Selected from the increasingly popular Montana History Conference session--Jerks in Montana History--this collection of Montana Hall of Shame members includes Lewis and Clark's infamous guide Toussaint Charbonneau, Helena's notorious newspaper editor Will Campbell, tales from the secret lives of Mary Anne Eckert, and many more. Still Speaking Ill of the Dead carefully documents and exposes the lives of individual men, women, laws, and corporations to uncover a complicated and fascinating history of Montana and its people.

Still Speaking Ill of the Dead: More Jerks In Montana History

Biographies & Memoirs

Baumler, Ellen

Axline, Jon

Foley, Jodie

Meikle, Lyndel

Historical

TwoDot

A delightfully wicked look at the badly behaved characters who shaped the history of Montana through their deeds and misdeeds.

Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in Montana History (Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in Histo)

Globe Pequot Press

Mt Historical Highway Marker E03

Travel

United States

Montana Historical Society

Conveniences Sorely Needed: Montana's Historic Highway Bridges, 1860-1956

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. Many of Montana's historic highway bridges are symbols of the cooperative spirit that led to economic and social stability 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. In addition, these bridges reflect both the best and worst in engineering techniques and serve as testaments to the science of practical bridge design, ranging from the aesthetically delightful Fort Benton Bridge to the more mundane Fred Robinson Bridge in the Missouri Breaks country. In the modern era, where many people seem to be in a hurry to get where they're going as fast as possible, old bridges can be obsolete nuisances that need to make way for modern conveyances. There is, however, a growing group of preservationists who see them as symbols of an earlier time that are worthy of saving. Today, Montana's historic bridges are a visible, rarely appreciated, and fast disappearing part of the state's historic landscape. Yet the stories they tell about Montana's complicated social history are important to understanding the dynamics of Montana's development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and reflect the optimism many people had, and have, for the state's future.

Conveniences Sorely Needed: Montana'S Historic Highway Bridges, 1860-1956

History

Americas

Montana Historical Society Press

Old bridges do more than just span rivers. They provide important connections between the people who built them and those who came after. Many of these historic structures reflect the promotional spirit that fueled Montana's growth. For the state's earliest communities, a good bridge could mean the difference between prosperity and oblivion.Bridges speak to the time in which they were built. They provide physical reminders of significant  periods in American history - the Great Depression, for example, when bridge building flourished as the federal government looked for ways to put people to work. Some of Montana's bridges are engineering marvels; some are beautiful. All afforded valuable service to their communities - facilitating the transportation of crops to market, enhancing tourism, and providing safe passage over the state's treacherous waterways and busy rail lines.Today, historic bridges are rapidly disappearing from the Montana landscape. Time and weather have taken their toll, as has traffic. Nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century bridge designers never intended their  creations to handle the number of cars that now travel Montana's roads - or the speed at which they usually travel. Yet as old bridges are demolished to make way for new ones, growing numbers of citizens have come to see the state's remaining historic bridges as visible and underappreciated reflections of Montana's past.Transportation historian Jon to the explores the past, illuminating the forces that built Montana's historic bridges and the structures' importance tothe communities they served. And, while recognizing that not every bridge can be preserved, he ably conveys their significance as monuments to our collective history.

Montana’s colorful history is recounted on the over two hundred roadside markers dot that roadsides across the state. These signs provide a fascinating introduction to Montana history for tourists and Montanans alike. 
 The fourth edition of Montana’s Historical Highway Markers, revised, newly illustrated with historic photographs, and significantly expanded, shares the text to these markers with easy-to-follow maps to guide you to the signs’ locations. Over 100 historical photos and new entries on Lewis &amp; Clark and geological features supplement this new edition. Buffalo jumps, gold strikes, mining disasters, and famous battles all get their due in these roadside signs, as do dinosaurs, epidemics, irrigation projects, railroads, wagon roads, and wilderness areas. In short, the story of Montana’s people is offered up in lively prose for the enjoyment of every Montanan and tourist alike.
 The text of the markers themselves, the story behind them, and delightful Shorty Shope illustrations make this book a must read.” Road trippers will want two copiesone for their bookshelves and the other for their glove compartments.
Comparison and Competition Titles:
Not quite in the same arena as our historical entries AND comprehensive listing along highway markers, but the closest comparable title:
Scenic Driving Montana Guidebook , by S. A. Snyder, Falcon Publishing. ISBN 1-56044-452-5

Montana's Historical Highway Markers

Bradshaw, Glenda Clay

Traversing the spectacular Beartooth Highway in Montana and Wyoming is an unforgettable experience. The unspoiled mountain scenery along the highway inspired famed news correspondent Charles Kuralt to label it "America's most beautiful drive," yet the story behind this engineering marvel is largely unknown. It is an epic account of man versus nature to construct a road through unforgiving wilderness. Built during the height of the Great Depression and rising 10,947 feet above sea level, the Beartooth Highway sparked an economic boom in Red Lodge, Cooke City and Yellowstone National Park. Understandably, it continues to leave a profound impression on people privileged to drive it. Historian Jon Axline tells the exciting and colorful narrative behind the origins and construction of the Beartooth Highway.

The Beartooth Highway: A History of America’s Most Beautiful Drive (Transportation)

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

The History Press

Hidden History of Helena, Montana

Distinguished by statesmen and magnates, Helena's history is colored with many other compelling characters and episodes nearly lost to time. Before achieving eminence in Deadwood, Sheriff Seth Bullock oversaw Montana Territory's first two legal hangings. The Seven Mile House was an oasis of vice for the parched, weary travelers entering the valley on the Benton Road, despite a tumultuous succession of ownership. The heritage of the Sieban Ranch and the saga of "King Kong" Clayton, "the Joe Louis of the Mat," faded from public memory. From unraveling the myths of Chinatown to detailing the lives of red-light businesswomen and the Canyon Ferry flying saucer hoax, revered local historians Ellen Baumler and Jon Axline team up to preserve a compendium of Helena's yesteryear.

Much of Montana's exciting history is visible from its storied highways. Visit a segment of the historic Bozeman Trail overlooking Virginia City, where vigilantes hanged public nuisance Joseph Alfred Slade just as his wife attempted a horseback rescue. Discover the saga of adultery, attempted murder and eventual triumph that occurred at a single stone building in the Browns Gulch area of Butte. On Highway 308 east of Red Lodge, learn more about the tragic 1943 Smith Mine disaster, where a methane explosion trapped and killed seventy-three miners. The catastrophe triggered investigations at the state and national level that resulted in improvements in mine safety. With more than two dozen stories, historian Jon Axline provides a front-seat view of the Treasure State's thrilling past, forgotten characters and overlooked oddities found by the wayside.

Montana Highway Tales: Curious Characters, Historic Sites and Peculiar Attractions (History & Guide)

Detour Montana: History by the Roadside

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Books by Axline, Jon