Happy Birthday MHS!

2014 has been the year of both territorial Montana’s and Helena’s 150th anniversaries. The New Year brings yet another 150th milestone celebration: the birthday of the Montana Historical Society. The organization is the second oldest such organization west of the Mississippi, founded when a group of prominent and farsighted men gathered early in 1865 at the Dance and Stuart Store in Virginia City. They included pioneer brothers James and Granville Stuart; vigilante prosecutor Wilbur Fisk Sanders; Territorial Chief Justice Hezekiah Hosmer; territorial legislator F. M. Thompson; and mapmaker Walter DeLacy. Territorial Governor Sidney Edgerton signed the incorporation on February 2, 1865. Unlike most other historical societies, the Montana Historical Society was born while historic events were occurring, and not created as a nostalgic look backwards. Its initial purpose was “to collect and arrange facts in regard to the early history” of the territory. It does that and much, much more.

The Montana Historical Society was founded in the Dance and Stuart Store, Virginia City, in 1865.
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives

In 1873, the society moved its collection of first-run territorial newspapers and other documents to Helena. Soon after, on January 9, 1874, fire destroyed most of it when Wilbur Fisk Sanders’ law office burned. In 1887, rented quarters in the new territorial capitol at the Lewis and Clark County Courthouse became a more permanent home. Reorganized in 1891, the society became a state agency. In 1902, it moved into its second home in the basement of the new Montana State Capitol.  Reorganized again in 1949, the Veterans and Pioneers Memorial Building became the society’s current home in 1953. Collections of all kinds fill its galleries, its library, its and storage facilities.
Today the society’s six programs are committed to education, research, and preservation that reach across the state in many ways. The research center includes 95 percent of all newspapers published in Montana; 18,000 reels of microfilm; 14,000 maps; 32,000 books and pamphlets; and 350,000 photographic images. The museum houses over 48,000 artifacts as well as textiles and extensive art collections. And the building is bursting at the seams.
The Montana Historical Society is the steward of our stories and belongs to all of Montana. On its 150th anniversary year, we invite you to visit us, become a member, and support your history.

America’s “Stiffest Guzzlers”

At Christmastime in 1878, Montana’s territorial capital had been fixed at Helena, Fort Benton was the “Chicago of the Plains,” Butte was a struggling camp, and Miles City was a remote outpost serving brand-new Fort Keogh. Virginia City had lost its once substantial population and status. Captain Thomas Fuller, Collector of the U.S. Internal Revenue, reported on collections in Montana Territory. It was a report that some found disturbing and others relished.

The Central Beer Hall in Helena was one of Montana's many nineteenth-century drinking establishments.
Jorud, photographer. Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives.

Revenues for the fiscal year 1877-1878 in the territory were approximately $25,000, an increase of $3,000. This increase was directly related to the consumption of beer and other spirits. Captain Fuller noted that no “vinuous or spirituous liquors” were produced in Montana. The revenue was from only liquors consumed and malt liquors produced. Twenty-one breweries were operating in Montana in 1878, a number greater than in any other territory. The New North-West of Deer Lodge observed on December 12, 1878, that Montana’s drinkers were the “stiffest beer guzzlers in America.” In addition to the breweries, Montana Territory had 600 total licensed “whisky saloons.” Further, Helena had 161 liquor licenses issued for the fiscal year, more than any other settlement in the territory. Butte came next with 60, Miles City with 54, Virginia City 44, Bozeman 39, Deer Lodge 36, Benton 35, and Missoula 29. There were 95 licenses issued to dealers along the Tongue and Yellowstone rivers compared to only 13 the previous year. Soldiers must have been among the hardiest drinkers.
The New North-West lamented that these statistics revealed Montana to be a “fearfully dissipated people” and encouraged the Good Templars (a fraternal temperance group) to work harder on the population. Territorial population in 1878 was approximately 25,000. According to these statistics, there was a drinking establishment for every 40 men, women, and children—including all the Templars!

The Sad End of Major John Owen: Part 1

John Owen came west as a sutler—or provisioner—for the army. He was in the Bitterroot Valley in 1850 when Jesuits closed St. Mary’s Mission and offered it for sale. Owen’s purchase for $250 was reputedly Montana’s first recorded legal document. Relocating a short distance north of the mission, Owen built a trading post. In 1856, he was appointed special agent to the Flathead Indians, hence the honorary title, “Major.” Owen openly criticized the government and advocated passionately for the Indians.

Montana’s first written conveyance of property is this bill of sale.
Joseph Joset, S. J., to John Owen, recorded in Missoula County. MHS Archives.

Elected to both the first and second territorial legislatures, Owen attended neither. Yet even in his absence, Owen was named a charter member of the Montana Historical Society. Among the twelve original members, which included W. F. Sanders, Granville and James Stuart, and C. P. Higgins, Owen was the first to reside in Montana.

Owen’s hospitality at Fort Owen became widely renowned. Travelers and guests enjoyed excellent hospitality and fine wines, delectable meals, even iced lemonade. Owen’s library was, according to Lt. John Mullan, the finest in the Northwest. However, Owen’s status in the territory was tenuous. The government viewed his position as Indian agent and trading post proprietor as a conflict. Legality of the title to his land was in question even in the 1850s, and the boundaries were disputed. By the late 1860s, financial troubles forced Owen to mortgage his property. Worse, he began to suffer deteriorating mental capabilities and lapses of memory. Then in 1868, Nancy, Owen’s beloved Shoshone wife, died. This event escalated his diminishing mental health.

Fort Owen was an oasis in the wilderness from the 1850s through the 1860s.
Special Collections, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana-Missoula

In 1871 or 1872, friends committed Owen to St. John’s Hospital in Helena where the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth cared for the indigent “mentally deranged.” Owen’s fort was abandoned. Most blamed his dementia on alcoholism. Future president James A. Garfield, then a congressman, passed a night at Fort Owen and noted in his  journal that the major was a “bankrupt and a sot.” Father Lawrence Palladino, however, contended that “it may not have been so,” since Owen appeared robust but “his memory continued slowly to fail.”

Friday Photo: Thanksgiving Turkey

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 950-354

Are you ready for Thanksgiving dinner? I'd say this young man isn't. I hope your feast is filled with joy and free of regret.

P.S. The photo was taken by Evelyn Cameron.

A Legacy of War

Orville .G. Willett was an army veteran, a state senator, and the person who suggested the name for Mineral County. He was also the victim of a dreaded disease. Willett had suffered undiagnosed bouts of illness for years, but while serving in the legislature in 1917, the Mayo Clinic finally determined the cause. Willett had leprosy. He had become infected while serving his country during the Spanish American War in the Philippines in 1902. He was one of some two hundred veterans of this war to contract the disease.

Willett posed for this legislative portrait just months before his diagnosis.
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 945-620

The State of Montana had no rules and regulations in place for the isolation and quarantine of lepers. It was a mysterious disease, believed to be a fatal and highly contagious. The Alberton community was horrified to learn of the Willetts’ troubles. Willett and his wife were newly married. The couple was placed under quarantine in a small cottage in rural Mineral County near Alberton and cared for at county expense. Willett refused to submit to painful chalmoogra oil treatments, which doctors at that time believed was a viable cure. Instead he resorted to faith healing as his health deteriorated.

Willett and his wife lived under quarantine near Alberton, Montana.
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 945-621

Ten years later in 1927, a legislative act committed Willett—who had continued to refuse medical treatment—to the federal leprosarium at Carville, Louisiana. Although local residents had been supportive of the Willetts, arsonists wasted little time after their departure for Louisiana. Their house and all their possessions burned to the ground. Doctors at Carville were hopeful that Willett would benefit from chalmoogra oil treatment. The disease had not disfigured him, but it was far advanced. Despite treatment, Willett died in 1928.

Today, Carville, Louisiana, is still a center for the study of leprosy, or Hansens’s Disease. Undamaged by Hurricane Katrina, research was disrupted while the facility served as the identification center for 910 victims of the storm.

Friday Photo: St. Labre

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 981-220

These nuns served at St. Labre Mission in Ashland, Montana. Left to right: Sisters Gertrude, Barbara, and Monica, Mother Mary of the Angels, sisters Thecla and Hildegarde, Father Vermaat. Photo by L. A. Huffman

Dearborn Cemetery Part 2

The deaths of Hattie and William Moore caused much speculation. The couple married in 1872 and ranched along the Benton-to-Helena Road where they also kept a stage station. In the fall of 1885, Hattie moved to Dearborn City, some ten miles from the ranch, so their three children could attend school. Teachers usually boarded with their students’ parents. Thus teacher J. C. McConnell came to board with Hattie. She and McConnell soon became the subject of scandalous gossip.

Hattie’s rented home suspiciously burned to the ground and the family barely escaped. Hattie and William quarreled over McConnell. William demanded that she and the children return to the ranch. McConnell gave Hattie a .44 British Bulldog “pocket” revolver to take with her for protection. In the meantime, a second arson fire destroyed the Dearborn City hotel. An investigation revealed that McConnell was the arsonist. However, he was never prosecuted.

Hattie Moore. Courtesy Charleen Spalding, via Gayle (Moore) Tadday

In February 1886, soon after Hattie’s return to the ranch, the Moores placed their children at St. Peter’s Mission, paid for three years’ tuition, and began divorce proceedings. On February 25, travelers discovered the bodies of William and Hattie amid the signs of a violent struggle. Hattie lay propped in a doorway. Her husband sprawled nearby on top of a Winchester rifle with one shot in the breast, another to the head.

William Moore. Courtesy Charleen Spalding, via Gayle (Moore) Tadday

The coroner theorized that during a quarrel, Hattie drew her revolver; William grabbed it and threw it outside. Hattie went for the Winchester, fired at her husband, missed, and fired again, hitting him in the breast. A struggle ensued. William shot his wife in the side, staggered toward her and embraced her. Hattie’s bloody finger prints were smeared across his shoulders. He then stood up and shot himself in the head. Widely publicized as murder-suicide, the coroner’s jury actually found the Moores died “by their own hands or at the hands of others.”

Several years later, on December 7, 1889, at a Helena hotel, J. C. McConnell put a .44 Bulldog to his temple. Was it the same gun he gave Hattie? McConnell may have had money troubles, but he was implicated in the two arson cases and there were suspicions about his complicity in the Moores’ deaths. McConnell took the answers with him when he pulled the trigger.

Dearborn Crossing Cemetery Part 1

The Dearborn River country in Lewis and Clark County is an area rich in cultural history where physical remains abound if you know where to look. Buffalo jumps, pictographs, and stone arrow points illustrate Native Americans’ use of the abundant natural resources. One overlook, according to locals, was an eagle-catching site. Below, a stone cage—still intact—housed captive eagles until they molted. Then the birds were freed and the feathers collected. The area saw crews building the Mullan Road, completed in 1860, and heavy traffic between Fort Benton and Helena on the Benton Road from the mid-1860s to the advent of the railroad in the mid-1880s.

Nothing remains of the hotel and other businesses at the site of Dearborn Crossing, which served travelers along the Benton Road from the 1860s until the 1880s and the advent of the railroad.

The settlement of Dearborn Crossing sprang up to serve stagecoach and freight traffic and included a large hotel, livery, general store, and other businesses. The historic Dearborn Crossing Cemetery served the early settlers. It sits on a high, flat knoll overlooking the Dearborn River about a mile from the present Highway 287 Bridge. It is a beautiful, peaceful place. But the cemetery’s silent residents could tell tales of early-day violence.

Dearborn Crossing Cemetery, on private property, once served the local community.

In 1866, Charlie Carson and Louis Marcotte went out one morning to fetch the stage horses. Piegan Indians ambushed them. Marcotte survived by hiding in a gulch, but Carson was killed. He was the first person buried in the Dearborn Crossing Cemetery. In 1878, Gus Cottle and several others were also killed by Indians and buried here. Not all the graves are marked.

A few tombstones like this one of Gus Cottle, one of four killed by Indians in 1878, recall the hardships of early settlers.

A fence, built by property owners in 1960 to protect the tombstones from cattle, surrounds a portion of the cemetery. Depressions in the ground, however, indicate that there are unmarked graves outside the fence. Victims of murder, accidents, and sickness speak to the hardships of Dearborn pioneers. Most intriguing among them are William and Hattie Moore whose shocking deaths in 1885 were ruled murder-suicide. But was that what really happened? Stay tuned for Part 2.

Friday Photo: Working on the Railroad

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, Railroad Collection

Happy Labor Day weekend! Here's a classic photo of laborers. Japanese railroad crews like this one built hundreds of miles of track in Montana. These men are getting ready for the last spike celebration of the Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul Railroad, better known as the Milwaukee Road, four miles west of Garrison, Montana. The photo was taken on May 19, 1909.

W. A. Clark Theater

When W. A. Clark died in 1925, he was one of the fifty richest men in the United States. His wealth endowed the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at the University of California, the School of Law at the University of Virginia, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In Montana where he made most of his fortune, Clark built Columbia Gardens—a state-of-the-art amusement park—in 1899. Built for the people of Butte with uncharacteristic generosity, the park promoted Clark’s political ambitions. What little else of Clark’s vast fortune that came back to Montana went to the prison at Deer Lodge. He endowed the prison library and band in exchange for convict labor for his ranches and mines. Warden Frank Conley cultivated Clark’s friendship and that of his son. It paid high dividends. In 1919, the younger Clark gave the prison $10,000 for the construction of the W. A. Clark Theatre.

The W. A. Clark Theater opened in 1920 and was the first theater in the United States to be built inside a prison.
J. M Cooper photograph from Baumler and Cooper, Dark Spaces.

Clark’s state-of-the-art theatre was the first constructed within a prison in the United States. James McCalman—veteran builder of the prison wall and cell blocks—designed the building and oversaw the inmate laborers. Completed in 1920, the building’s white facade of brick and simulated stone was strikingly out of character within the prison yard. There was seating for one thousand in leather-covered seats and an ample stage and orchestra pit that could accommodate the most elaborate productions. The formal opening was on March 21, 1920, included a matinee for the male inmates and then an evening show for the public and women inmates. The traveling cast of the musical comedy My Sunshine Lady, starring Gudrun Walberg, brought down the house.

The theater included seating for one thousand, art painted by inmates, an orchestra pit, and a state-of-the-art projector system for moving pictures. Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives.

Warden Conley’s pride was short lived. Governor Joseph Dixon removed him as warden and ended his career. The theater served inmates and the community until 1975 when arson left it a burned out shell. The inmates responsible were never identified.

Friday Photo: Barn Raising

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 2008-23.9

Edith and Edelbert Morrissette built this barn on their homestead on Whittman Coulee northwest of Hardin circa 1912. On the back is written, "Mr. Gibbs, Edelbert and Mr. Curtis putting up the roof." Edith herself took the photo.

Montana’s Death Penalty, Part 2

The cruel and unusual punishment argument again surfaced in 2006 with the impending execution of David Thomas Dawson. Dawson kidnapped and killed Monica and David Rodstein along with their eleven-year-old son Andrew in a Billings motel room in 1986; police rescued their fifteen-year-old daughter Amy who survived. Dawson fought his conviction for years, but gave up the fight in 2004 to become a willing participant in carrying out his death sentence. A month before Dawson’s scheduled execution, the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana led a coalition arguing that the state’s method of administering lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment. The law stipulates that the executioner need not be a physician, registered nurse, or licensed practical nurse but only someone selected by the warden and trained to administer a lethal dose. The dissenting groups claimed that the lethal substance, if improperly administered, could cause excruciating pain and thus violate the U.S. and Montana Constitutions. The Montana attorney general decided, however, that there was no indication that lethal injection had caused pain and that the groups had nothing personally at stake. They thus had no reason to be involved. Dawson wanted the execution to go forward and not to do so would infringe upon his constitutional rights. The courts had no right to infringe on Dawson’s rights in the attempt to uphold the concerns of others. Dawson was executed by lethal injection on August 11, 2006.

The Ryegate Gallows, on display at the Old Prison Museum at Deer Lodge, was used in one of Montana's last hangings in 1939. Its thirteen steps leading up to the platform are chilling reminders of frontier justice. Photo by J. M. Cooper

Montana has legally executed seventy-five individuals since Montana Territory carried out its first legal hanging in 1875. There are currently two men on Montana’s symbolic “death row.”  The Montana legislature considered abolishment of the death penalty in 2007, with the passage of a repeal bill in the Montana Senate, but the legislation died in State House committee by a single vote.

Montana’s Death Penalty, Part 1

It seems that with the botched Oklahoma execution in the news, people might be interested in Montana's execution laws and procedures. This is adapted in two parts from my Montana chapter in Gordon Bakken's book Invitation to an Execution.

Montana’s last hanging was in 1943. In 1983, the legislature amended the law to allow the condemned to choose hanging or lethal injection. Changes also made county executions obsolete and specified the Montana State Prison as the place of execution. These changes essentially overhauled Montana’s death penalty. These changes were untried until the execution of Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr. in 1995. Sentenced in 1975 for the murder of teacher Lana Harding, McKenzie appealed numerous times. Governor Marc Racicot wrestled with his pleas for clemency. A converted house trailer at the Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge became the death chamber. Wearing orange prison overalls and lying on a gurney, McKenzie had no last words. He was the first in Montana to die of lethal injection.

The Montana State Prison does not have an official Death Row; the term is symbolic. Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 78-57.125

When the 1997 Legislature further amended the law to eliminate hanging as an option, Terry Allen Langford had already been on “death row”—a symbolic term as there has never been a formally designated “death row” in the Montana State Prison—for nine years. He received the death penalty in Powell County for the kidnapping and brutal slayings of Edward “Ned” and Celene Blackwood at their ranch near Ovando in 1988. Langford's execution was set for January 17, 1992. He chose hanging but then moved for the District Court to declare hanging cruel and unusual punishment and a violation of his constitutional rights under the Eighth Amendment. The court declared the position moot since Langford himself elected the method.

Years passed. As Langford initiated further proceedings, the legislature removed hanging as an option in 1997. Hanging passed into the annals of the state’s history. Langford then argued that the amending of the law deprived him of his choice of death by hanging—and the final opportunity to avoid the death penalty. If the Supreme Court had agreed that hanging was cruel and unusual punishment, the law would not have allowed his execution. Langford, also convicted of the murder of an inmate during a prison riot in 1991, lost this argument and became the second person in Montana to die by lethal injection in the converted house trailer on February 24, 1998.

Aldridge

Coal veins discovered in 1892 in Park County fueled the life of Aldridge, a mining town about seven miles northwest of present day Gardiner. Mostly Austrian immigrants, and a fair share of Italians, populated what briefly became one of the greatest coal producers in the country. By 1895, the mine’s main entry had been driven 1,800 feet into the mountain. By 1897, the mines produced between three and five hundred tons of coal daily for transport to the coke ovens eight thousand feet away. When the Miners’ Union organized that year on April 19, Montana Coal and Coke Company officials shut down the mines and coking plant, refusing to employ union men. But the workmen voted to stay with the union, and after several months, the company finally accepted a union contract.

Aldrige in 1902. Photo courtesy Montana Guide Service

Aldridge became a strong union town with a union store and a hospital with three staff doctors. The two most important holidays it celebrated were Union Day on April 19 and Labor Day. There were so many in Aldridge who could not speak English that the workmen were glad to have the union as their leader and spokesperson. The fortunes of the union thus became the fortunes of the camp. Progress came to Aldridge, but helped spell its demise. Mules delivering the coal to the coke ovens were replaced by a flumed water system and later by an expensive electric tramway. Shortened shifts, shrinking work weeks, and inevitable strikes beleaguered the town. Finally in 1910, the Montana Coal and Coke Company defaulted on bonds issued to pay for the tramway. Despite its rich veins, the mines closed and residents deserted Aldridge as quickly as they had come.

Swastikas

Some years ago the Montana Club in Helena was undergoing a little cleanup. The indoor/outdoor carpeting that covered the entryway had become loose and dangerous. Workmen pulled it up and were aghast to discover what lay beneath. The historic tiled entryway was interspersed with swastikas.

Photo by Katie Baumler-Morales

The discovery had the community talking, wondering if they would be quickly covered again. Fortunately management chose to leave the swastikas exposed. They are a fabulous teaching tool, demonstrating how meanings can radically change. Research revealed that after the first Montana Club burned to the ground in 1903, members put much thought into the message they wanted the building to convey. They searched especially for just the right symbol to install in the entryway. They finally found exactly what they were looking for. Swastikas are ancient symbols that have been used for six thousand years to mean abundance and prosperity.  Formed with a Greek cross, the arms of the cross can be bent in either direction. “Swastika” in Sanskrit means wellbeing or good luck. It appears in ancient Tibetan, Thai, and Turkish artifacts. To Hindus, swastikas symbolize the sun’s rotation; Buddhists consider them Buddha’s footprints. Swastikas symbolized friendship among American Indian tribes. To the Hopi Indians of the Southwest they also depict migration routes. To the Navajo, swastikas represent the whirling log legend of an outcast tribal member who rolled downriver in a hollowed out log. The ancient symbol even ornaments the Capitol in Washington, D.C. And in 1903, Montana Club founders placed swastikas at their club’s entrance to wish friendship, peace, and prosperity to all who entered. With the rise of the Third Reich, Hitler transformed this universal symbol of good wishes and good luck to a symbol of hate.

Friday Photo: Missoula Track Meet

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 2006-26.30

Boys wearing track uniforms from various Montana high schools line up for the start of a race at a track meet in Missoula in 1910. The officials stand at the right side of the photo. This track meet was probably held at the University.

Earthquake Lake

On Monday night August 17, 1959, actress Vicki Smith and a group of fellow Virginia City Players had the night off from performing at the Opera House. They were enjoying their rare free time by camping at nearby Ennis Lake. But there was something odd. Things had seemed off kilter all day. The group had camped here many times, but the lake had never been so still and glasslike. There were no crickets singing in the night, no bugs flitting over the water, not a sound except the strange mooing of some nearby cattle. Vicki and her friends felt lethargic. Monday morning they packed up and left the lake, still wondering what felt so odd. Their questions were soon answered. The Monday evening performance had ended and the cast assembled at a local bar for a nightcap. At 11:37, the elk’s head on the wall suddenly tilted, and the ground shook. The street and wooden sidewalks undulated like waves. A 7.5 earthquake jolted the summer night, bringing worldwide attention to Montana and the West Yellowstone area. The worst of it hit the southern end of the Madison range near Hebgen Lake. The quake triggered a massive landslide that dammed the Madison River, creating Earthquake Lake.

Quake Mountain, showing the earthquake slide area. U.S. Geological Survey photo

The earth bucked, heaved, and dropped, moved an entire mountain, fantastically tilted a lake, dumped sections of highway into it, and claimed the lives of twenty-nine people. The widespread temblors even destroyed a cell block at the Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge. The Forest Service has preserved and marked the quake-damaged area northwest of West Yellowstone. It was an event that Vicki Smith has never forgotten.

Friday Photo: Charlie Russell

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 944-703

Charlie Russell posed for this formal portrait in his Great Falls studio in 1912 while he was working on Lewis & Clark Meeting Indians at Ross' Hole. The painting hangs in the senate chambers of the Montana State Capitol.

The Kontinental Klan

Prohibition’s failure had some consequences no one seemed to anticipate. Illegal moonshine flowed more freely than legal booze either before or after the nation went dry. Illegal traffic in liquor fostered criminal activity which led to organized crime. But another rather bizarre consequence was the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan across the Pacific Northwest. The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan claimed a platform that claimed to be anti vice and corruption It was also pro patriotism in the wake of World War I. The Klan targeted blacks, Jews, Catholics, and foreign born people. In Montana, since there were very small African American and Jewish populations, the KKK targeted Catholics and foreign-born residents.
Montana’s leader, or Grand Dragon, was Lewis Terwilliger, a former mayor of Laurel. Terwilliger christened Butte the “worst place in the State of Montana” because of its cultural diversity and its many Catholics. Little wonder that Butte is where Montana’s first chapter organized in 1923. There were eventually some forty chapters in a number of Montana cities and towns during the depressed 1920s into the 1930s.
On September 10, 1925, Laurel residents were shocked to see a burning cross on a butte four miles west of the city. The Laurel Outlook reported that the fire lit up the night sky and "it looked like all the dragons, wizards, witches, ghosts—or whatever they are called—from all over the country had gathered there." Wearing their customary white flowing robes and peaked hoods, some 2500 members gathered on the butte. Fireworks announced the initiation of one hundred new members.
Nationally, the Klan organized in Georgia in 1915 retaining much of the dress, rules, and cross-burning of the original nineteenth century organization. In Montana and the Northwest, however, the Kontinental Klan, as it was called, was not as violent as its counterparts elsewhere. Prospective members had to be native born, white, Protestant, Gentile, and American citizens. Interestingly, many of Montana’s 5,000 members were women who belonged to separate women’s chapters of the Kontinental Klan.

Women of the Billings Ku Klux Klan  No. 7 gave this memorial marker in 1928. What is marked, however, is a mystery; only the stone remains. Courtesy of Harry Axline.

Friday Photo: Smith Mine Rescue Worker

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, reference file

A rescue worker comes out of Smith Mine near Bearcreek after a methane gas explosion in the mine killed seventy-four miners on February 27, 1943.

P.S. The rest of the story of the disaster.