They had no land, no treaty, and no country willing to claim them. For decades, the Chippewa and Cree wandered Montana — deported, ignored, and desperate. Then a misnamed chief, a painter, and a writer changed everything. The unlikely story of how Rocky Boy’s […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
David Thompson, courtesy of wikipedia.org
Before GPS, before satellites — one man walked into Montana’s unknown wilderness and mapped it with math and starlight. David Thompson was no adventurer. He was a scientist, a diplomat, and a cartographer who changed how the world understood the American West […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
Cathedral of Saint Helena, March 2017. Photo courtesy of BigSky Treasure.
Helena’s Cathedral of Saint Helena looks like it was lifted straight from Vienna — because it basically was. Built with gold rush money, nearly destroyed by a 1935 earthquake, and still standing after a century of Montana winters, this Gothic giant has a story […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
Photographic portrait of Paris Gibson. Photo courtesy of mtmemory.org
A Maine-born entrepreneur read Lewis & Clark’s journals, looked at a Montana waterfall, and decided to build a city. Paris Gibson did exactly that — founding Great Falls from scratch, harnessing the Missouri River’s power, and eventually landing in the U.S […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
In December 1966, 9-year-old Robert Hendry, son of historian Mary Hendry, posed with the mysterious Boot Map. Some prospectors believe that this carving is a map to the Lost Cabin Gold Mine along the Badwater Creek in central Wyoming. (“Tales of Old Lost Cabin and Parts Thereabout” by Mary Helen Hendry), photo courtesy of cowboystatedaily.com
Seven prospectors left Montana’s Bannack in 1865 chasing gold — and vanished into legend. The Lost Cabin Mine story swept newspaper pages for decades, spawned countless failed expeditions, and may never have existed at all. What it reveals about frontier life […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
Cropped portrait of American railroad executive, James J. Hill, abt. 1916, photo courtesy of wikipedia.org
He built a railroad empire without government handouts — and remade Montana forever. James J. Hill drove steel through the Rockies, built cities from scratch, created Glacier National Park, and flooded the plains with hopeful settlers. Not all of them made it […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
Bannack Historic District, 22 miles from Dillon off Montana Highway 278 Dillon, photo courtesy of wikipedia.org
In 1993, a Montana school staged a real trial for a sheriff hanged without one in 1864. The jury deadlocked 6-6. A pardon petition followed — and was denied for a reason no one expected.
Web […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
A long Montana 2 lane highway with mountains in the distance, a snow covered field and a bright sun shaded by many clouds.
Happy Montana Day! #fourosix #BigSkyCountry
Ted Binion booking photo from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org
A Las Vegas casino heir. A Montana ranch. A contractor from Missoula. When Ted Binion lost his beloved 90,000-acre Jordan spread, his world unraveled fast — and a chance encounter with a fellow “Montana boy” set the stage for murder, buried silver, and one of […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
https://cskt.org/
The Flathead Indian Reservation — home to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes — spans 1.3M acres in NW Montana. From the 1855 Hell Gate Treaty to the 2015 takeover of Kerr Dam, its history is one of resistance, adaptation, and enduring sovereignty […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
Seen somewhere in the wilds of eastern Montana today, egg day 2026.
#WorldHistory
#USHistory
#MTHistory
#Montana
#History
#BSTS
#Fourosix
#MontanaToday
#histodons
"Maclean teaching English 237, his popular course on Shakespeare, at the University of Chicago, January 1970. Photographs by Leslie Strauss Travis. Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org
Norman Maclean grew up in Missoula, fished the Blackfoot, and fought fires in the Bitterroots — then spent 46 years teaching at the University of Chicago before publishing his first book at 73. A River Runs Through It and Young Men and Fire made him one of […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
Bison herd grazing at the National Bison Range, photo courtesy of wikipedia.org
Montana’s National Bison Range, established in 1908 to rescue a species on the edge of extinction, has a history as complex as the landscape it occupies — from a narrowly averted ecological catastrophe to a landmark transfer of federal land back to the […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
John “Liver-Eating” Johnston was considered one of the strongest mountain men to trap in the West as well as the most feared Western fur trapper because of his vendetta against the Crow Indians. Photo courtesy of truewestmagazine.com
John “Liver-Eating” Johnston: Montana lawman, Civil War vet, Army scout — and subject of one of the West’s most outrageous legends. But how much is true? The real story is stranger, and more complicated, than any Hollywood myth.
Web […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
John Mix Stanley sketch of Fort Benton, 1853, photo courtesy of distinctlymontana.com
A lone stranger walked into Fort Benton in 1856 carrying a sack of gold — then vanished. Who was John Silverthorne, where did he find it, and why did Montana’s pioneers spend decades arguing over his secret?
Web […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
Sam Kitzenberg
The Legislator Who Crossed the Aisle: Sam Kitzenberg, a Glasgow, MT teacher-turned-Republican senator, served 14 years championing Hi-Line infrastructure, education, and the Fort Peck Fish Hatchery. In 2006 he switched parties, tipping Senate control to […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
John F. Kennedy Campaigns in Billings, September 25, 1963, less then 2 months before his assassination in Dallas, Texas.
17,000 Montanans packed the Yellowstone County Fairgrounds on Sept. 25, 1963, to hear President Kennedy speak on conservation and the newly ratified Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. It was his second Billings visit; the first came during his 1960 campaign. He was […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
Two Moons (Credit: Northwestern University Library Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian, 2003, photo courtesy of wikipedia.org
Chief Two Moon (1847–1917), Northern Cheyenne war leader at Little Bighorn, surrendered to the U.S. Army in 1877, helped establish the Tongue River Reservation, and spent decades as a diplomat advocating for his people. See link below for full article.
Web […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
From Oklahoma exile to sovereign Montana homeland: the Northern Cheyenne refused removal, won back their land, fought corporate coal giants, and built a college to keep their language alive. Their story is one of the most powerful acts of persistence in […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
Maurice Hilleman (1919–2005), circa 1958, as Chief of the Dept. of Virus Diseases. Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org
From a Miles City farm to global medicine: Maurice Hilleman developed 40+ vaccines — including MMR and hepatitis B — saving an estimated 8 million lives annually. Montana’s greatest scientist remains one of history’s most impactful, least recognized figures […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
The Results are In... and the Winner is the Beer Car!
What a day! This past Tuesday, the Western Heritage Center officially held its Grand Re-opening, and the turnout was incredible despite the "breezy" Montana weather.
Web:
https://jdmotorforge.com/f/winner-winner-steak-dinner
#WorldHistory […]
Bannack was founded in 1862 when John White discovered gold on Grasshopper Creek. Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org
In 1862, a Colorado prospector named John White found gold in a Montana creek, and the town of Bannack was born. Montana's first territorial capital, home to a controversial sheriff, vigilante justice, and over 60 preserved buildings, Bannack remains one of […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
Nathaniel P. Langford abt. 1870. Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org
Langford shaped Montana’s territorial era as gold-rush entrepreneur, tax collector, vigilante, and Yellowstone’s first superintendent – a man driven equally by public vision and private ambition, whose legacy remains as complex as the frontier he helped define […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
Stone cold wonder: A petrified man pulled from Montana’s Missouri River in 1897 was marketed as murdered Civil War governor Thomas Meagher. The exhibit toured nationally before fading into obscurity – and the figure has never been found.
Web […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
Thomas Cruse, photo courtesy of mtmemory.org.
From County Cavan to Montana millionaire, Thomas Cruse struck gold at the Drumlummon Mine, built a bank that survived the 1893 Panic, funded Helena’s Cathedral, and left a city transformed by immigrant grit and extraordinary generosity. For further reading see […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital, Glasgow, MT. Photo courtesy of KPAX TV via facebook.
The January 17, 2009 Glasgow, MT hospital parking lot shooting killed one woman and wounded two others. A six-hour manhunt ended with the gunman’s death. 106 responders were honored; eight officers received a White House Top Cops Award. For further reading see […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
A photo of Coates provided to Falcon Publishing for the biography, Honey Wine & Hunger Root, written in 1985 by Lee Rostad. Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org.
From a Kansas wheat farm to the Montana frontier, Grace Stone Coates wrote poetry and fiction that captured the raw beauty and isolation of the West -- and earned a spot in John Updike's Best American Short Stories of the Century. Discover her remarkable […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
I guess fire season is now officially underway. Photos of the Panama Fire along the interstate near Cardwell today.
#WorldHistory
#USHistory
#MTHistory
#Montana
#History
#BSTS
#Fourosix
#MontanaToday
#histodons
http://www.crow-nsn.gov/
"Sovereign Ground" traces the Apsaalooke (Crow) people of Montana from their origins through treaty-era land loss, federal policy battles, and cultural endurance, highlighting key leaders and the tribe's ongoing sovereignty. See link below for further reading […]
[Original post on mastodon.world]
