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

The penitentiary at Deer Lodge, established in 1870, was Montana Territory's first federal facility. In 1889 it became a state penal institution and served in that capacity until 1979. Under the direction of the long serving (1893-1921) and controversial warden Frank Conley, prison laborers built most of the buildings that visitors see today. These buildings bear the marks of a violent history: bazooka scars mar the tower where prisoners holed up during the infamous riot of 1959 and an inmate's delicate stenciling oddly adorns the room where the two riot masterminds died.In a collaborative documentary of the legendary prison, historian Ellen Baumler tells the physical and human tale of the troubled institution whose idyllic setting contrasts so violently with the history it holds. J. M. Cooper's detailed photographs of the prison's interiors and exteriors combine with historic images to illustrate the stories of the people who lived--and sometimes died--within its walls.

Dark Spaces: Montana's Historic Penitentiary at Deer Lodge

University of New Mexico Press

This wonderful collection--based on oral testimony, diaries, journals, and newspaper accounts--presents an eerie history of the state's legendary mining towns.

Spirit Tailings: Ghost Tales from Virginia City, Butte and Helena

History

Americas

Montana Historical Society Press

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. In this highly readable, entertaining account, Ronan tells the story of one woman's life in the West during the second half of the nineteenth century. This detailed memoir recalls the young girl's journey across the Great Plains, her childhood on the Colorado and Montana mining frontiers, 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 describes with vivid clarity. Ably edited and annotated, Girl from the Gulches offers a unique perspective that is a joy to read.

Girl from the Gulches: The Story of Mary Ronan

Community & Culture

Passed down through generations, these stories illustrate the subtle presence of the past in the everyday lives of modern Montanans.

Beyond Spirit Tailings

Working together, world-famous composer and musician Philip Aaberg. and author Ellen Baumler created an audio version of Beyond Spirit Tailings. Awash in the luxuriant sounds of Aaberg’s music, Often, the history we learn from textbooks seems impersonal and leaves us out of its inexorable and compelling flow. However, we all know that a sound or a smell can trigger vivid memories. Through her ghost stories, Ellen presents Montana history in a new and popular way. Ellen and Philip’s spooky collaboration will evoke those places and images that make our imagination such a wonderful (and sometimes unearthly) destination.

Beyond Spirit Tailings Audiobook: Montana'S Mysteries, Ghosts, And Haunted Places

Aaberg, Philip

Montana Moments offers ninety-second reads about the state's fascinating history. Sometimes bizarre, sometimes hilarious, and always illuminating, these vignettes offer pure entertainment.

Montana Moments: History On The Go

Forget dreary dates and boring facts. More Montana Moments distills the most funny, bizarre, and interesting stories from Montana's history into pure entertainment.

More Montana Moments

Montana's past embodied the rough, unforgiving and often vicious nature of the old Wild West. Unscrupulous gold camps and railroad expansion attracted the good, bad and ugly from all across the Union and as far as China. Many a soul shed blood under the Big Sky, leaving restless spirits to linger. Discover the famous cowboy artist who refuses to leave his Missoula home. Exhume the truth behind Stormit Butte, investigate the mystery at Brush Lake and become enraptured with the firsthand account of a Browning rancher's attempts at reconciliation with the ghost of a murdered Chinese rail laborer. Historian and award-winning author Ellen Baumler presents this collection of Last Best Place hauntings.

Ghosts of the Last Best Place (Haunted America)

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.

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Books by Baumler, Ellen