Montana The Magazine of Western History

Montana The Magazine of Western History Montana The Magazine of Western History showcases the people, places, and events that shaped the sta

Published by the Montana Historical Society since 1951, Montana The Magazine of Western History showcases the people, places, and events that shaped the state and the western region. In addition to fascinating articles, the magazine features book and movie reviews, commentaries, Montana episodes, and advertising confined to rare and new books, art objects, and other products and events related to

American—especially Western—history. Published four times a year, the magazine is lavishly illustrated with historical maps, drawings, and photographs from the Society's own collections and from other public and private sources. The larger 7⅞" x 10¾" size, along with full-color art on the cover and occasionally inside, sets the magazine apart from most of its genre. For questions about subscriptions and ordering back issues, email [email protected] or call (406) 444-4708.

Photographer Evelyn Cameron took this photograph of Prairie County homesteaders’ children posed with their teacher in th...
01/21/2025

Photographer Evelyn Cameron took this photograph of Prairie County homesteaders’ children posed with their teacher in the schoolhouse at Marsh, Montana, on January 20, 1914. [MTHS , Pac 90-87.63.3]

Thank you to everyone who made it to Douglas H. MacDonald's presentation last night! If you weren't able to attend, the ...
01/17/2025

Thank you to everyone who made it to Douglas H. MacDonald's presentation last night! If you weren't able to attend, the talk will be posted to the MTHS YouTube channel. You can buy his new book "Land of Beginnings: The Archaeology of Montana's First Peoples" from the Montana Historical Society - Museum Store.

Join us tonight for a look into Montana's deep past at Douglas H. MacDonald's presentation about his new book, "Land of ...
01/16/2025

Join us tonight for a look into Montana's deep past at Douglas H. MacDonald's presentation about his new book, "Land of Beginnings: The Archaeology of Montana's First Peoples."
The presentation will take place from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Lewis and Clark Library, 120 S. Last Chance Gulch, Helena. Books will be available for purchase and signing. The talk will be recorded and posted to the MTHS YouTube channel.

O. Alan Weltzien, a professor of English emeritus at the University of Montana Western, has called Dillon and the Beaver...
01/15/2025

O. Alan Weltzien, a professor of English emeritus at the University of Montana Western, has called Dillon and the Beaverhead Valley home for the past thirty-three years. It’s one reason that he’s the perfect person to have researched and written the recent Montana The Magazine of Western History article “A Hotel and Its Novelist: Thomas Savage and Dillon’s Andrus Hotel.” Weltzien (pictured here) has published four chapbooks and eleven books. These include studies or critical anthologies of writers Rick Bass, John McPhee, and Norman Maclean. Weltzien has also published a memoir, “A Father and an Island” (2008), as well as three full-length poetry collections, most recently “On the Beach: Poems 2016–2021” (2022). He has a prose chapbook, “The Taylor Triptych,” forthcoming from the Sea Letter Press, and a new poetry chapbook, “In the Khumbu,” is under consideration. Need a copy of this magazine? Ask for Winter 2024 when you call the Montana Historical Society - Museum Store at (406) 444-2890. This issue can also be found at the Dillon Bookstore and at the Andrus Hotel.

01/13/2025

Join us this Thursday for a look into Montana's deep past at Douglas H. MacDonald's presentation about his new book, "Land of Beginnings: The Archaeology of Montana's First Peoples."

How long have people lived in the place we now know as Montana? When did they arrive? Where did they come from? Archaeologists have spent the last century working with Montana’s Indigenous peoples to try to answer these questions. While researchers have learned a great deal about the origins of the first people to call this region home, questions remain about which route or routes they took and when they made this journey. Douglas H. MacDonald, Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Montana, delves into the deep history of Montana in "Land of Beginnings: The Archaeology of Montana’s First Peoples."

The presentation will take place on Thursday, January 16 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Lewis and Clark Library, 120 S. Last Chance Gulch, Helena. Books will be available for purchase and signing. The talk will be recorded and posted to the MTHS YouTube channel.

Taking pictures of pets under the Big Sky is nothing new! Evelyn Cameron’s photogenic feline friend, Patchy, was one of ...
01/13/2025

Taking pictures of pets under the Big Sky is nothing new! Evelyn Cameron’s photogenic feline friend, Patchy, was one of her common photographic subjects. Patchy may even be the most photographed individual cat in the MTHS collections. Cameron's photographs have been longtime favorites in Montana The Magazine of Western History. The Summer 2014 issue featured the article
"Divas, Divorce, and Disclosure: Hidden Narratives in the Diaries of Evelyn Cameron," by Ann Roberts and Christine Wordsworth and a photo essay "Under the Big Sky" of some of Cameron’s best photography.
[Cat sitting in eroded hole in rock, Eastern Montana, ca. 1900, Evelyn Cameron, photographer, MTHS PAc 90-87.G003-002]

In 1892, Quaker Oats ran a sixteen-car train from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Portland and Seattle, decorated with banners on ...
01/10/2025

In 1892, Quaker Oats ran a sixteen-car train from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Portland and Seattle, decorated with banners on every car advertising Quaker Oats and The American Cereal Company. Company representatives served free oatmeal samples to onlookers at stops along the route. This was the second Quaker Oats Special, which traveled through Montana on the Northern Pacific Railroad. F. Jay Haynes took multiple photographs of the Quaker Oats Special in western Montana, including this image of the train on a trestle by the Clark Fork River. Many of Haynes' photographs inspired engravings used by the company to illustrate their newspaper advertisements.
[N.P.R.R. Quaker Oats special, western Montana, May 1, 1892, F. Jay Haynes, photographer, MTHS H-02702]

Mark your calendar now for A Place in Time: the 52nd annual Montana History Conference, September 25-27, 2025 at the Mon...
01/09/2025

Mark your calendar now for A Place in Time: the 52nd annual Montana History Conference, September 25-27, 2025 at the Montana Heritage Center and Best Western Great Northern Hotel in Helena.
MTHS welcomes proposals for 25-minute lectures, hour-long panel and roundtable sessions, bus and walking tours, and workshops. Topics must feature Montana history. Special consideration will be given to sessions focusing on place-based history, women’s history, ethnic communities, eastern Montana, archaeology, conservation, and Indigenous history.
Before submitting your proposal, read the full Call for Proposals at:
https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/MTMHS/2025/01/06/file_attachments/3121089/2025%20Call%20for%20proposals.pdf?

Please share this opportunity with your friends and colleagues who might be interested in presenting their research. Questions? Contact [email protected].

Shannon Kelly is a new associate editor with the Montana Historical Society. She grew up in Post Falls, Idaho, and enjoy...
01/08/2025

Shannon Kelly is a new associate editor with the Montana Historical Society. She grew up in Post Falls, Idaho, and enjoyed exploring history and the outdoors across the Northwest and Montana. She has a BA in History with minors in Native American Studies and Religious Studies from University of Idaho and her MA in Public History from Colorado State University. She completed a graduate curatorial internship at Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in Deer Lodge, Montana, in summer 2016. Following school, Shannon researched and wrote a history for the University of Idaho Marching Band while also working as an elementary school literacy paraprofessional. She worked at the North Dakota Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center/Fort Mandan State Historic Site as a seasonal interpreter from 2019-2021 before being promoted to lead interpreter and then interpretive resource specialist from 2022-2024. This past spring through fall, Shannon traded the windy Missouri River bottoms of central North Dakota for a marmot-filled seasonal park ranger position at Pompeys Pillar National Monument next to the Yellowstone River. Throughout all these experiences, she has contributed articles to various publications, has been writing a book on the winter experiences of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and currently serves on the Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance’s Board of Directors. She joined MTHS at the end of October.

In 1966, Montana State University archaeologists excavated a mammoth near Lindsay, located in eastern Montana between Gl...
01/06/2025

In 1966, Montana State University archaeologists excavated a mammoth near Lindsay, located in eastern Montana between Glendive and Circle, that yielded radiocarbon dates of around twelve thousand years ago, well before any Clovis people were known to inhabit North America. The question of whether humans killed the mammoth remains controversial, and many experts disagree about whether the Lindsay Mammoth site qualifies as an archaeological site or a paleontological site. The debate revolves around one question: Did people kill and/or butcher the mammoth at the site twelve thousand years ago or did the animal die of natural causes with no human predation? University of Montana archaeologist Douglas H. MacDonald explores this question in an excerpt in the recent Winter 2024 magazine based on his new book, “Land of Beginnings: The Archaeology of Montana’s First Peoples.” Need the book or the magazine? Contact the Montana Historical Society - Museum Store at 406 444-2890.

Followers of The Magazine of Western History, it is time for a changing of the guard. After decades of service to this ...
01/02/2025

Followers of The Magazine of Western History, it is time for a changing of the guard. After decades of service to this magazine and having run our social media accounts, our long-time business manager, Tammy Ryan, is headed for her well-deserved retirement. Tammy has long been the person behind the scenes of our page writing posts, finding photographs, and corresponding with our followers. We’ll miss her steady hand on the social-media tiller, and we wish her the best. We’ll keep bringing you great content and highlighting stimulating material from our magazine.
The cover of the Autumn 1988 issue was her first as business manager.

12/31/2024

We're bringing back an old one...Happy New Year 2025!

Wishing you a Happy New Year and hoping that health rides herd! Western artist Charlie Russell penned this New Year’s gr...
12/31/2024

Wishing you a Happy New Year and hoping that health rides herd! Western artist Charlie Russell penned this New Year’s greeting in 1916 for his friend Eli V. Rubottom who operated a painting and wallpaper hanging service in Great Falls. [MTHS Museum Collection X1980.08.01]

The due date is near! If you are a graduate student, early career faculty member, or independent scholar, you may want t...
12/30/2024

The due date is near! If you are a graduate student, early career faculty member, or independent scholar, you may want to enter Montana The Magazine of Western History's Emerging Scholar Article Contest. The deadline is January 5, 2025 and the details are here: https://bit.ly/3xHD3qW

Cody Dodge Ewert is an associate editor for Montana The Magazine of Western History and the Montana Historical Society P...
12/27/2024

Cody Dodge Ewert is an associate editor for Montana The Magazine of Western History and the Montana Historical Society Press. Originally from Power, Montana, he received BA and MA degrees from the University of Montana before earning a PhD from New York University, all in history. He has published several articles and a book on American educational history. His most recent research focuses on music and popular culture in Montana. Cody is pictured here holding the Winter 2024 magazine containing his article “The Party’s Over: Campus Culture and Missoula’s 1979 Kegger Controversy” where he depicts the campus culture of the era—and the end of the Aber Day Kegger. Want to read the article? You can find it at many libraries, purchase the magazine by calling the Montana Historical Society - Museum Store (406) 444-2890, or find it Rockin Rudy's Attic or at Fact and Fiction Books in .

Holiday Greetings from us to you! [MTHS Postcard Collection, PC 001.Greetings-Christmas-Bells, International Art Publi...
12/25/2024

Holiday Greetings from us to you!
[MTHS Postcard Collection, PC 001.Greetings-Christmas-Bells, International Art Publishing Co. photographer, between 1907-1915]

Just before Christmas 1903, Charles M. Russell appeared at the North Side Fire Station, which was located on the same bl...
12/23/2024

Just before Christmas 1903, Charles M. Russell appeared at the North Side Fire Station, which was located on the same block as his Great Falls home and studio, carrying a small plaque with two wax-modeled horse heads in the likeness of the two fire horses at the station and the greeting “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 1903.’ Russell liked the horses and visited them frequently. For many years, the plaque remained at the station before being turned over to the fire chief, Harry Trodick. In 1970, Trodick copyrighted the original model and negotiated a limited-edition casting agreement with the Montana Historical Society. As part of the agreement, the Society retained this bronze for its collection. [Nig and Coalie, bronze, 4-1/4” H x 8” W x 3-1/4” D. The original wax sculpture was modeled by Russell in 1903. This bronze is number 30 of 30 cast by the Avnet-Shaw Foundry in 1971. Gift of Harry Trodick to the MTHS Museum Collection, X1977.04.01]

Source: https://app.mt.gov/shop/mhsstore/search?q=Montana%27s+Charlie

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