Communities
by Mark Johnson
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Created: Sunday, September 21, 2014
In Search of the SublimeFinding Transcendence in the Mountain West, 1880–1920
by Diana L. Di Stefano
Rudyard KiplingAt Large in the West
by Landon Y. Jones
‘We Are Learning to Do These Things Better’A Women’s History of Helena’s First Neighborhood
by Ellen Baumler
‘Come Join the K.K.K. in the Old Town Tonight’The Ku Klux Klan in Harlowton, Montana, during the 1920s
by Christine K. Erickson
Protecting Montana’s Historic Properties
by Kathryn Ore watch the video
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Created: Saturday, June 21, 2014
Women’s History MattersThe Montana Historical Society’s Suffrage Centennial Project
by Ellen Baumler, Laura K. Ferguson, Jodie Foley, Annie Hanshew, Anya Jabour, Martha Kohl, and Marcella Sherfy Walter watch the videos
Calamity JaneA Life and Legends
by Richard W. Etulain watch the video
Divas, Divorce, and DisclosureHidden Narratives in the Diaries of Evelyn Cameron
by Ann Roberts and Christine Wordsworth
Ewen and Evelyn Cameron Under the Big SkyA Photographic Essay
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Created: Friday, March 21, 2014
Wheeling through YellowstoneA History of Early Bicycling in America’s First National Park
by Wes Hardin
‘The Courage to Act by a Higher and Humaner Principle’Lewis J. Duncan and the Socialist Movement in Butte, Montana, 1900–1914
by John Hajduk
Forrest Anderson, the 1972 Constitution, and the Reshaping of Montana
by Brian Shovers watch the video
From Havana to MontanaCuban Refugee Children, Operation Pedro Pan, and the Cold War Catholic Church
by Clint Attebery
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Created: Saturday, December 21, 2013
Montana’s Conjurers, Con Men, and Card CheatsWilbur E. Sanders, S. W. Erdnase, and The Expert at the Card Table
by Marty Demarest watch the video
‘Hewing Community Out of Wilderness’Montana’s Korpivaara and Kuhmoniemi Settlements in the Early Twentieth Century
by Dena L. Sanford
Killing Montana’s WolvesStockgrowers, Bounty Bills, and the Uncertain Distinction between Predators and Producers
by Michael Wise
Montana Book Roundup
by Aaron Parrett
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Created: Saturday, September 21, 2013
Blood MoneyThe Montana Bankers Association and the Bozeman Bank Robbery of 1932
by Kim Allen Scott
The Bones Brothers Ranchby Joan L. Brownell
From Party Lines and Barbed WireA History of Telephones in Montana
by Ellen Arguimbau
A Massive UndertakingConstructing Montana’s Interstate Highways, 1956–1988
by Jon Axline
Luck and DetailsPhotographing the Work of Charles M. Russell
by Tom Ferris watch the video
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Created: Friday, June 21, 2013
Montana ModernismContemporary Architecture in the Western State, 1945–1975
by H. Rafael Chacón
Black Hills and BloodshedThe U.S. Army and the Invasion of Lakota Land, 1868–1876
by Catharine R. Franklin
Charlie Russell and Glacier Park
by Elizabeth A. Dear and David Stanley
Lee Metcalf and the Politics of PreservationPart II—Conflict, Compromise, and the Art of Leadership
by Frederick H. Swanson
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Created: Thursday, March 21, 2013
Lee Metcalf and the Politics of PreservationPart I—A Positive Program of Development
by Frederick H. Swanson
On TrialThe Washington R*dskins’ Wily Mascot—Coach William “Lone Star” Dietz
by Linda M. Waggoner
The Case for a Custer Battalion SurvivorPrivate Gustave Korn’s Story
by Albert Winkler
A “Temple of Pleasure”Missoula’s Wilma Theatre
by Elizabeth “Libi” Sundermann
Montana’s National Register Program
by John Boughton
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Created: Friday, December 21, 2012
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Burton K. Wheeler, and the Great Debate A Montana Senator’s Crusade for Non-intervention before World War II
by Marc C. Johnson
Children of the HillSituating Children in Butte’s History
by Janet L. Finn watch the video
Vaccine Production in the Bitterroot Valley during World War IIHow Rocky Mountain Laboratory Protected American Forces from Yellow Fever
by Gary R. Hettrick
Camp CookeMontana Territory’s Forgotten First U.S. Army Post
by Rodger Lawrence Huckabee
And the Bride Wore . . . Montana Weddings, 1900–1960An Exhibit from the Montana Historical Society
by Martha Kohl
Montana Book Roundup
by Aaron Parrett
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Created: Friday, September 21, 2012
This Was J.C.PenneyA Century of James Penney’s Main Street Department Stores in the Rocky Mountain West
by David Delbert Kruger watch the video
The Travails of Flathead Indian Agent Charles S. Medary, 1875–1877by Robert Bigart
The Art of StorytellingPlains Indian Perspectives
by Jennifer Bottomley-O’looney
Louis W. Hill, the Great Northern Railway, and the Origins of Automobile Tourism in the Northern Plainsby Alan R. Havig
The Serendipitous Preservation of Butte’s Mai Wah Noodle Parlor and the Wah Chong Tai Companyby Hal Waldrup
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Created: Thursday, June 21, 2012
The End of FreedomThe Military Removal of the Blackfeet and Reservation Confinement, 1880
by William E. Farr
Protest, Power, and the PitFighting Open-Pit Mining in Butte, Montana
by Brian Leech
Breaking Racial Barriers ‘Everyone’s Welcome’ at the Ozark Club, Great Falls, Montana’s African American Nightclub
by Ken Robison
Building Permanent and Substantial RoadsPrison Labor on Montana’s Highways, 1910–1925
by Jon Axline
Signs of the TimesThe Montana Historical Society’s National Register Sign Program
by Ellen Baumler
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Created: Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Jerry O’ConnellMontana’s Communist Congressman
by Vernon L. Pedersen
Beyond the ‘Mongolian Muddle’Reconsidering Virginia City, Montana’s China War of 1881
by Laura J. Arata
E. B. White’s Montana and The Trumpet of the Swanby Marcia Melton
The Politics of PerformanceMontana’s Landless Indians and Beveridge’s Montana Wildest West Show
by Elizabeth Sperry
Innovations in EducationThe Montana Historical Society’s Reach Extends Nationally and Internationally
by Mark Johnson watch the video
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Created: Wednesday, December 21, 2011
The West Loved Oysters Too!A Look at that Time in America When Those Briny Bivalves Were All the Rage, Even beyond the Missouri River
by Paul L. Hedren
Staging the Past in Montana’s Alder GulchRuminations on History, Tourism, and Preservation
by J. Philip Gruen
‘Our Snow Covered Trail’A Montana Freighter Recalls the Hard Winter of 1906–1907
by Joseph M. Hartmann
Ahead of His TimeJoseph Kinsey Howard and the Writing of Strange Empire
by Heather Devine
Cons OnlineA Montana Historical Society Digitization Project
by Caitlan Maxwell and Jodie Foley
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Created: Wednesday, September 21, 2011
‘Indians shall do things in common’Oglala Lakota Identity and Cattle-Raising on the Pine Ridge Reservation
by Jeffrey D. Means
Ernest Hemingway’s Westby Lou Mandler
Montana’s BarnsA Vanishing History
by Chere Jiusto and Christine W. Brown; photographs by Tom Ferris
From Canning to ContraceptivesCooperative Extension Service Home Demonstration Clubs and Rural Montana Women in the Post–World War II Era
by Amy L. McKinney
The Restoration of a Legendary Painting by C. M. Russellby Erica ESH Henry
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Created: Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Changing LivesBaptist Women, Benevolence, and Community on the Crow Reservation, 1904–60
by Becky Matthews
Steamboats, Woodhawks, and War on the Upper Missouri River
by Greg Gordon
The Rise and Fall of Social Welfare in a Frontier Mining CommunityVirginia City and Madison County, Montana Territory, 1863–69
by Jeffrey J. Safford
‘Howdy Everyone! Glad to See You’Montana Tourism and its Port of Entry Stations
by Jon Axline
The Western Rendezvous of Art
by Susan R. Near
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Created: Monday, March 21, 2011
Helen P. Clarke in ‘the Age of Tribes’Montana’s Changing Racial Landscape, 1870–1920
by Andrew R. Graybill watch the video
Axis Nation ‘Detainees’ and Japanese Enemy Aliens in the West during World War IIby Carol Van Valkenburg
‘Not an imaginary picture altogether, but parts’The Artistic Legacy of Buffalo Bill Cody
by Robert E. Bonner
‘With no companion but her horse’The Rocky Mountain Husbandman’s Traveling Correspondents Anna Kline and Carolyn A. Murphy, 1889–1904
by Frank R. Grant
Montana Book Roundupby Aaron Parrett
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Created: Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Mina WestbyeNorwegian Immigrant, North Dakota Homesteader, Studio Photographer, ‘New Woman’
by Lori Ann Lahlum
Marketing the NorthwestThe Northern Pacific Railroad’s Last Spike Excursion
by Jan Taylor
A Devastating Diagnosis of LeprosyThe Story of Orville Willett
by Ellen Baumler
Just a Name on a Grave? Discovering the story of an Unknown Montana Miner
by Don L. Crawford and Melinda Blanchard Crawford
The Lonesome Life in Glacier National ParkKishenehn Ranger Station, 1910–1940
by Mark Hufstetler
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Created: Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Nez Perce and Their TrialsRethinking America’s Indian Wars
by Elliott West
Guy M. Brandborg and the Bitterroot ControversyA Conservationist’s Legacy in the Northern Rockies
by Frederick H. Swanson
HungerA Memoir of Growing Up in Northeastern Montana
by Ruth McLaughlin; introduced by Dee Garceau
When the Mountains RoaredThe 1910 Northern Rockies Fires
by Lincoln Bramwell
The Mapkeepers
by Brian Shovers
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Created: Monday, June 21, 2010
Conceiving NatureThe Creation of Montana’s Glacier National Park
by Andrew C. Harper
Where the Prairie Ends and the Sky BeginsMaynard Dixon in Montana
by Donald J. Hagerty
Glacier National ParkPeople, a Playground, and a Park
by Jennifer Bottomly-O’looney and Deirdre Shaw
The Miraculous Survival of the Art of Glacier National Park
by Hipólito Rafael Chacón
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Created: Sunday, March 21, 2010
The N Bar N RanchA Legend of the Open-Range Cattle Industry, 1885–99
by Lee I. Niedringhaus
‘Charlot loves his people’The Defeat of Bitterroot Salish Aspirations for an Independent Bitterroot Valley Community
by Robert Bigart
Following the Old North Trail to BerlinWalter McClintock and the Grand Opera Poia
by Steven L. Grafe
Romancing MontanaFrances Parker, Western Writer
by Mary L. Helland
From Bits of Paper to Bytes of DataThe Newspaper Collection at the Montana Historical Society
by Molly Kruckenberg
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Created: Monday, December 21, 2009
Dying in the WestPart 2—Caregiving in the Home and the Death of Daniel Slayton
by Dawn D. Nickel
‘The Huge Mass Writhed and Screamed like a Live Thing’Revisiting the Failure of Hauser Dam
by Aaron Parrett
Lt. James H. BradleyThe Literary Legacy of Montana’s Frontier Soldier-Historian
by Jon G. James
In the Company of HeroesCharlie Russell and the ‘Temple of Fame’
by Kirby Lambert
Copper Commando and the Anaconda Company’s Wartime Production
by Amanda Graham
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Created: Monday, September 21, 2009
Failed National Parks in the Last Best Place
by Lary M. Dilsaver and William Wyckoff
Dying in the WestPart 1—Hospitals and Health Care in Montana and Alberta, 1880–1950
by Dawn Nickel
Cromwell DixonThe World’s Youngest Aviator
by Del Phillips
Celebrating a Century of County Building in Montana
by Jeff Malcomson watch the video
Are We There Yet?Some Thoughts on the Current State of Western Women’s History
by Sue Armitage
Montana Film Roundup: Butte, America
by Brian Shovers
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Created: Sunday, June 21, 2009
Abraham LincolnPolitical Founding Father of the American West
by Richard W. Etulain
To Think Like a StarThe American West, Modern Cosmology, and Big History
by Kevin J. Fernlund
‘My heart now has become changed to softer feelings’A northern Cheyenne Woman and Her Family Remember the Long journey home
by John H. Monnett
‘Baseball was our life’Amateur Baseball in Butte, Montana, 1920–1960
by John Mihelich
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Created: Saturday, March 21, 2009
‘These Men Play Real Polo’An Elite Sport in the ‘Cowboy State,’ 1890–1930
by Michael A. Amundson
Montana Deaconess School to IntermountainA Centennial of Restoring Hope for Children, 1909–2009
by Ellen Baumler
Plying the Waters in America’s Little SwitzerlandEarly-Twentieth-Century Lake Tourism in Glacier National Park
by Calvin H. Mires
From Coal Mine to CourtsideBasketball in Bearcreek, Montana
by Liza J. Nicholas
Montana: Stories of the LandA New Approach to Teaching Montana History
by Martha Kohl
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Created: Sunday, December 21, 2008
Tough Trip to PublicationTough Trip through Paradise and the Beautiful Wives of Andrew Garcia
by Diane Smith
Thomas Savage, Forgotten Novelistby O. Alan Weltzien
Learning a Trapper’s and Hunter’s Artby Frank Bird Linderman; introduced by Sarah Waller Hatfield
‘This unfortunate affair’An 1810 Letter from the Three Forks
by Rich Aarstad
The Charles M. Russell Catalogue Raisonnéby B. Byron Price watch the video
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Created: Sunday, September 21, 2008
‘More Real than the Indians Themselves’The Early Years of the Indian Lore Movement in the United States
by Clyde Ellis
Montana Quilts and QuiltmakersA History of Work and Beauty
by Mary Murphy
Montana Quilts and QuiltmakersFrom Sunburst to Nine-Patch—Treasures of the Nineteenth Century
by Annie Hanshew
A Call to OrderLaw, Violence, and the Development of Montana’s Early Stockmen’s Organizations
by T. A. Clay
Sitting ProudThe Indian Portraits of Joseph Scheuerle
by Jennifer Bottomly-O’looney
‘Big Love’Unnatural Families and the Suburban West
by Maria E. Montoya
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Created: Saturday, June 21, 2008
Bringing Home All the Pretty HorsesThe Horse Trade and the Early American West, 1775–1825
by Dan Flores
The Eleventh Manby Ivan Doig
Justice as an AfterthoughtWomen and the Montana Prison System
by Ellen Baumler
‘Peas That Please’The Gallatin Valley Pea Industry, 1911–1970
by Phyllis Smith
The Mining Law of 1872by Gordon Morris Bakken
Assault on Basaltby Mark Baumler
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Created: Friday, March 21, 2008
The Fight for Crow WaterPart II: Damming the Bighorn
by Megan Benson
The World in the West, the West in the WorldFriedrich Gerstäcker, Richard Francis Burton, and Isabella Bird on the Nineteenth-Century Frontier
by David Wrobel
The Seminal Years of the Montana Legislative Council, 1957–1965by Eugene C. Tidball
Living ArtifactsThe Ancient Ponderosa Pines of the West
by Stephen F. Arno, Lars Östlund, and Robert E. Keane
How It WorkedThe Stamp Mill
by Duane A. Smith
Charlie Russell and the Mysterious Photographsby Ken Robison
Restoring History at the Original Governor’s Mansionby Susan R. Near
Montana Book Roundupby Sue Hart
To purchase this issue, email tryan@mt.gov, call (406) 444-4708, or fill out and mail this form.
Created: Friday, December 21, 2007
Wallace Stegner’s Formative Years in Saskatchewan and Montanaby Philip L. Fradkin
‘A Residual Frontier Town’Wallace Stegner’s Salt Lake City
by Robert C. Steensma
The Fight for Crow WaterPart I: The Early Reservation Years through the Indian New Deal
by Megan Benson
‘Our Genial Photographer’The Life and Times of Henry D. Weenink
by D. Lyle Dechant
Not-So-Buried TreasuresExploring the On-line Resources of the MHS Research Center
by Jodie Foley and Roberta Gebhardt
So You Want to Be Published?by Stan Lynde
A Guide to Self-Publishing Your Bookby the Montana Historical Society Press staff
To purchase this issue, email tryan@mt.gov, call (406) 444-4708, or fill out and mail this form.
Created: Friday, September 21, 2007
Abortion in the Old WestThe Trials of Dr. Edwin S. Kellogg of Helena, Montana
by Todd L. Savitt
George ‘Montana’ OiyeThe Journey of a Japanese American from the Big Sky to the Battlefields of Europe
by Casey J. Pallister
Babe in the WoodsF. Scott Fitzgerald’s Unlikely Summer in Montana
by Landon Y. Jones
The Railroad Photography of Warren McGee
by Jennifer Jeffries Thompson
HBO’s DeadwoodNot Your Typical Western
by John Mack Faragher
The St. Ignatius Mission
by Katherine Mitchell
Happy Birthday MHS Press!
from the Society
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Created: Thursday, June 21, 2007
Flying across AmericaThe Airline Passenger Experience and the West
by Daniel L. Rust
One Day on Timbered IslandHow the Rockefellers’ Visits to Yellowstone Led to Grand Teton National Park
by Marian Albright Schenck
Postcard Portraits of Yellowstone National Park
by Susan and Jack Davis
Neither Empty nor UnknownMontana at the Time of Lewis and Clark
by George Oberst
‘I haven’t time to kiss everybody!’Larry Mathews Entertains in Yellowstone, 1887–1904
by Lee H. Whittlesey
To purchase this issue, email tryan@mt.gov, call (406) 444-4708, or fill out and mail this form.
Created: Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Gwendolen HasteGiving Voice to the Homesteaders
by Sue Hart
When Does a Cactus Become an Angry Buffalo?Traditional Games of the Lakotas
by Raymond A. Bucko, S.J.
The Tragic Montana Career of Dr. D. E. Salmonby Fredric L. Quivik
The Nez Perces in Yellowstone in 1877A Comparison of Attempts to Deduce Their Route
by Lee Whittlesey
Montana Architecture—More than a Mile from City CenterHelena’s Northern Pacific Railroad District and Sixth Ward
by Kate Hampton
Identifying African American Resources Projectby Scott Meredith
Montana Book Roundupby Bud Bynack
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Created: Thursday, December 21, 2006
Entering Butte
by Robert R. Swartout Jr.
‘See America the Bountiful’Butte’s Berkeley Pit and the American Culture of Consumption
by Timothy J. LeCain
Another Look at Burke’s ButteThe Great Depression and William Allen Burke’s ‘Greenhorn Miner’
introduced by Matthew Basso
Caring for the DeadThe Development of the Funeral Business in Butte
by Zena Beth McGlashan
1,000,000 Glasses a DayButte’s Beer History on Tap
by Steve Lozar watch the video
Driving Haul Trucks in the Berkeley PitReminiscences of a Gritty Job
by Bill Long
About Butte
by Wim Wenders
The Butte-Anaconda National Historic Landmark
by Martha Kohl
The Natural West—Bioprospecting in the Berkeley PitThe Search for Valuable Natural Products from a Most Unnatural World
by Andrea Stierle
Our Lady of the Rockies
by Kris King
To purchase this issue, email tryan@mt.gov, call (406) 444-4708, or fill out and mail this form.
Created: Thursday, September 21, 2006
Frontiersman for the TsarTimofei Tarakanov and the Expansion of Russian America
by Kenneth N. Owens
Love, Valor, and EnduranceWorld War II War Brides Making a Home in Montana
by Seena B. Kohl
The Story from Indian CountryWhat We Learned from the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial
by Frederick E. Hoxie
Remembering Dave Walter
Teaching Twentieth-Century Montana Historyby Linda Wruck
Montana Book Roundupby Sue Hart
To purchase this issue, email tryan@mt.gov, call (406) 444-4708, or fill out and mail this form.
Created: Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Anaconda Sheds Its PressThe Story behind the Company’s Decision to Sell Its Newspapers
by Dennis Swibold
An Army Surgeon’s AccountHenry Remson Tilton’s View of the Bear’s Paw Mountains Expedition and the Conclusion of the Nez Perce War
by Jerome A. Greene
‘No Fighting is to be Apprehended’Major Eugene Baker, Sitting Bull, and the Northern Pacific Railroad’s 1872 Western Yellowstone Surveying Expedition
by M. John Lubetkin
William RanneyA Painter’s Requiem to the Mountain Man
by Peter H. Hassrick
Of Professors and PredatorsJohn Ostrom, Deinonychus antirrhopus, and the Nature of Dinosaurs
by Jon Axline
Caroline Lockhart on the Dryhead‘Happily-Ever-Aftering’ on a Montana Cattle Ranch
by John Clayton
Brokeback MountainA Western
by Richard White
Key IngredientsAmerica by Food
We Proceeded OnCreating a Masterpiece for the Montana State Capitol
by Kirby Lambert
Tower RockA Traveler’s Landmark
by Clint Attebery
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Created: Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Mormonism in Montana
by Brian Q. Cannon
Second Views of the Treasure State
by William Wyckoff
Monopolizing The Virginian (or, Railroading Wister)
by Melody Graulich
Brigadier General George Crook’s ‘Horse Meat March’ and the Fight at Slim ButtesA Letter by Walter Scribner Schuyler
by Charles M. Robinson III
Fort Davis and the Antebellum Military Frontiers
by Robert Wooster
Forest Images by K. D. Swan
by Kirby Lambert
The Montana Heritage Project
by Katherine Mitchell
Forsyth, Montana
by Martha Kohl
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Created: Wednesday, December 21, 2005
What’s the Matter with Texas?The Great Enigma of the Lone Star State in the American West
by Ty Cashion
‘Good night with the Stars and Stripes, Army, Navy, and Mister damned Wilson’Montana’s Central Role in the Repression—and Eventual Recognition—of Free Speech
by Clemens P. Work
In the Shadow of Billy the KidSusan McSween and the Lincoln County War
by Kathleen P. Chamberlain
The Masonic Apron of Meriwether Lewis and the Legacy of Masonry in Montanaby Ellen Baumler
Comet, Montanaby Christine W. Brown
Unexpected Treasures among the Photographs of Ed and Emil Kopacby Delores J. Morrow and Sandra J. Barker
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Created: Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Animal Last StandsEmpathy and Extinction in the American West
by Jon T. Coleman
Women and Hunting in the West
by Mary Zeiss Stange
Hunting Democracy
by Daniel Justin Herman
‘The Great Source of Amusement’Hunting in the Frontier Army
by James E. Potter
The Legendary Earl DurandWyoming’s ‘Tarzan of the Tetons’
by Lillian Turner
‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’
by Gordon Morris Bakken and Elwood Bakken
Travel and Exploration Narratives in the Montana Historical Society Collection
by Rich Aarstad and Jennie Stapp
Pine Butte Swamp Preserve and the Rocky Mountain Front
by W. Clark Whitehorn
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Created: Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Captivity For Yellowstone BisonTheir Doom or Salvation?
by Mary Ann Franke
Tragedy at Red Cloud AgencyThe Surrender, Confinement, and Death of Crazy Horse
by Jeffrey V. Pearson
‘We Belong to the North’The Flights of the Northern Indians from the White River Agencies, 1877–1878
by Kingsley M. Bray
‘Custer’s Last Stand’An Artist’s Perspective
by Thom Ross
Mapping MontanaThe Federal Land Surveys of 1867–1868
by Jeffrey J. Safford
Fear in the Time of Infantile Paralysis
by Volney Steele
The 320 Ranch
by Connie Staudohar
Community Preservation in Montana
by Rolene R. Schliesman
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Created: Monday, March 21, 2005
Diversions, Ditches, and District CourtsMontana’s Struggle to Allocate Water
by Brian Shovers
The Contradictory Legacies of Buffalo Bill Cody’s First Scalp for Custer
by Paul L. Hedren
Elwood Mead, Buffalo Bill Cody, and the Carey Act in Wyoming
by Robert E. Bonner
Kayaking Playground or Nature Preserve?Whitewater Boating Conflicts in Yellowstone National Park
by Michael J. Yochim
Historical Maps of Montana and the Stories They Tell
by Sally Thompson
Reading between the Lines
by Clyde Ellis and Charlene Porsild
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Created: Tuesday, December 21, 2004
‘This Wicked Family’A Biography of the Deschamps Family of Fort Union—Their Feuds, Fights, and Violent Demise
by Robert W. Thomson
The Bearer Has PermissionA Brief History of Research Permitting in Yellowstone National Park
by Alice Wondrak Biel
Old West and New West in Garden Park, Colorado
by Steven M. Schnell, Curtis J. Sorenson, Soren Larsen, Matthew Dunbar, and Erin McGrogan
Laura Bell McDanielQueen of the Colorado City Tenderloin
by Jan MacKell
Icy Reconnaissance
by Michael J. Ober
Federal Historic Rehabilitation Income Tax Credit Program
by Pete Brown
New Deal Oasis on the High Plains
by Fredric L. Quivik
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Created: Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Empty SaddlesDesertion from the Dashing U.S. Cavalry
by Judy Daubenmier
Fire and AshesThe Last Survivor of the Mann Gulch Fire
by John N. Maclean
A Rashomon NightMontana Vigilantes and the Subjective Question of Guilt
by Frederick Allen
‘Give Me Eighty Men’Shattering the Myth of the Fetterman Massacre
by Shannon Smith Calitri
The Trials of John L. Smith
by John Clayton
The Old Works Golf Course, Anaconda, Montana
by Brian Shovers
From Liverpool to Cut Bank
by Jodie Foley
Bearcreek, Montana
by Jon Axline
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Created: Monday, June 21, 2004
KonaCradle of Hawaii’s Paniolo
by Richard W. Slatta, Ku‘ulani Auld, and Maile Melrose
Montana’s Worst Natural DisasterThe 1964 Flood on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation
by Aaron Parrett
‘I Want It Real Bad’The Charles M. Russell–Malcolm Mackay Collaboration
by Brian W. Dippie
Montana’s Last Best ChanceThe Malcolm S. Mackay Collection of Charles M. Russell Art
by Kirby Lambert
A Recipe for New Research
by Charlene Porsild
Remembering Butte’s Chinatown
by Carrie Schneider
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Created: Sunday, March 21, 2004
Falling in Love with MontanaJohn Vachon’s Photographic Sojourn
by Mary Murphy
‘Enigma Woman’ Nellie MadisonFemme Fatales and Noir Fiction
by Kathleen Cairns
Going to BuffaloIndian Hunting Migrations Across the Rocky Mountains
Part 2: Civilian Permits, Army Escorts
by William E. Farr
‘Performers Prove Beauty & Rodeo Can Be Mixed’The Return of the Cowgirl Queen
by Renee M. Laegreid
‘The Fellow Who Can Talk the Loudest and Has the Best Shotgun Gets the Water’Water Regulation and the Montana State Engineer’s Office, 1889–1964
by James E. Sherow
Days of Discovery
by Dayton Duncan
L. A. Huffman
by Gene Allen & Bev Allen
Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge
by Amy L. McKinney
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Created: Sunday, December 21, 2003
Going to BuffaloIndian Hunting Migrations Across the Rocky Mountains
Part 1: Making Meat and Taking Robes
by William E. Farr
‘Music, Song, and Laughter’Yellowstone National Park’s Fountain Hotel, 1891–1916
by Lee H. Whittlesey
Letters from World’s EndA Young Couple’s Portrait of Butte, 1936–1941
by Brenda Pentland
‘The Making of a Good Woman’Montana and the National Florence Crittenton Mission
by Ellen Baumler
Documenting Education in Montana
by Molly Kruckenberg
Lolo Hot Springs
by Charlene Porsild
To purchase this issue, email tryan@mt.gov, call (406) 444-4708, or fill out and mail this form.
Created: Wednesday, April 7, 1926
Postcards from the Montana Historical Society
The Montana Historical Society's collection represents Cowboy Artist Charlie Russell's most iconic work, from the earliest drawings sketched while working as a cowhand to his last masterpiece, left unfinished at the time of this death in 1925. The selection featured here offers a sample of Russell's best-known oils, watercolors, letters, and sculptures, as well as photographs of the artist and his life. Each postcard is perforated; tear them out and mail them or keep them for your own enjoyment.
32 postcards, ISBN 978-1-940527-72-7, $11.95
Created: Sunday, February 7, 1926
War Leader of the Oglalas
edited by R. Eli Paul
A brilliant military strategist, Red Cloud honed his skills against his tribe's traditional enemies—the Pawnees, Shoshones, Arikaras, and Crows—long before he fought to close the Bozeman Trail. Here is Red Cloud's "as-told-to" autobiography, where he shares the story of his early years. This manuscript brings us closer than the historical record has yet allowed to understanding the life of one of the Sioux's greatest war leaders.
234 pages, paper, ISBN 0-917298-50-0, $15.95
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Created: Friday, October 2, 1925
Montana Women's Stories
edited by Martha Kohl
The women featured in this book range from late 18th-century Indian women warriors to 21st-century Blackfeet banker Elouise Cobell. They span geography—from the western Montana women who worked for the Forest Service, to Miles City doctor Sadie Lindeberg. And they span ideology—from the members of the Montana Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, to the Women of the Ku Klux Klan. With grit and foresight, these women shaped Montana.
288 pages, 100+ photos, paper, ISBN 978-1-940527-83-3, $19.95
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Created: Friday, October 2, 1925
Montana's Mysteries, Ghosts, & Haunted Places
by Ellen Baumler
Ellen Baumler has again traversed the state, interviewing and researching to present history with a ghostly twist. Her first book, Spirit Tailings, introduced Montanans to their haunted past. Beyond Spirit Tailings again offers ghostly encounters from Montana's heritage places, but Baumler also branches out to explore such historical mysteries as the monster said to lurk in the deep waters of Flathead Lake, the power of an ancient object revered by native peoples, and a possible explanation for the suspicious death of Thomas Francis Meagher. Richly embroidered with Montana's unique historical legacy, these eerie and mysterious tales will leave you looking over your shoulder, sleeping with the lights on, and always craving more.
200 pages, 20 illus., index, paper, ISBN 0-9721522-4-5, $13.95
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Created: Friday, October 2, 1925
Montana's Mysteries, Ghosts, & Haunted Places
by Ellen Baumler and Philip Aaberg
In an exciting twist, Ellen Baumler's ever-popular historical ghost stories found an enthusiastic reader in world-famous composer Philip Aaberg. Inspired by the stories, he encouraged Ellen to produce an audio version of Beyond Spirit Tailings to which he could add his music. Ellen and Philip's spooky collaboration will evoke those places and images that make our imagination such a wonderful (and sometimes unearthly) destination.
Five-disc set, ISBN 0-9721522-9-6, $25.95
Created: Saturday, May 9, 1925
Historic Quilts and Quiltmakers of Montana
by Annie Hanshew
introduction by Mary Murphy
The quilts featured in Border to Border chronicle Montana’s history over the last 150 years, telling stories of statehood, the struggle for women’s suffrage, two world wars, the Great Depression, and the recent past. This heavily illustrated book showcases unique and interesting Montana quilts and describes the life and times of the extraordinary people who created them.
“Border to Border deftly and seamlessly stitches together the specifics of Montana’s history and the diversity of its women’s artistry. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully written, this book is a ‘must own’!”
—Janet Catherine Berlo, author of Quilting Lessons and Wild by Design
“Border to Border is exactly what a quilt survey publication should be. Like a splendid antique quilt the book has bold impact, delicate detail and a story to tell. Dazzling quilts and first class photographs capture the history of a sprawling state with a variety of cultures.”
—Barbara Brackman, author of Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns and Encyclopedia of Appliqué
240 pages, full color, 300+ illus.; hardcover, ISBN 978-0-917298-64-6, $34.95; paper, ISBN 978-0-975919-62-0, $24.95
Created: Wednesday, May 6, 1925
Diaries from the Bozeman Trail
edited by Susan Badger Doyle
On May 14, 1866, Perry Burgess summed up the expectations and hopes of countless westering Americans when he wrote in his diary: "packed up and started on our journey toward the land of gold." Here are stories of the prospectors, freighters, wives, and merchants who, like Burgess, traveled the Bozeman Trail in search of fortune, adventure, or a new life. A shortcut from the Platte River Road to the Montana goldfields, the Bozeman Trail was relatively short in length—less than five hundred miles—yet it has the enduring distinction of being the last great overland emigrant trail in the American West. Encounter the trail as it was experienced by seven travelers: the leader of a company of Michigan men who traveled with one of the first groups to cross it; a new bride traveling with her husband; two young men—a store clerk and a typesetter—for whom the trip was a thoroughly enjoyable adventure; a prospector out to make his fortune in the West; a sober Civil War veteran concerned about the possibility of Indian attack; and the supervisor of a freight train who found time to write despite his heavy responsibilities. Join their journey through these annotated diaries, and discover the dangers and pleasures, frustrations and joys of travel on the Bozeman Trail.
372 pages, illus., maps, paper, ISBN 0-917298-98-5, $19.95
Created: Friday, September 26, 1924
Essays on America's Favorite Cowboy Artist
edited and with an introduction by Brian W. Dippie
Illustrated with black-and-white and color illustrations—including a never before reproduced Russell painting—Charlie Russell Roundup contains many of the best stories and critical thinking on Russell, an artist who portrayed the Old West in all its vibrancy. Early press accounts of the cowboy artist, reminiscences by his friends and fellow artists, interpretive and biographical studies, and a few words from Russell himself are all included in this engaging anthology. Fresh insights into the man and his art, and his enduring legend are enhanced by historic photographs and a large sampling of Russell's work.
Brian W. Dippie is Professor of History at University of British Columbia, Victoria, editor of Charles M. Russell, Word Painter, and author of Looking at Russell and West-Fever, as well as many other books.
360 pages, 49 b&w and 15 color illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-47-0, $19.95
Created: Tuesday, September 9, 1924
edited by Dave Walter
An entertaining assortment of Christmas memoirs, newspaper accounts and editorials, poems, and menus collected from the vast archives of the Montana Historical Society, Christmastime in Montana connects readers to the state's rich and varied history through celebrations of Christmas day. From shoot-outs and dances in Virginia City to the finery of a Billings hotel, from dinner with friends to visits from Santa, from lonely nights away from home to joyful family celebrations, Christmastime in Montana examines nearly two centuries of Montana history through observances of this sacred day. Spend Christmas with Montana's early prospectors, ranchers, and homesteaders, and learn how Montanans came together to make Christmas bright. Including handsome historic photographs and illustrations, Christmastime in Montana is a great way to preserve your family's attachment to Montana's past. It is the book of Christmas for all Montanans and Montanans at heart.
264 pages, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-99-3, $15.95
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Created: Tuesday, May 13, 1924
Montana's Historic Highway Bridges, 1860–1956
by Jon Axline
Old bridges do more than just span rivers. They provide an important historical connection between the hopes and dreams of the people who built them and those who continue to benefit from their use today. Montana's historic highway bridges are symbols of the cooperative spirit that led to the economic and social stability of communities throughout the Big Sky Country for over a century. Other bridges, such as those built during the Great Depression, are physical reminders of significant periods in American history and tell stories about the breadth of Montana's transportation past. Nonetheless all are representatives of the best in engineering practices and are testaments to the science of practical bridge design. From the aesthetically delightful Fort Benton Bridge to the more mundane Fred Robinson Bridge in the Missouri Breaks Country, Montana's bridges signify the best in American bridge engineering. Today, Montana's bridges are a visible, often overlooked, and fast disappearing part of the state's historic landscape. Yet the story they tell is significant to understanding the dynamics of Montana's development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the optimism many had in its future.
174 pages, 80 illus., maps, index, paper, ISBN 0-9721522-6-1, $22.00; cloth, ISBN 0-9721522-5-3, $39.95
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Created: Sunday, May 11, 1924
Mining, Politics, and the Montana Press, 1889–1959
by Dennis Swibold
Copper Chorus is the colorful story of how a ruthless mining company secretly bought control of Montana's major daily press—and eventually gave it up. The work also reveals the costs paid by owners and their journalists, whose credibility eroded as their increasingly constricted newspapers lapsed into ambivalence and indifference. The story offers a timeless study of the conflict between commerce and the notion of a free and independent press.
432 pages, 100+ illus., paper, ISBN 0-9759196-0-1, $24.95; cloth, ISBN 0-9721522-8-8, $39.95
Created: Sunday, May 4, 1924
Western Fly Fishing As If It Matters
by Paul Schullery
In Cowboy Trout, historian-angler Paul Schullery chronicles many great moments in western fly fishing, from pioneer anglers casting the first flies on wilderness streams to the unexpected modern emergence of fly fishing as a political, commercial, and even spiritual presence in the lives of many westerners.
288 pages, 30 illus., bibliography, index, paper, ISBN 0-9721522-7-X, $17.95
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Created: Saturday, August 5, 1922
Postcards from the Montana Historical Society
Born to a wealthy British family, Evelyn Cameron came to Montana in 1893 to raise polo ponies. Her crisp photographs capture the rhythms of western life. Each postcard is perforated; tear them out and mail them or keep them as souvenirs of your own Montana experience.
32 postcards, ISBN 978-0980129281, $11.95
Created: Tuesday, April 12, 1921
An Enlisted Man's Journal of the Sioux and Nez Perce Campaigns
by William F. Zimmer
edited by Jerome A. Greene
"Not many enlisted men recorded their adventures in Indian warfare. Still fewer actually kept a journal to lend immediacy to their observations. Frontier Soldier is such a journal, by a literate private who left his story of plains warfare in a chronicle rich in detail. It is the richer for the annotations of Jerome A. Greene, whose understanding of the campaigns in which Zimmer marched is surpassed by few historians."
—Robert M. Utley, author of Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier
paper, ISBN 0-917298-55-1, $15.95
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Created: Monday, August 9, 1920
The Story of Mary Ronan
as told to Margaret Ronan
edited by Ellen Baumler
"One of the most important personal recollections of Montana's mining frontier."
—Mary Clearman Blew, author of Bone Deep in Landscape
A covered wagon on a dim road, the promise of a long journey, and the wonder of what lay ahead filled the shadowy spaces of Mary Sheehan Ronan's earliest memories. By the time she was a married woman in her twenties, she was a well-seasoned pioneer, having crossed most of the country and retraced her steps back across a third of it. Ronan tells her story in this highly readable, entertaining account of one woman's life in the West during the second half of the nineteenth century. This detailed memoir recalls a girl's growing up on the Montana mining frontier, her ascent to young womanhood on a farm in southern California, her experiences as a student in a Los Angeles convent school, her return to Montana as a bride, and her life on the Flathead Indian Reservation as wife of the Indian agent. The exhilaration of a forbidden sled ride, the creaking of the hangman's rope, her father giving the last of their water to his dying mule—these things Ronan remembers with vivid clarity. A highly readable, entertaining account, Girl from the Gulches' unique perspective is a joy to read.
158 pages, illus., maps, paper, ISBN 0-917298-97-7, $17.95
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Created: Saturday, December 13, 1919
The Barns of Montana
by Chere Jiusto and Christine W. Brown
photographs by Tom Ferris
Symbols of the agricultural settlement that transformed Montana’s landscape and culture, barns bring to mind images of people drawing their living from the land. Stone barns, round barns, ethnic barns, dairy barns, some veritable castles for racehorses, others hewn from rough logs—they were all built to serve utilitarian purposes: sheltering livestock and storing crops and equipment. As these handcrafted buildings reach a venerable age, some of them having survived a hundred years and more, we recognize them not only for their utility but also for their beauty. Photographer Tom Ferris’s color images capture the barns’ majestic exteriors as well as telling details of their construction, use, and preservation. The photographs are accompanied by stories of individual barns and their builders. Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana recognizes these invaluable buildings, encourages their preservation, and honors the ranch and farm families that built them.
320 pages, full color, 500+ illus., paper, ISBN 978-0-980129-20-5, $27.95
Created: Friday, August 8, 1919
2nd ed.
by David Miller, Dennis Smith, Joseph McGeshick, James Shanley, and Caleb Shields
The first comprehensive history of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation commissioned by the tribes themselves, The History of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, 1600–2012 is an authoritative scholarly exploration of the struggles and triumphs of the Native Americans who were relegated by the federal government to a small portion of northeast Montana in the late 1880s. Written by five scholars of Native American studies, many of whom are native themselves, the narrative tracks the tribes from precontact with whites through the brutal early reservation period, two world wars, the turbulent 1960s, and into the 21st century. Drawn mostly from primary sources, including federal archives and private materials, this book is a benchmark in the publication of tribal histories with a native point of view. Copublished with Fort Peck Community College.
536 pages, 100+ b/w photographs, paper, ISBN 978-0-9759196-5-1, $80.00
Created: Sunday, May 11, 1919
New Deal Photographs of Montana, 1936–1942
by Mary Murphy
Winner of the 2003 Montana Book Award
In the 1930s and 1940s, four Farm Security Administration photographers were detailed to Montana to document the effects of the Depression on the state. The four—Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott, Russell Lee, and John Vachon—captured the many facets of the Depression in Montana: rural and urban, agricultural and industrial, work and play, hard times and the promise of a brighter future. Men and women who became some of America's best-known photographers, Rothstein, Wolcott, Lee, and Vachon's photographs are both stunning pieces of art and important historical documents. Today these striking images present an unforgettable portrait of a little-studied period in the history of Montana. Selected from the FSA Collection at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the photographs in Hope in Hard Times offer viewers an unparalleled look at life in Montana in the years preceding the United States' entry into World War II.
256 pages, 144 illus., map, cloth, ISBN 0-917298-80-2, $39.95; paper, ISBN 0-917298-81-0, $22.00
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Created: Tuesday, November 12, 1918
A Cultural History of Montana Weddings
by Martha Kohl
Weddings make for great stories—the woman who escaped from her bedroom window to run off with a neighboring rancher; the priest who planned to combine eighth-grade graduation with a wedding mass; the couple who courted for years by mail before managing to overcome the vast distance that separated them; the wedding guests who played cards while waiting for the bride’s grandparents to arrive on a delayed train; the mail-order bride who jilted the man who sent for her; the couple who married on the main pavilion of the 1905 Flathead County Fair; the couple who exchanged their vows at a Great Falls gun show.
Through these stories, I Do tells of wedding traditions as diverse as the couples who live and marry in the West: traditions of Finnish homesteaders, Chinese restaurateurs, Métis fiddlers, Irish miners, Blackfeet students, and Jewish merchants. But whether couples married in a cathedral or an isolated cabin, in 1860 or one hundred years later, their stories offer a unique—and intimate—view of the past.
256 pages, 50+ illus.; hardcover, ISBN 978-0-980129-21-2, $34.95; paper, ISBN 978-0-980129-22-9, $22.95
Created: Sunday, June 23, 1918
Indian Reading Series
Developed by the Salish Culture Committee, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
Three Coyote tales—"Coyote Gets Lovesick," "Coyote and Raven," and "Coyote's Dry Meat Turns into Live Deer"—are told and illustrated by members of the Salish Indian tribe. The tribe historically lived in the mountains and plains of Montana and now makes its home on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana. The Salish have long taught their youth through stories, including stories about Coyote the Trickster. Illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings, and written at a fourth grade reading level, these ancient Coyote stories are now available to a new generation of children everywhere. Copublished with Salish Kootenai College Press.
64 pages, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-61-6, $9.95
Created: Sunday, June 23, 1918
Indian Reading Series
Kootenai Culture Committee
illustrated by Debbie Joseph Finley and Howard Kallowatt, Jr.
Recorded by Kootenai elders and illustrated by Kootenai artists from the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana, these Kootenai stories were originally intended to help educate young tribal members about their history and culture. The collection includes "How Marten Got His Spots," in which Marten learns a hard lesson in obedience; "Coyote and Trout," in which Coyote learns the consequences of greed; "Little Weasel's Dream," in which the child Little Weasel learns the importance of listening to his elders; and "Tepee Making," an illustrated lesson in tepee construction. For centuries, Kootenai children and adults gathered on cold, dark winter nights to listen and learn from stories like these. Copublished with Salish Kootenai College Press.
48 pages, illus., map, paper, ISBN 0-917298-92-6, $8.95
Created: Sunday, June 23, 1918
Indian Reading Series
by Jerome Fourstar and Richard Blue Talk
Including three stories from the Indian Reading Series, a collection of authentic material cooperatively developed by Indian people, How the Morning and Evening Stars Came to Be includes explanatory and cautionary tales from the Assinboine tribe, a tribe whose members are now located primarily on the Fort Peck and Fort Belknap reservations in northern Montana. Recorded by Indian storytellers and illustrated by Indian artists, these traditional tales have been handed down for generations and were designed to teach young tribal members Assiniboine history and culture. Perfect for reluctant readers, these high interest stories will appeal to anyone who is interested in exploring the world of the Assiniboines. Copublished with Fort Peck Tribal Library.
48 pages, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-96-9, $9.95
Created: Sunday, June 23, 1918
Indian Reading Series
by Jerome Fourstar, Isabel Shields, George Shields, Sr., et al.
Recorded by Assiniboine storytellers and illustrated by Indian artists from the Fort Peck reservation in northern Montana, these Assiniboine stories were originally intended to help educate young tribal members about their history and culture. Enter into the legendary world of the Assiniboine through six traditional tales: "How the Summer Season Came"; "Assiniboine Woman Making Grease"; "Indian Love Story"; "How the Big Dipper and North Star Came to Be"; "True Story of a Ghost"; and "Duckhead Necklace." Copublished with Fort Peck Tribal Library.
104 pages, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-94-2, $9.95
Created: Sunday, June 23, 1918
Indian Reading Series
told by Pete Beaverhead
by the Salish Culture Committee, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
In Mary Quequesah's Love Story, a tale from the buffalo-hunting era of the nineteenth century, Mary Quequesah confronts the difficulties of love. After Mary's husband leaves her, a wise old woman dreams of her sorrow and tells her how to win him back.
Elegant woodcuts by noted Native American artist Dwight BilleDeaux accompany this complex story, which, while written at a fifth-grade reading level, will speak to readers of all ages. Copublished with Salish Kootenai College Press.
32 pages, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-71-3, $5.95
Created: Sunday, June 23, 1918
Indian Reading Series
Kootenai Culture Committee, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes
These Kootenai Indian stories were recorded by Kootenai elders and illustrated by Kootenai artists from the Flathead Indian Reservation. Copublished with Salish Kootenai College Press.
32 pages, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-66-7, $5.95
Created: Sunday, June 23, 1918
Indian Reading Series
by Eunice Alfrey, Ann Lambert, Lavina Perry, and George Whitebird
The Turtle Who Went to War includes five stories from the Indian Reading Series, a collection of authentic material cooperatively developed by Indian people. These traditional Sioux tales, originally designed to help educate young tribal members about their history and culture, include elements of friendship, bravery, loyalty and revenge. Recorded by Indian storytellers and illustrated by Indian artists, these high interest stories are perfect for reluctant readers and offer a fascinating way for readers of all ages to learn about the Sioux. Copublished with Fort Peck Tribal Library.
64 pages, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-95-0, $9.95
Created: Saturday, January 19, 1918
The Buffalo and the Montana Writers Project Interviews on the Flathead Indian Reservation
by Bon I. Whealdon et al.
edited by Robert Bigart
The story of the Salish's relationship to the buffalo-including their role in protecting the species-is preserved in this collection, which includes all extant interviews from the Montana Writers Project conducted on the Flathead Reservation. These firsthand accounts of Salish elders-legends, information about traditional lifeways, biographies of important figures on the reservation, and most of all buffalo-offer a glimpse into tribal life as it was lived in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Copublished with Salish Kootenai College Press.
288 pages, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-84-5, $18.95
Created: Friday, October 26, 1917
by Norma Smith
preface by Joan Hoff
introduction by Kathryn Anderson
Suffragist, social worker, first woman elected to the United States Congress, lifelong peace activist, and tireless advocate for political reform, Jeannette Rankin is often remembered as the woman who voted "No" to the United States' involvement in both world wars. Rankin's determined voice shines in this biography, written by her friend, Norma Smith.
168 pages, illus., paper ISBN 0-917298-79-9, $17.95
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Created: Sunday, May 6, 1917
Emigrant Diaries from the Bozeman Trail, 1863–1866
edited by Susan Badger Doyle
foreword by Charles E. Rankin
afterword by Elliott West
Collected here for the first time ever are the surviving eyewitness accounts of the Bozeman's Trail's civilian emigrants: twenty-four diaries written during the journey and nine reminiscences prepared afterward. These accounts describe life on the West's last great emigrant trail, the shortcut from the Platte River Road to the Montana goldfields, from 1863 until 1866, when the route was closed by "Red Cloud's War." Ample introductions, extensive annotation, historical illustrations, and detailed maps enrich this oversized, two-volume compendium.
64 pages, illus., maps, two-volume boxed set, cloth, ISBN 0-917298-48-9, $95.00
Created: Wednesday, October 20, 1915
New Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn
edited by Charles E. Rankin
In this collection of essays from the 1994 Little Bighorn Legacy Symposium, an astounding array of scholars discuss the battle's context, historical significance, and cultural impact from both white and Native American perspectives. Contributors include Richard A. Fox, Jr., Paul Andrew Hutton, Edward T. Linenthal, and Richard S. Slotkin. Essays examine such diverse topics as the environmental context of the northern plains, new archaeological discoveries about the battle, Custer in art and the movies, and the battle's symbolic legacy.
384 pages, color and black-and-white illus., map, paper, ISBN 0-917298-42-X, $19.95
Created: Saturday, December 5, 1914
The Lives and Battles of Montana's Political Legends
by John Morrison and Catherine Wright Morrison
Born of admiration for the careers and contributions of Montana's distinguished public leaders and concern for the effective conduct of public affairs, Mavericks offers readers a look at Montana's remarkable political heritage. The lives and careers of Montana's political giants—Joseph K. Toole, Ella Knowles, Joseph M. Dixon, Thomas Walsh, Jeannette Rankin, Burton K. Wheeler, James E. Murray, Mike Mansfield, and Lee Metcalf—are inextricably interwoven with Montana political history. Their careers were launched and their values hewn by a state rich with populism, progressivism, and activism. At a time when Americans search for reasons to reinvolve themselves in government, the stories of these nine politicians remind us of the qualities that underpin effective leadership. This is essential reading for Montanans, those interested in the dynamics of politics, and general readers wishing to gain a greater understanding of our nation's political heritage as exemplified in the lives of nine dedicated individuals.
340 pages, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-93-4, $18.95
Created: Thursday, August 13, 1914
Growing Up in Butte, Montana, 1900–1960
by Janet L. Finn
Mining Childhood offers a child’s-eye view of Butte, Montana, from 1900 to 1960, the years of Butte’s fame as the “Richest Hill on Earth.” Children were keen observers and active participants in community life, and childhood accounts of work, play, family, schooling, ethnicity, and neighborhood life offer fresh perspectives on Butte. These stories remind us that children were not sheltered from the “adult” world around them; rather, they were shapers of that world.
336 pages, 103 illus., paper, ISBN 978-0-9801292-5-0, $24.95
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Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
by Krys Holmes
"Montana: Stories of the Land includes the 'Indian side of the story.' It offers Indians' perspectives not just on the settlement era of Montana history, but on the Depression, World War II, and the 1972 Constitutional Convention. . . . This text tells all the stories of the land."
—Professor Walter C. Fleming, Chair of the Native American Studies Department, MSU
Accurate, inclusive, engaging, and up-to-date, Montana: Stories of the Land, is the ideal Montana history textbook for 7th and 8th grade. Reviewed by both content experts and classroom teachers, it is aligned to Montana Content Standards for Social Studies and the Essential Understandings regarding Montana Indians.
500 pages, full color, 438 illus., 25 maps, hardcover, ISBN 978-0-9759196-3-7, $59.95
Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
Essays on History, People, and Place
by Harry W. Fritz, Mary Murphy, Robert R. Swartout, Jr.
A rich and varied tapestry, Montana Legacy looks at the people, cultures, places, and events that shaped present-day Montana from Plentywood to Butte, Great Falls to Virginia City, and Billings to Browning. Designed to make you think about Montana history in a new way, this anthology features sixteen essays chosen for their relevance, readability, and scholarship. The volume's editors—all well-known Montana historians—carefully selected topics, from the fur trade to power deregulation, that range across two centuries and expose Montana's cultural and geographical diversity.
320 pages, illus., maps, paper, ISBN 0-917298-90-X, $18.95
Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
Montana Mainstreets, Volume 1
by Marilyn Grant
The gold-rush-era town of Virginia City, purchased by the State of Montana to preserve for posterity, makes a fitting first subject for the Montana Mainstreets series. Once it was Montana's acting territorial capital and the center of trade for Alder Gulch, the site of the richest placer mines in the world, but Virginia City became a town almost frozen in time once gold deposits played out and the state capital moved to Helena in 1889. Today, Virginia City attracts visitors from all over the world, who marvel at its intact architecture. If walking down Virginia City's streets is like a trip backwards in time, the road map for that journey is Guide to Historic Virginia City.
80 pages, maps, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-56-X, $9.95
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Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
Montana Mainstreets, Volume 2
by Montana Historical Society
Rooted in the railroad and ranching industries, Glendive lies in the lower Yellowstone Valley about thirty miles from the North Dakota border in southeastern Montana. First and foremost a railroad town, Glendive's development and architecture reflect its Northern Pacific heritage and the spirit of its residents. Discover the history of "Gate City" of the Yellowstone Valley in this lively guide to Glendive's historic buildings.
88 pages, maps, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-58-6, $9.95
Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
Montana Mainstreets, Volume 3
by Ellen and Ken Sievert
In the geographic center of Montana sits Lewistown, whose rich history is still reflected in today's streets. A testament to the homesteading boom at the turn of the century, Lewistown grew with the surrounding communities. A service center, rail stop, and county seat, its population tripled between 1900 and 1910, then doubled again by 1920. The architectural heritage of this homesteading community awaits your discovery, on the streets of Lewistown.
92 pages, 40 illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-59-4, $9.95
Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
Montana Mainstreets, Volume 4
by Chere Jiusto
Founded in 1890 against the backdrop of the lush Bitterroot Valley, the town of Hamilton's history revolves around timber, the railroad, and agriculture. Hamilton owes its early history to copper baron Marcus Daly, whose Anaconda Company sawmill and private Bitter Root Stock Farm dominated the community through the late nineteenth century. The drama of the twentieth-century apple boom and the saga of the battle to cure Rocky Mountain tick fever enrich the town's more recent past. Drawing the reader into the historical mosaic that is Hamilton, Montana, with architectural and historical information on town and valley history, buildings and historic sites, this guide is a treat for all those who would explore "the jewel of the Bitterroot."
88 pages, illus., maps, paper, ISBN 0-917298-67-5, $9.95
Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
Montana Mainstreets, Volume 5
by Kathryn McKay
Founded in 1891 as a railroad town for the transcontinental Great Northern Railway, Kalispell, Montana, faced bitter disappointment when the railroad relocated its route to the north in 1904. Most towns suffering similar fates fell into decline, but not Kalispell, which had become Flathead County seat in 1894, remained a trade center of a large area, and later became a gateway to Glacier National Park. Discover the history and architecture of this leading town of northwest Montana.
80 pages, maps, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-70-5, $9.95
Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
Montana Mainstreets, Volume 6
by Allan James Mathews
Winner of a Certificate of Commendation from the American Association for State and Local History
Situated west of the Continental Divide, the town of Missoula started in 1860 as a trading post called Hellgate. Supplying miners with produce, flour, other trade goods, and later with lumber was Missoula's early reason for being. Its designation as county seat in 1866 and the arrival of the Northern Pacific in 1883 and the Milwaukee Road in 1909 cemented the community's role as a center of commerce. Its economy diversified further when it became home to the state university—now called University of Montana—in 1895 and the U.S. Forest Service's regional district headquarters for the Rocky Mountains in 1908. With a flourishing downtown district and well-preserved historic homes, Missoula's streetscapes today reflect the town's abundant history, thanks, in part, to a successful historic preservation program that has preserved the community's rich architectural legacy. Explore Missoula's buildings, parks, and historic sites through this guide.
181 pages, illus., maps, paper, ISBN 0-917298-89-6, $12.95
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Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
Montana Mainstreets, Volume 7
by Jim Jenks
Founded in the 1860s on an important emigrant route to the territory's gold camps, Bozeman, Montana, grew rapidly from frontier farming settlement into a bustling center of commerce. The arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883 and the establishment of the Montana State College twenty years later secured the town's bright future. As Bozeman prospered, substantial buildings of brick and stone grew up along its Main Street and in its newly platted neighborhoods. Today, the town's historic center, substantial public buildings, and charming homes remain a vibrant part of the community. Discover Bozeman's rich history and architectural heritage through this lively guide.
180 pages, illus., maps, paper, ISBN 978-0-972152-23-5, $12.95
Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
History on the Go
by Ellen Baumler
“The pages of Montana Moments overflow with enjoyable historical vignettes that cover nearly everything important that’s happened in Montana’s history. Newcomers will find an excellent introduction to what makes Montana tick, while Baumler’s careful research and entertaining writing style will delight old-timers.
—Harry Fritz, University of Montana, Missoula
Forget dreary dates and boring facts. Montana Moments distills the most funny, bizarre, and interesting stories from Montana’s history into pure entertainment. Meet the colorful cast of the famous and not-so-famous desperadoes, vigilantes, madams, and darned good men and women (and a few critters) who made the state’s history. You’ll get a laugh from the transient vaudevillian who wrote the state song. Captain James C. Kerr’s tale of the Flathead Lake monster might make you shiver. No matter your reaction, you’ll have fun exploring Montana—so enjoy a little history as you go.
220 pages, paper, ISBN 978-0-975919-68-2, $14.95
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Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
by Jeff Hart
Illustrated by Jacqueline Moore
From Alder to Yellowbells, sixty native Montana plants are featured in this fascinating and informative guide, now in a new, easy-to-use format. Learn how Native Americans and other early inhabitants of the area used these plants for food, medicine, and religious rituals. Each illustrated entry also gives a detailed description of the plant and its habitat and range.
168 pages, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-29-2, $14.95
Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
by the Montana Historical Society Research Center Staff
Montana Place Names from Alzada to Zortman explores the origins of more than 1,200 place names. Written by Montana Historical Society staff and drawing on the expertise of historians from around the state, this book includes entries describing towns and cities, geographic features, parks and battlefields, properties on the National Register of Historic Places, and more. The full-color map and extensive index help readers to pinpoint every place described, and historic images reveal the Montana of yesteryear.
380 pages, 100+ illus. and maps, paper, ISBN 978-0-975919-61-3, $24.95
Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
indexed and compiled by Douglas J. Easton
Since 1951, Montana has published well-researched, engaging articles. You can easily access fifty years’ worth of history with these invaluable reference tools. You’ll be able to look up every article, subject, photograph, work of art, author, and book review that appeared in the magazine between 1951 and 1900 in this first volume.
390 pages, hardcover, ISBN 0-917298-30-6, $39.95
Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
Since 1951, Montana has published well-researched, engaging articles. You can easily access fifty years’ worth of history with these invaluable reference tools. You’ll be able to look up every article, subject, photograph, work of art, author, and book review that appeared in the magazine between 1991 and 2000 in this second volume.
144 pages, hardcover, ISBN 0-917298-85-3, $19.
Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
Art in the Collection of the Montana Historical Society
by Jennifer Bottomly-O'looney and Kirby Lambert
Montana’s Charlie Russell brings to life the Montana Historical Society’s world-class collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, bronzes, and illustrated letters by the Treasure State’s famed “Cowboy Artist.” Using advanced digital technology, each of the 230 pieces in the Society’s permanent collection has been meticulously photographed to bring to life, in vivid color, Russell’s artistic mastery. Carefully researched scholarship illuminates the stories behind each artwork. The result is a catalog of Russell’s art as you’ve never seen it before—the Montana Historical Society’s world-class collection in the pages of Montana’s Charlie Russell.
432 pages, 11½" x 11½", full-color, cloth, ISBN 978-1-940527-10-9, $80.00
Leather-bound collector's edition, ISBN 978-1-940527-70-3, $350.00
Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
4th edition, available as ebook only
by Jon Axline
Remarkable stories from Montana’s historical highway markers combine with easy-to-follow maps, historical photos and sketches, and geological information to illuminate the paths of Montana’s past and present. This guidebook alerts travelers about places that merit a stop and allows them to read about the site at their leisure. But even if time is short, travelers can refer to descriptions and historical photographs to learn about Montana’s past as they journey across the state.
No longer available in print. Buy the ebook: Kindle | iBooks | Nook | Kobo
Created: Wednesday, May 13, 1914
The People's House
by Kirby Lambert, Patricia M. Burnham, and Susan R. Near
An imposing symbol, Montana's Capitol reflects the values and aspirations of the Treasure State's founders. Its neoclassical design echoes the architecture of early Greece and Rome, while the murals and statues that embellish the building's grand interior spaces commemorate important events and people in the state's history. Lavishly illustrated with both historic and modern photographs, Montana's State Capitol: The People's House provides a long overdue tribute to the crown jewel of Montana architecture. Essays explore the building of the Capitol and the creation of the sculpture and murals that adorn its halls-murals that include one of artist Charles M. Russell's most admired works. Published to honor the building on its centennial anniversary, Montana's State Capitol will provide readers with a fresh appreciation for this "Temple of Democracy."
112 pages, 88 illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-83-7, $19.95
Created: Saturday, May 9, 1914
by Ellen Baumler
When Evelyn Cameron first rode into Miles City in the dark blue divided riding skirt she had ordered from California, oh, the scandal it caused. Ellen Baumler tells that story and more in this collection of the most funny, bizarre, and interesting episodes from Montana’s history.
214 pages, paper, ISBN 978-0-975919-68-2, $14.95
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Created: Wednesday, October 1, 1913
The U.S. Army and Nee-Me-Poo Crisis
by Jerome A. Greene
foreword by Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.
Winner of 2001 Eastern National Authors Award
Written by one of the foremost experts in frontier military history and reviewed by members of the Nez Perce tribe, Nez Perce Summer, 1877 details the dozen armed encounters between U.S. Army troops and a desperate body of Nez Perces during the long summer of 1877. A meticulously researched narrative, this definitive history of the Nez Perce War chronicles a people's epic struggle to survive spiritually, culturally, and physically in the face of unrelenting military force. Sixteen maps detail troop and Indian movements and skirmishes, while forty-nine photographs further illuminate this dramatic conflict.
550 pages, 49 illus., 16 maps, paper, ISBN 0-917298-82-9, $24.95
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Created: Thursday, February 22, 1912
Salish Indian Celebrations on the Flathead Indian Reservation
by Johnny Arlee
For over a hundred years, the Arlee Fourth of July Celebration, or Powwow, on the Flathead Indian Reservation has brought people together to honor the traditions of the Salish. Over a Century of Moving to the Drum: Salish Indian Celebrations on the Flathead Indian Reservation, by Salish teacher and spiritual advisor Johnny Arlee, offers a tribute to this longstanding event. Lavishly illustrated with pen and ink sketches of powwow scenes and photographs of powwows in the 1940s, the main narrative is based on interviews Arlee conducted with Salish elders in the 1970s. Excerpts of the interviews—and interviews with modern powwow participants—round out the volume. Copublished with Salish Kootenai College Press.
104 pages, map, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-57-8, $14.95
Created: Thursday, October 12, 1911
The Kootenai and Blackfeet Before Glacier National Park
by Sally Thompson, Kootenai Culture Committee & Pikunni Traditional Association
Step out of a world governed by clocks and calendars and into the world of the Kootenai and Blackfeet peoples, whose traditional territories included the area that is now Glacier National Park. In this book, the Kootenai and Blackfeet tribes share their traditions—stories and legends, foodways and hunting techniques, games and spiritual beliefs. Readers will discover a new respect for the people who were at home in the Crown of the Continent, all around the seasons.
256 pages, 100+ photos
cloth, ISBN 978-1-940527-82-6, $34.95
paper, ISBN 978-1-940527-71-0, $19.95
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Created: Monday, October 9, 1911
A Narrative of the Montana Gold Rush, 1862–1863
by Edwin R. Purple
edited by Kenneth N. Owens
In 1862 Edwin Ruthven Purple seized the chance to strike it rich in the newly discovered goldfields of the northern Rocky Mountains. With an introduction and thorough annotations by Kenneth N. Owens, Perilous Passage offers Purple's never-before-published, first-person narrative. On hand for the crimes that led to vigilante justice, Purple chronicled the story of a raucous, sometimes murderous life among bonanza miners.
216 pages, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-37-3, $15.95
Created: Saturday, October 23, 1909
The Rise and Fall of Communism in Northeastern Montana
by Verlaine Stoner McDonald
The Red Corner chronicles the meteoric rise and decline of Communism on the prairies of northeastern Montana. During the 1920s and early 1930s, Sheridan County boasted a government largely run by Communists, a Communist camp for local youth, and an official newspaper of the Communist Party USA—the Producers News. By the mid-1930s, however, Communist influence in the region had waned, and area residents soon came to regard the county’s embrace of Communism as a shameful period in its history.
Through meticulous research in newspaper accounts, oral histories, FBI reports, and internal Communist Party files, author Verlaine Stoner McDonald reveals the colorful stories of such influential local Communists as newspaper editor and state senator Charles E. “Red Flag” Taylor and his comrade, county sheriff Rodney Salisbury, who was allegedly involved in graft, prostitution, and bootlegging. In so doing, she offers insights into how this remote part of the West came to be home to one of the nation’s most successful rural Communist organizations and how it eventually rejected radicalism and reconstituted itself as a typical farming community.
256 pages, 100+ illus., paper, ISBN 978-0-975919-67-5, $16.95
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Created: Monday, October 26, 1908
Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness
by Paul Schullery
"In Searching for Yellowstone [Schullery] has given us a refreshingly unhyperbolic look at the place he loves, and has thus notably honored its beauty, its mystery, its people, its past—and its future."
—New York Times Book Review
Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness traces Yellowstone's social and ecological history from the Pleistocene to the present in a seminal work that the press is pleased to bring back into print.
Paul Schullery, the former director of the American Museum of Fly Fishing, is the author of Lewis and Clark among the Grizzlies (2002) and coauthor with Lee Whittlesey of Yellowstone's Creation Myth (2003).
360 pages, illus., maps, paper, ISBN 0-9721522-1-0, $19.95
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Created: Friday, June 12, 1908
Anaconda Copper, Montana Air Pollution, and the Courts, 1890–1924
by Donald MacMillan
introduction by William L. Lang
Smoke Wars traces the campaign against air pollution in southwestern Montana from the fight to abolish open-heap roasting—a process that created dense clouds of low-lying, noxious smoke and caused death rates in Butte to exceed those of New York City—to the battle against toxic emissions released from the great stacks of the Anaconda Reduction Works. This landmark environmental study raises issues of corporate responsibility, the rights of citizens, and the costs of industrialization, issues still hotly contested today.
304 pages, illus., map, paper, ISBN 0-917298-65-9, $18.95
Created: Monday, May 18, 1908
Ghost Tales from Virginia City, Butte, and Helena
by Ellen Baumler
If ghosts are the restless spirits of those who died violently or in a state of unreadiness, then Montana's violent frontier history explains the richness and depth of these haunting stories. This wonderful collection—based on oral testimony, diaries, journals, and newspaper accounts—presents an eerie history of the state's legendary mining towns. In addition to their ghoulish intrigue, these stories combine to provide new perspectives and a great appreciation for Montana's past.
160 pages, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-91-8, $15.95
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Created: Sunday, October 13, 1907
Reminiscences of the Gold Rush, the Vigilantes, and the Birth of Montana Territory
by Francis M. Thompson
edited by Kenneth N. Owens
Frank Thompson's lively memoir details his experiences in the upper Missouri country at the beginning of the Montana gold rush. A young man at the outset of the Civil War, Thompson supported the Union cause but realized that military life was not for him. Turning to the frontier, he headed west from St. Louis in 1862, arriving aboard the first steamboat ever to reach Fort Benton, in what would later become Montana Territory. Thompson's sojourn was relatively brief—he returned east after only two and a half years. But in that time he hunted for gold, ran a Bannack City mercantile business, traveled to the Pacific Coast and back, served in Montana's first territorial legislature, and became a speculator in mining properties.
Thompson also formed a relationship with controversial sheriff Henry Plummer. Thompson knew the sheriff well, but he early stated his dark suspicions about the gold camp lawman. Drawing from his intimate knowledge of the circumstances and players involved, Thompson vividly describes one of the deadliest incidents of vigilante justice in U.S. history.
A self-styled tenderfoot, Frank Thompson recalls his days on the mining frontier with clarity and insight, making him an unmatched eyewitness for Montana's formative era.
A specialist in western history, Ken Owens is also the editor of Perilous Passage: A Narrative of the Montana Gold Rush by Edwin Ruthven Purple (Montana Historical Society Press, 1995) and a frequent contributor to Montana The Magazine of Western History.
192 pages, paper, ISBN 0-9721522-2-9, $14.95
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Created: Friday, April 26, 1907
The Battlefields, Forts, and Related Sites of America's Greatest Indian War
by Paul L. Hedren
Waged over the glitter of Black Hills gold, the Sioux War of 1876-77 transformed the entire northern plains from Indian and buffalo country to the domain of miners, cattlemen, and other Euramerican settlers. Keyed to official highway maps, this richly illustrated guide leads the traveler to virtually every principal landmark associated with the war, from Fort Phil Kearny where the Sioux besieged soldiers sent to guard the Bozeman Trail in the 1860s to Fort Buford, the site of Sitting Bull's surrender in 1881.
128 pages, maps, illus., paper, ISBN 0-917298-38-1, $10.95
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Created: Tuesday, May 2, 1905
Essays on the Lewis and Clark Expedition
edited by James P. Ronda
"Finally, in one place, we have a sense of the remarkable breadth of knowledge Jim Ronda, John Allen, Gary Moulton and other Lewis and Clark scholars bring to this immensely important moment in American history. All of us who follow along the trail are indebted to them."
—Ken Burns
368 pages, illus., maps, paper, ISBN 0-917298-45-4, $19.95
Created: Thursday, September 22, 1904
The Journals and Documents of the Atkinson-O'Fallon Expedition, 1824–26
edited by Richard E. Jensen and James S. Hutchins
In 1824 Brig. Gen. Henry Atkinson and Indian Agent Benjamin O'Fallon traveled up the Missouri River, along with 475 soldiers of the First and Sixth Infantry regiments. Their mission: to negotiate peace treaties with tribes along the Missouri River, and to secure their promise to trade exclusively with American citizens. It was hoped this combination of military power and proffered friendship would put an end to Indian attacks on American fur trappers and traders. The full record of this early military expedition is now available. The diaries of General Atkinson and Maj. Stephen Watts Kearny describe the trip from St. Louis to Fort Atkinson in the fall of 1824, the expedition from the fort to the Yellowstone River and back in 1825, and the return of a portion of the troops to St. Louis in 1826, while the diary of Angus Lewis Langham, the expedition's secretary, describes the passage of the wheel boat Antelope from St. Louis to Fort Atkinson in early spring of 1825. This fully annotated volume also includes a discussion of the early use of the wheel boat to travel the Missouri and the expedition's financial records.
272 pages, illus., maps, cloth, ISBN 0-917298-69-1, $39.95