MontanaHistoricalSociety

In Tracing Artistic Memories and Mysteries of Yellowstone and Glacier, retired MTHS historian Dr. Ellen Baumler explores how painting, photography, literature, oral culture, and music have given us powerful incentives to visit Montana’s parks and preserve these majestic resources.

Chief Earl Old Person, Life-Time Chief of the Blackfeet Tribe, sat for an interview in 2002 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of North American Indian Days in Browning on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Norma Ashby interviewed Chief Old Person for KRTV of Great Falls as he commented on the meaning and celebrations of Indian Days, one of the largest powwows in Montana. Filmed by photographers Lindsay McNay and Tim Luinstra, the video special was sponsored by Dr. and Mrs. Dan Fiehrer.

University of Colorado PhD student Kerri Clement examines horse herd restoration efforts on the part of Crow Agency superintendent Robert Yellowtail. While Yellowtail concentrated on particular breeds and worked to obtain high-bred horses, this short-lived project reflects the longer and deeper history between Crow people and equines. Between 1875 and 1910, cattle raising on the Flathead Reservation grew from supplementing a tribal economy based on hunting and gathering to the foundation of a new economy.

Retired MHS museum technician Vic Reiman begins with a short sketch of the development of black powder and firearms—going all the way back to China—and then concentrates on the first four models of lever-action rifles made by Oliver Winchester and their use by American Indians, settlers, and bad men on the western frontier.

Early railroad companies quickly realized that the beautiful scenery along their routes would be an attraction to Americans enthralled by the romance of the West. Montana Historical Society outreach and interpretation program manager Kirby Lambert illustrates how advertising campaigns featuring beautiful promotional art lured adventure-seekers—and paying customers—to experience firsthand the spectacular scenery of national parks and other scenic wonders of the West. (9/27/2019)

Before 1889, Montana exerted little oversight of those who claimed to be healers. Starting that year, however, the state required all medical practitioners to register with the newly formed State Board of Medical Examiners. Dr. Todd L. Savitt, historian of medicine at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, reveals a group demographic picture of the doctors who did (and did not) register and tells stories of some particularly interesting physicians in that group.

To attract workers, entrepreneurs, and tourists, a community needs positive brand identity. When well presented, local history is a powerful tool that can be used to distinguish your town from “Everywhere U.S.A.” Billings’ Mayor William Cole tells the story of how the Yellowstone Kelly Interpretive Site was designed, funded, and constructed on the rimrocks overlooking Billings and how plans are now being prepared for the development of the William Clark Recreational Area on the Yellowstone River.

Irish and Chinese immigrants played a significant role in the development of nineteenth-century Montana. While the scholarship on Irish in Montana is extensive and there is a sizable body of work on Chinese in Montana, yet to appear is a study of these diasporic groups in Montana from a comparative perspective. Addressing this gap in the literature and bridging the divide between Irish American studies and Chinese American studies, Barry McCarron shares his research findings on relations between, and the comparative experiences and contributions of, Irish and Chinese in Montana. McCarron is an assistant professor of history and faculty fellow in Irish Studies at New York University and a 2017 MHS Research Center Bradley Fellow.

Dr. Timothy McCleary presents recent archaeological findings at the home of Chief Plenty Coups, the last principal chief of the Apsáalooke. McCleary—head of the General Studies Department at Little Big Horn College—analyzes these findings within the context of both historical documents and contemporary celebrations to allow for an understanding of the political process of historic Apsáalooke chiefly feasting.

It is said that newspaper reporters, in their hurried, inevitably flawed way, are writing the first draft of history. Veteran reporter Ed Kemmick talks about some of his favorite history-tinged newspaper stories, from the tale of the so-called Petrified Man discovered near Fort Benton to the exploits of Horace Bivins, buffalo soldier, top army marksman, and, in retirement in Billings, a master gardener. Kemmick has worked as a reporter and editor in Montana for more than thirty-five years and is the author of “The Big Sky, By and By.” He is retired as of July 2018, when he suspended publication of his four-and-a-half-year-old online newspaper, Last Best News.

MSU history professor Dale Martin draws upon themes and stories from his 2018 book “Ties, Rails, and Telegraph Wires: Railroads and Communities in Montana and the West,” published by the MHS Press. The book explores how railroads shaped and sustained the human landscape and economy of the West, Montana, and Billings well into the middle of the twentieth century. Railways provided essential transportation to communities and businesses. Passenger trains carried people, mail, express, money, newspapers, and milk in steel cans. Town residents knew the telegraphers and other station staff, track maintenance workers, and crews on local trains. People went to the station to meet arriving family members, see campaigning politicians, greet returning sports teams, or just to watch travelers and fellow citizens. Martin also covers the railways, trains, stations, and railroaders in the Billings-Laurel area and the activities at the Billings Union Station a century ago.

Mardell Hogan Plainfeather, who is retired from the National Park Service, shares the story of her mother, Lillian Bullshows Hogan (1905–2003). Hogan grew up on the Crow Indian Reservation, learned traditional arts and food gathering from her mother, survived the bitterness of Indian boarding school, and grew up to be a complex, hard-working Native woman who drove a car, maintained a bank account, and read the local English paper. Hogan spoke Crow as her first language, practiced beadwork, tanned hides, honored clan relatives in generous giveaways, and often visited the last of the old chiefs and berdaches with her family.

Montana Department of Transportation historian Jon Axline explains how the Bearcreek Cemetery is a time capsule that provides a wealth of information about a once-thriving coal town that, essentially, no longer exists. The cemetery also contains the remains of many of the men who were killed in the 1943 Smith Mine disaster, the worst coal mining disaster in Montana history. What the cemetery tells us about that community is extraordinary and provides a unique peek into Carbon County’s past.

On Montana’s Indian reservations—where severe economic hardship began long before the 1930s—Native women often played key roles in helping their communities survive. MHS associate editor Laura Ferguson, M.A., tells how tribal members like Indian CCC employee Lucille Otter (Salish) and community organizer Julia Schulz (A’aniniin/Gros Ventre) worked to improve conditions on the reservation during the Great Depression.

Paul Shea, director for the Yellowstone Gateway Museum, discusses the rapid growth of Livingston and the reasons for creating a new county. Shea looks at how, beginning in 1883, the railroad’s plans for shops and a spur line to Yellowstone National Park shaped the growth of Livingston and continued to impact the town for the next 104 years.

Kevin Kooistra, executive director of the Western Heritage Center, explains how the railroad impacted the planning, designing, and promoting of the settlement of Billings. Kooistra demonstrates the ways in which the city of Billings is still affected by choices made by the Northern Pacific Railway in 1882.

Lesley Gilmore, director of Historic Preservation Services for CTA Architects Engineers, discusses how CTA has contributed to the growth of Billings since the company’s founding in August 1938. Gilmore details the philosophical and chronological history of CTA, the progression of styles as evidenced by the firm’s projects and client preferences, and the key personalities responsible as the company grew from two to nearly 450 employees.

Moss Mansion historian Jim Decker examines how Billings became a commercial hub as the result of the early efforts of entrepreneur P. B. Moss. Decker shares stories relating to businesses and institutions still very prominent in the Magic City today, including the Northern Hotel, the sugar beet factory, Rocky Mountain College, the Billings Gazette, and more.

Retired MHS interpretive historian Ellen Baumler discusses how much of what we know about the rituals and beliefs of Montana’s earliest people comes from happenstance encounters with burials and mortuary practices. From Park County’s 12,600-year-old Anzick site to Dawson County’s Hagen Site National Historic Landmark and the more recent “Face on the Rims” in urban Billings, burial sites teach us much about universal beliefs and cultural practices that survived for thousands of years.

MSU PhD candidate LaTrelle Scherffius looks at wildlife photography in eastern Montana in the years between 1880 and 1920, when many increasingly saw nature as something to protect, rather than conquer or control. In 1892, George Bird Grinnell called for hunters to put down the gun and take up the camera. The shift toward “camera hunting” is marked by a transition away from photographs celebrating a hunter’s kill and toward photographs that capture animals in “nature.”

Tim Lehman, professor of history at Rocky Mountain College, examines the wolves of Fergus County and their effects on local economies in Central Montana. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Montana passed bounty laws to create incentives for killing wolves and other predators in an attempt to transform the landscape from a Native American buffalo ecology to a Euro-American cattle economy. Historical records of bounty payments not only reveal patterns in the extirpation of predators but also demonstrate the importance of this infusion of money into the emerging cash economy.

MHS reference historian Zoe Ann Stoltz uncovers the stories behind livestock brands and how their histories are vital to Montana history. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the people and brands associated with eastern Montana, including Will James, Peter Yegen, the XIT, Two Dot Wilson, the Circle Qtr Circle, the Greenough family, and many more tales that involve legendary brands and the Montanans they represented.

Iker Saitua, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Riverside and University of the Basque Country, examines the life of Basque immigrant John Etchart. In 1912, Etchart traveled from Nevada to northeastern Montana looking for new grazing lands. He eventually built up one of the most prominent ranches in the state and ultimately played a major role in other Basque expansion from the Great Basin into Montana.

Yellowstone History Journal general editor Bruce Gourley tells the story of socialite tourist Florence Keyser as the Great Depression shadowed her while she traveled from Pennsylvania to Yellowstone National Park in Montana in August 1931. Gourley uses not only Keyser’s own words, but also those of park superintendent Roger W. Toll, rangers, naturalists, and concessionaires to document the coming of hard times to Wonderland.

Yellowstone Historical Society member and map expert Ralph Saunders provides a brief history of early mountain climbing in southern Montana, focusing on the unique role played by mountaineering pioneer Fred Inabnit. Among his many other accomplishments, Inabnit is best known today for a namesake mountain in the Beartooth Range and his extraordinary topographic relief map, which was the centerpiece of the Montana exhibit at the 1930 World’s Fair.

Jennette Rasch, curator from Billings’ Moss Mansion, shares information about the collections and the new self-guided tours of the historical house museum. About the series: Three historians offer glimpses into the Yellowstone Valley memories they have preserved using grant funds from the Montana History Foundation (MHF). Kevin Kooistra, executive director of Billings’ Western Heritage Center, discuss a variety of documents and photographs from its collection that tell the story of the Yellowstone Valley. Trudie Porter Biggers, business development director for the Pompeys Pillar Historical Association, shares oral histories from the original descendants of the Huntley Irrigation Project—stories she collected and preserved for the Huntley Project Museum of Irrigated Agriculture. Jennette Rasch, curator from Billings’ Moss Mansion, shares information about the collections and the new self-guided tours of the house museum. Each of these MHF grant recipients provide their important and unique Yellowstone Valley history. MHF executive director Charlene Porsild moderates the session and provides an overview on the ways in which the foundation helps preserve local history all across the state.

Trudie Porter Biggers, business development director for the Pompeys Pillar Historical Association, shares oral histories from the original descendants of the Huntley Irrigation Project—stories she collected and preserved for the Huntley Project Museum of Irrigated Agriculture. About the series: Three historians offer glimpses into the Yellowstone Valley memories they have preserved using grant funds from the Montana History Foundation (MHF). Kevin Kooistra, executive director of Billings’ Western Heritage Center, discuss a variety of documents and photographs from its collection that tell the story of the Yellowstone Valley. Trudie Porter Biggers, business development director for the Pompeys Pillar Historical Association, shares oral histories from the original descendants of the Huntley Irrigation Project—stories she collected and preserved for the Huntley Project Museum of Irrigated Agriculture. Jennette Rasch, curator from Billings’ Moss Mansion, shares information about the collections and the new self-guided tours of the house museum. Each of these MHF grant recipients provide their important and unique Yellowstone Valley history. MHF executive director Charlene Porsild moderates the session and provides an overview on the ways in which the foundation helps preserve local history all across the state.

Kevin Kooistra, executive director of Billings’ Western Heritage Center, discusses a variety of documents and photographs from its collection that tell the story of the Yellowstone Valley. About the series: Three historians offer glimpses into the Yellowstone Valley memories they have preserved using grant funds from the Montana History Foundation (MHF). Kevin Kooistra, executive director of Billings’ Western Heritage Center, discuss a variety of documents and photographs from its collection that tell the story of the Yellowstone Valley. Trudie Porter Biggers, business development director for the Pompeys Pillar Historical Association, shares oral histories from the original descendants of the Huntley Irrigation Project—stories she collected and preserved for the Huntley Project Museum of Irrigated Agriculture. Jennette Rasch, curator from Billings’ Moss Mansion, shares information about the collections and the new self-guided tours of the house museum. Each of these MHF grant recipients provide their important and unique Yellowstone Valley history. MHF executive director Charlene Porsild moderates the session and provides an overview on the ways in which the foundation helps preserve local history all across the state.

Western Heritage Center’s Joyce Jensen tells the story of German and Italian soldiers who were captured in north Africa and Europe during World War II and sent to Montana to work in the sugar beet industry. Jensen uses oral interviews, newspaper articles, and county extension agent reports to detail the stories of these prisoners of war.

Amy McKinney, associate professor of history at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, discusses Harriette Cushman and her efforts to create a comprehensive poultry program in Montana. The first female poultry specialist in the United States, Cushman crossed many boundaries throughout her thirty-three-year career (1922–1955) with the Extension Service.

Todd Harwell, administrator for the State of Montana’s Public Health and Safety Division, addresses the toll of the Spanish influenza pandemic on Montana communities. Data from 1918 and 1919 Montana death records and other historical information is presented, as well as the national and state public health response to this epidemic.

Todd L. Savitt, historian of medicine at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, discusses attempts at regulating medicine in early Montana. During its territorial and early statehood years, Montana did little to regulate healers of many varieties. In an effort to protect Montana’s citizens from what they saw as unscientific and unscrupulous practitioners, regularly trained physicians faced a variety of trials and tribulations as they passed a Medical Practice Act and established a respected Board of Medical Examiners.

MonDak Heritage Center executive director Dan Karalus tells the story of the agricultural landscape created by irrigation from eastern Montana’s Lower Yellowstone Project. Karalus focuses on the ways in which local and national forces intertwined to develop the project and how irrigation changed eastern Montana and influenced people’s perceptions of the area.

As the longest free-flowing river in the lower 48 states, the Yellowstone River is a national treasure. Montana State University Billings professor of geography Dr. Susan Gilbertz utilizes historic photographs to illustrate how, over time, the Yellowstone’s channels have meandered, both rejuvenating fisheries and riparian areas and causing erosion, flooding, and decreases in property values.

Using resources from the Billings Public Library Archives, library director Gavin Woltjer explores the life of Will James. Over the course of several decades, James—artist, storyteller, writer, and cattle rustler—invented a new persona for himself, evolved this persona, and used it to separate himself from his past to tell his stories and share his art.

MHS Research Center director Molly Kruckenberg and state archivist Jodie Foley discuss the evolution of KOA—Kampgrounds of America. In 1962 the thousands of Americans driving through Montana en route to the Seattle’s World Fair caught the attention of Dave Drum, a Billings resident and entrepreneur. He set up campsites on his land north of the Yellowstone River, offering hot showers, restrooms, and a store. The idea caught on, and by 1969 there were KOAs across the country serving this new generation of vacationers who wanted the experience of camping while retaining some comforts of home. Today KOA’s familiar bright yellow signs can be found all across North America.

Retired Billings teacher Marlene Saunders details the evolution of the Yellowstone Trail, an important early byway started in South Dakota in 1911 that became a significant route between the East and West Coasts. The road went through Montana, and specifically through Billings, where official Yellowstone Trail signs have been installed to mark the trail.

Fort Benton’s Overholser Historical Research Center historian Ken Robison unveils new and neglected stories of Montanans in the Great War. Robison shares tales from Montanans serving around the world, focusing on the role of Montana’s women U.S. Navy yeomen, nurses, and “Hello Girls”; Montanans in the Russian Railway Service Corps; the unknown role Charles M. Russell played in support of the war; the contributions of Montana’s ethnic citizens to World War I; and more.

Randy Schoppe, executive director of the Big Horn County Historical Museum, discusses the history of Fort Custer on the Big Horn near present-day Hardin. Operating from 1877 to 1898, Fort Custer was often hailed by military leaders as the finest cavalry fort in the world. Schoppe talks about the events leading up to the fort’s construction, notable personalities associated with the fort, its ties to Billings, and its eventual abandonment and demolition.

Chief Dull Knife College instructor Linwood Tallbull examines why certain places are significant to indigenous culture groups that have special ties to lands, and explains how they were given their traditional place names.

From prehistoric travel routes to a figure—first seen as a cross and later viewed as an angel—that has watched over the Magic City for the past sixty-one years, there’s more going on in the rimrocks than meets the eye. The Yellowstone Historical Society’s Prudence Ladd unveils five of these secrets from the past.

Listen carefully for some alternative medicine involving a chicken.

This Helena city park has at least 1,300 full-time residents.

Still open for business; featuring pig races on the summer!

Cold-blooded killer or "Tarzan of the Tetons"?

In Billings, the spirit of the West lives on. Literally.

The 1923 World Heavyweight Championship event didn't exactly turn out as expected.

And rising from the ashes, wait, is that a phoenix?

Freedom of speech can be suspended.

Horror film buffs will recognize the work of this early special effects master who hailed from Deer Lodge.