Here is the first collection of the Helena Independent Record’s popular column on the history of Helena, Montana, and the surrounding area. The column, and this collection, are named in honor of newsman William C. Campbell’s two earlier collections of historical newspaper stories, published as From the Quarries of Last Chance Gulch. Please visit us at FarcountryPress.com for more information!

More from the Quarries of Last Chance Gulch, Volume I

History

Dave Walter

Ellen Baumler

Jon Axlilne

Leanne Kurtz

Chere Jiusto

Richard B. Roeder

Harriett C. Meloy

Americas

The Independent Record

Thirty-eight illustrated essays explore the history of Helena, Montana, and the surrounding area in this second collection of the popular Independent Record weekly newspaper column. The nine historians present stories of people, places, and events, and raise questions dating from the beginning of Helena—where was that first gold strike really located? And what happened to the underground “river of gold'”?—to the devastating 1935 earthquakes that reshaped the city’s appearance. Readers will meet a little girl’s wistful ghost, a gang of Depression-era bank robbers, and their murdered gun moll. Here are the stories of the beginnings of Canyon Ferry, East Helena, Unionville, and Rimini. Longtime residents, newcomers, and visitors will find treasures throughout this anthology. Please visit us at FarcountryPress.com for more information!

More from the Quarries of Last Chance Gulch, Volume II

Vivian A. Paladin

Kimberly Morrison

Thirty-two illustrated essays capture varied facets of Helena area history from 1,500 years ago to 1989. Selected from the popular weekly column in the Helena Independent Record, the writings of twelve amateur and professional historians take readers deep into Paleoindian shamans’ caves, atop the Continental Divide with runaway trains on two freezing February nights 89 years apart, and into the hot August streets of East Helena in 1919 when fire blew across town. John Hancock’s murder in 1901 sounds like a soap opera: the bludgeoning, the insurance policy, the wife’s lover...while the biography of Clara Hodgin explains why the ghost of Grandstreet Theatre is impish and protective. The Wild West isn’t forgotten, with claim jumpers and vigilante hangings—but civilization offers Chautauqua and visiting Norwegian royalty. Thirty-two facets of the gem that is Helena, in a book to be treasured. Please visit us at FarcountryPress.com for more information!

More from the Quarries of Last Chance Gulch, Vol. III

David Cole

Sara Scott

Dave Shors

Martha Kohl

Harriet C. Meloy

Marcella Walter

Stephanie Ambrose Tubbs

Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in Montana History

Biographies & Memoirs

Salina Davis

Lyndel Meikle

Jodie Foley

Anne Sturdevant

Jon Axline

Historical

TwoDot

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Books by Dave Walter