Carlo, the Chocolate-Loving Pooch

Carlo was a big, handsome, curly-haired brown water spaniel whose master was John Losekamp of Billings. At the turn of the twentieth century, Losekamp was the prosperous proprietor of a men’s clothing store at 2817 Montana Street. He advertised shoes, trunks, valises, and ranch supplies.

Advertisement from Polk’s City Directory, Billings, 1907.

Losekamp’s varied inventory drew a wide range of customers and traveling businessmen. All were familiar with Losekamp’s extremely intelligent dog. And Carlo knew who his friends were. The dog had a weakness for candy—chocolate drops in particular. He adored them. Back in the early 1900s, apparently no one knew that chocolate was poisonous to dogs. At any rate, it never seemed to hurt Carlo. He had a routine familiar to everyone in downtown Billings. When a friend came into Losekamp’s store, Carlo would first greet him with a friendly tail wag, and then would go to the wastebasket and retrieve a small piece of paper. This he would drop in front of the visitor. The visitor would take a nickel, wrap it up and give it to the dog. Carlo would trot to any one of several candy stores, drop the nickel in front of the clerk and receive a bag of chocolate drops in exchange.  Carlo would gently carry the bag back to Losekamp’s store, drop it in front of the waiting visitor, and sit a few paces away. The generous visitor would then toss the chocolate drops, one at a time, to Carlo, who never missed a catch. As the years wore on, Carlo was even able to distinguish between nickels and pennies and knew that a penny wouldn’t buy him enough chocolate to make it worth the trip. Carlo died in 1912, not from eating chocolate, but from old age. He was buried on historic Boot Hill with a fitting ceremony.

Ben Greenough

The life of Red Lodge pioneer Ben Greenough was one adventure after another. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and arrived in Billings penniless and hungry in the winter of 1886. He courageously walked into the Headquarters Hotel, asked for a job, and was hired as the hotel’s yard man and porter. In this capacity, he met Martha Jane Canary, otherwise known as Calamity Jane. One of Greenough’s jobs was to build fires in the hotel rooms before the guests arose in the morning. He bought the cordwood from Calamity Jane who cut the wood and sold it for eight dollars a cord. Greenough would pay her, and Calamity would then give half of it back to Greenough for safekeeping. She would hit the saloon and drink up the four dollars, and when it was gone, Greenough would give her back the other half.

Library of Congress, LC-USF34-058658-E

Greenough later went to work for cattleman Nelson Story and then worked at a sawmill on Willow Creek. Here Greenough learned one of his trademarks—how to swear. This came about when he had to drive two stubborn bulls into the timber for several months. Greenough drove the mail stage from Billings to Red Lodge, worked on the railroad, ran cattle on the Crow reservation and learned to speak the Crow language fluently. He was good friends with Plenty Coups and knew Sitting Bull. In 1900, Greenough married and settled down, more or less, on a ranch on Rock Creek near Red Lodge. His seven children learned to ride by breaking horses. There were so many rocks in the corral, the kids didn’t dare fall off and all became exceptional riders. His son Turk and daughters Margaret and Alice were rodeo champions.

Sculpture Gardens

During the nineteenth century, there was a national movement to plan park-like cemeteries with curving driveways and landscaped grounds outside urban areas. The idea took hold in Montana. Our major cities have beautiful park-like cemeteries where turn-of-the-century residents went not only to visit graves but also to picnic and enjoy nature. Missoula’s City Cemetery, Kalispell’s Conrad Cemetery, and Billings's Mountview  are a few examples. Cemeteries were usually located out of town for aesthetic reasons, but planning cemeteries out of town in Butte was a necessity because of health and sanitation. Urban mining everywhere created ground disturbance, and early burials in city churchyards or on private property did not always remain underground. Bodies turned up in odd locations, and exposed burials, especially during epidemics, were a serious health hazard. Keenly aware of this grisly problem, fraternal organizations established Mount Moriah Cemetery in 1877. Rather than curving driveways, it was laid out in simple blocks since there was no landscape to accommodate curving driveways. As much as the community wanted a beautiful cemetery, in nineteenth-century Butte this was impossible. Open hearth smelting polluted the area and prevented anything from growing. The cemetery was bleak and ugly. Butte’s citizens, however, made up for the lack of landscaping by placing fanciful and lovely tombstones on their loved ones’ graves. Butte has the most unique and attractive cemetery art of any in Montana. The desire to create “a spot of beauty” was at first far-fetched. But by 1905, as smelting centralized in Anaconda, trees and shrubs did begin to grow. Today Mount Moriah and Butte’s other sculpture garden cemeteries rival any in Montana.

Mount Moriah has many beautiful sculpture tombstones like this tree stump, which symbolizes a life cut short.
Photo from Buried in Butte by Zena Beth McGlashan

Meriwether Lewis and a Forensic Mystery

The Masonic Grand Lodge in Helena owns one of Montana’s most mysterious and intriguing treasures. Meriwether Lewis’s Masonic apron is not only a historically significant artifact, it is also a beautiful piece of artful handiwork. Hand-painted symbols and emblems significant to Masonry embellish the hand-sewn silk apron. In times past, members wore their aprons to reveal Masonic affiliation while traveling in dangerous situations. Meriwether Lewis certainly followed this practice on the expedition, and was the first Mason to travel in Montana. Lewis was traveling along the dangerous Natchez Trace in Tennessee when he died of gunshot wounds under mysterious circumstances in 1809. Whether he committed suicide or was murdered remains in question. Family members believed that the apron was in his breast pocket when he died.

Photo via Discovering Lewis and Clark

The apron passed through several generations until 1924 when the Masons of Missouri purchased it from the widow of a distant Lewis relative. In 1960, Montana’s retiring Grand Master, Joseph Hopper of Billings, bought the apron for five hundred dollars and gave it to the Grand Lodge Museum in Helena. Several dark rust-colored stains mar the front. Samples of the stains tested at the University of Oregon revealed both deer and human blood, but only a sample of Lewis’s DNA could determine if the human blood on the apron belonged to Lewis. How Lewis died is still debated, but during refurbishing of his tomb in 1928, an examination of his skull revealed a bullet hole in the back, unlikely evidence of suicide. A Tennessee coroner’s jury in 1996 agreed evidence warranted exhumation of Lewis’s remains. This would also open the door for further testing of the apron’s human blood for DNA. But the National Park Service, caretaker of Lewis’s grave and monument, has denied the request.

Rex Bar

A twist of fate landed sixteen-year-old German immigrant Alfred Heimer a job with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show in 1894. Although the irascible Colonel Cody fired young Heimer three times during that first day, the youth remained as steward of Cody’s private railway car until 1903, developing a close friendship with the famous frontiersman. The genial Heimer then settled in Billings. He built the Rex Bar around 1909. It served such colorful patrons as his friends Buffalo Bill and Will James. Early advertisements extolled Heimer’s German lunches and promised the “Best Beer in Town.” In 1917, addition of the third floor converted Heimer’s “nice furnished rooms” into a classy hotel which hosted many dignitaries including the great Crow chief, Plenty Coups, who stayed there in 1921 en route to Washington, D.C. Under new proprietors the Rex flourished during Prohibition; the bar simply went under cover.

Photo courtesy Montana State Historic Preservation Office

The hotel closed in 1974 and narrowly escaped demolition. Award-winning rehabilitation has restored the Rex to its former glory where the hospitality first offered by Alfred Heimer is again a Billings tradition.

P.S. Put the Little Cowboy Bar in Fromberg on your bucket list, while you're at it.

Yellowstone Trail

The Yellowstone Trail was a transcontinental road that ran from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound in the era before numbered roads and maps. As travelers exchanged horses for automobiles, they began to demand roads instead of disconnected muddy wagon roads full of potholes. The Yellowstone Trail Association was a grassroots effort that grew from this need. It was the first transcontinental route through the northern part of the United States. Begun in 1912, the trail was completed by 1919. The association did not build roads, but rather encouraged local groups to organize, choose the best roads to improve—usually near railroad routes—and fund their improvements. Montana caught the spirit of the effort and understood its potential for tourism. The Yellowstone Trail Association had chapters in many Montana cities along the trail. They organized Trail Days when businesses closed so employees could volunteer their time. There would be picnics, and volunteers would drag the dirt roads to smooth them out. Brochures and promotional literature were part of the effort to entice tourists to travel the trail. Yellow circles marked the route so that travelers could find their way.

These markers still exist in some Montana cities. The yellow circles painted on prominent buildings can be found in Billings, Livingston, Deer Lodge, and Bozeman. The Bozeman sign on the Story Block downtown at the corner of Black and Main is typical. During the 1920s, highways began to be numbered, named highways and trails became obsolete, and road maps eliminated the need for trail signs. As the Yellowstone Trail celebrates its centennial in 2012, the bright yellow markers are rare reminders of the days when a system of connected roads was a new idea.

St. Vincent’s in Billings

The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kansas, came to Montana in 1869 to pioneer health, education, and social services in many Montana communities.  Billings was the Sisters’ final Montana frontier. In 1896, Father Clarence Van Clarenbeck and Billings mayor Dr. Henry Chapple traveled to Leavenworth to make an appeal to the Mother House. The need for a hospital in the bustling railroad town of 3,000 would soon be critical. The men were so persuasive that Mother Mary Peter Dwyer assigned two Sisters from St. John’s Hospital in Helena to assess Billings’ needs. Dr. Chapple, who was not Catholic, had lamented a chronic shortage of nurses throughout his career. He challenged the Sisters and they accepted, caring for patients first in makeshift quarters above Chapple’s drug store. The first patients were admitted to St. Vincent’s Hospital in 1898. In 1916, infantile paralysis afflicted at least 125 children in Billings. When Mother Irene McGrath, Superior of St. Vincent’s, established a children’s ward for these young patients, the overcrowding this caused underscored the need for a new building. The work was underway when World War I intervened. Mother Irene halted construction, deciding the Red Cross and Liberty Loan drives were more important. Her patriotic sacrifice won the hearts of the community.

Photo courtesy Western Heritage Center, Billings

When the new 200-bed hospital opened in 1923, Mother Irene opened a school for children whose deformities had heretofore prevented their education. It was the first school of its kind in the West. These efforts laid the groundwork for Billings’ modern medical and social services.  The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health Care remains today St. Vincent’s parent system.

P.S. Remember these dedicated nurses?

Ruth Garfield

Ruth Lane was visiting relatives in Montana when she met Jesse Garfield, a Yellowstone County homesteader. The couple married in 1912 and later moved to a ranch near Ryegate. Jesse became the first sheriff of newly created Golden Valley County in June of 1920.

Photo courtesy Ford and Barbara Garfield, via Ancestry.com

He had been reelected to his first full term of office in November but had not yet been sworn in. On December 6, Jesse went out to the Snowy Mountains to investigate a complaint. When he knocked on the rancher’s door, the man fired his rifle, seriously wounding the sheriff. He made it to his car and tried to drive back to town, but the gas tank had been hit and he ran out gas. He walked back to the town of Franklin where a stopped freight train took him to Billings. Jesse died two weeks later. County commissioners appointed Ruth to fill out her husband’s term as sheriff.  She never carried a gun, but she earned the same salary as her husband: $166 a month. The couple’s son, Ford, was about seven at the time. Every day after school, he would wait at the jail in the Golden Valley county courthouse for his mom to finish work. Ruth served out her husband’s two year term. Upon his election in 1922, Sheriff Dick Carr appointed Ruth Garfield undersheriff and probation officer. She served in that capacity for two years before retiring from law enforcement. Ruth Lane Garfield was the first female sheriff in Montana.

P.S. Remember this gun-toting woman?

Methodist Deaconesses

Happy Women's History Month! Today's post celebrates some particularly dedicated women.

The Deaconess Movement rose from within the Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopal, and other Protestant denominations. It sought to incorporate professional women in ministerial duties. The Chicago Training School was the center of the movement and prepared its deaconesses to serve as missionary nurses, teachers, and social workers. Unlike Catholic sisters, deaconesses took no perpetual vows, but if a woman chose to remain a deaconess and single, she could count on care in times of illness and in old age. These dedicated pioneers earned no salaries, but rather worked in exchange for their living expenses and small stipends supplied by their institutional boards.

A procession of deaconesses and candidates, May 7, 1914, probably in New York
Bain News Service photo, Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ggbain-15754

The first trained deaconesses came from Chicago to Montana in 1898 to staff a small twenty-bed hospital in Great Falls. Chicago-trained Augusta Ariss arrived in 1902 to found the nursing school there. Deaconesses from the Chicago School also arrived to take charge of the Montana Deaconess School in Helena.

The Montana Deaconess Preparatory School, Helena. The building was damaged in the 1935 earthquake and demolished.
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 953-410

From 1910 to the 1940s, it was the only Protestant-based boarding school west of the Mississippi. (It survives today as Intermountain, a treatment center for emotionally traumatized children.) Until the 1930s, deaconesses staffed the Great Falls hospital, its nursing school, and other deaconess hospitals in Glasgow, Sidney, Bozeman, Billings, Havre, and Butte. The Great Falls Deaconess Hospital evolved into today’s Benefis Healthcare. The old Deaconess Hospital campus today serves a worthy purpose as an assisted living and memory care facility.

Montana Trolleys

More than 80,000 trolleys once clanged over 45,000 miles of track in cities across the United States. Between 1888 and 1890, there were twenty-seven attempts to establish street railway service in nine Montana cities, but credit goes to Billings for establishing the first operational system. Two bright yellow horse-drawn cars ferried passengers in 1883. Business boomed temporarily when railway promoters offered twenty-five cent tickets and coupons for free beer at a local brewery. But the company soon went out of business. Its two wayward horses refused to keep to a schedule. Reliable service in Montana began in Helena on September 25, 1886. Hundreds watched in awe as the Helena Street Railway Company’s two horse-drawn Pullman cars made their maiden trips to the depot on newly laid iron rails. Soon, steam engines pulled some of the cars, but residents complained about the noisy, dirty coal-burning engines. Dust from the smoke settled in homes and the commotion frightened horse traffic. By the early 1890s, an assortment of trolleys operating on steam, horsepower, and the new electric system operated in Montana cities.
 

Horse-drawn trolleys like this newly-refurbished gem on Helena’s south Walking Mall once ferried passengers to the depot. Photo courtesy of Dean Rognrud.

Montana first licensed automobiles in 1913. This, World War I, postwar inflation, and changing travel patterns took their toll. The Billings Traction Company folded in 1917. Bozeman’s system closed because of complaints that trolleys pushed aside snow, interfering with automobiles. Helena’s last car entered the barn at midnight on New Year’s Day in 1928; bus service began a few hours later. The Rainbow Hotel in Great Falls hosted a funeral in December 1931 for its trolleys. Guests filed past a battered streetcar and sang specially composed songs conceding that the trolleys "ain't gonna run no more." Missoula’s streetcar service ended in 1932, Butte’s in 1937, and Montana’s last trolley bell clanged in 1951 with a final run between Anaconda’s smelter and the town of Opportunity.

Walter Marshall Remembers John F. Kennedy’s Montana Visits

With the election tomorrow, politics are on everyone's minds. The candidates are wrapping up their full travel schedules. Here's a look back at another president's memorable Montana travels:

Walter Marshall was a great showman, promoter, Democratic supporter, and founder of Helena’s famous Brewery Theater. His book, I’ve Met Them All, describes the dignitaries and politicians he knew personally. Marshall first met John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie as newlyweds in the mid-1950s when Senator Kennedy spoke at the Finlen Hotel in Butte. Then Kennedy visited Helena in 1960, just before his nomination as a presidential candidate. Marshall arranged the logistics. Kennedy spoke at the Marlow Theatre and at a formal dinner at the Civic Center. During dessert, Kennedy whispered to Marshall, “Can we get out of here? My drivers haven’t shown up and I need to get to the airport.” Marshall took him outside to his old station wagon, which was a garishly painted advertisement for the Brewery Theatre. Marshall’s three big dogs were in the back seat. They had a little time, so Marshall, always the promoter, seized the moment to show off his theater. All the way, the three big dogs licked the back of Kennedy’s neck. And Kennedy did not like dogs. But Marshall got him to the airport on time.


JFK greets the crowd in Billings. Photo by Cecil Stoughton.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, via Linternaute.com

After Kennedy’s election, the president spoke at the Shrine Auditorium in Billings. Marshall arranged the logistics. He drove his Brewery station wagon into the Shrine Auditorium to await Kennedy’s motorcade. When President Kennedy arrived, he recognized Marshall and the station wagon right away. “I am glad to see you, Walter,” said the President. “But I hope you left those blankety-blank dogs at home.” JFK visited Great Falls in September 1963. Fifty thousand people heard him speak. He told Marshall how much he had enjoyed that time in Helena and promised to return. Weeks later on November 22, an assassin’s bullet left that promise unfulfilled.

P.S. You can listen Kennedy speaking at the Yellowstone County Fairgrounds in 1963 here.

Friday Photo: Duck Hunting

Duck hunting season opens this weekend, so this photo seems timely.


Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 948-572

This circa 1914 photo is simply titled "Duck Hunting on the Hi Line."

Bonus: Here's a recipe for duck from The Progressive Cook Book published by the Billings First United Methodist Church in 1893. It was written by Juliet Corson.

Roast Duck with Apples
Pluck and singe a duck, draw it, wipe with a wet towel and lay in a baking pan; wipe a dozen small sour apples with a wet cloth, cut the cores out and arrange around the duck. Put pan into the oven and quickly brown the duck; then moderate the heat of the oven and continue cooking until the apples are tender; baste both every five minutes until done, then serve both on the same dish.

Enjoy!

Moss Mansion

The beautiful Moss Mansion in Billings—now a house museum—is a twenty-five-room residence built in 1903. It was the longtime home of the Preston Moss family. New York architect R. J. Hardenbergh, whose work includes New York City’s Waldorf Astoria, designed the elegant mansion. Mahogany and walnut woodwork, an onyx fireplace, rose silk and gold leaf wall coverings, and stained glass windows are among the luxurious details.
 

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 2004-17

Preston Moss arrived in Billings in 1892 on his way to Butte from Missouri and saw Billings’ financial promise. He became a prominent banker; helped develop the sugar beet industry, the Billings Light and Water Company, and the Billings Polytechnic Institute (now Rocky Mountain College); and with a partner ran eighty thousand head of sheep and several thousand head of cattle. He also pioneered the Billings Gazette and was instrumental in the creation of the Huntley Irrigation Project. He even started a toothpaste factory and a meat packing plant. Moss also promoted an idea he called Mossmain. This was a futuristic city he planned to build ten miles west of Billings. World War II intervened, and Preston Moss died in 1947, never realizing this dream. Melville, the Mosses’ middle daughter, was seven when her family moved into the mansion. She was a talented musician and played the harp, piano, and bass from an early age. Melville traveled the world and never married, but the mansion was her home throughout her life. She died in 1984 at eighty-two. Because of Melville’s good stewardship, the grand interiors remain unchanged today.

From More Montana Moments
P.S. Remember this Montana mansion?

Bill Stockton’s Chief Joseph

Bill Stockton was a sheepman and artist who returned to Montana after World War II to settle on his family ranch near Grass Range. Art and sheep seem an odd combination, but Stockton’s tender heart, love for his animals, and closeness to the land provided a lifetime of inspiration. His legacy includes writings, sketches, paintings, and sculpture. Stockton found the plight of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perces, who tried unsuccessfully to flee from the U.S. Army to sanctuary in Canada, extremely troubling. So in the 1950s he created a haunting metal sculpture known as Chief Joseph. It depicts a head with arms upraised in poignant recapitulation.  

Stockton sent the piece to an art retailer in Billings. Thieves broke into the business and stole the sculpture and several other pieces of Stockton’s work.A year later, a young Indian man allegedly committed suicide by jumping off a bridge into the Yellowstone River. As Yellowstone County officials dragged the river looking for him, they not only recovered the young man’s body, but they also discovered Stockton’s sculpture of Chief Joseph. It had been in the river for a year. It was as if the spirit of the young man aided in the recovery of the artwork. The sculpture later was entered in the Great Falls Russell Art Show and Auction where journalist Kay Hansen saw it. She knew she had to have the piece. With only nine dollars in her pocket, Hansen bid and acquired the sculpture, paying for it in monthly installments. She has recently donated it to the Montana Historical Society. It is one of Stockton’s most important creations.

The Place Where the White Horse Went Down

In the summer of 1837, a smallpox epidemic spread from a steamboat as it lay docked at Fort Union. Although the federal government initiated massive inoculations among the tribes of the Midwest in 1832, the effort did not reach this far north, and Montana’s native people had no immunity. The disease struck the young, vigorous, and most able-bodied family members so quickly that before one person could be properly laid to rest, another family member died. In the end, the epidemic claimed at least ten thousand victims. The Crows tell a story about two young warriors who returned from a war expedition to find smallpox decimating their village. One warrior discovered his sweetheart among the dying, and both grieved over the loss of many family members. Realizing that nothing could alter these events, the two young men dressed in their finest clothing. Riding double on a snow white horse and singing their death songs, the two young warriors drove the blindfolded horse over a cliff at what is today the east end of the Yellowstone County Fairgrounds at Billings. Although time has reduced the height of the cliff, the spot where they landed is remembered even today as The Place Where the White Horse Went Down.


A historical marker stands at the site today.
Image from Historical Marker Database



Horace W. Bivins

I've enjoyed celebrating Black History Month. To finish it out, here's a look at the accomplishments of Horace W. Bivins, plus more resources on Montana's black history.

Horace W. Bivins was born in Virginia of free ancestry and was college educated. He enlisted in the Tenth Cavalry, the famous Buffalo Soldiers, in 1887 as a noncommissioned officer. Bivins served in Arizona in campaigns against Geronimo. The Tenth Cavalry was reassigned to Fort Custer in Montana. There Bivins became famous as such an expert marksman that Buffalo Bill Cody tried to entice him to travel with his show. Bivins preferred the military. He was a veteran of two Cuban wars and three Philippine engagements. At the attack on San Juan Hill, he fought beside Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders and later received the Silver Star for his heroic actions. Some years later when Roosevelt visited Billings, he was disappointed to learn that Bivins was not at home, but at Camp Dix, New Jersey, commanding a labor battalion.

Photo from BlackPast.org

Bivins retired in 1913 and reenlisted at personal hardship in 1918 during World War I, retiring a second time as captain in 1919. Bivins’s record for marksmanship stood until the 1970s, and today remains one of the all-time highest. During his thirty-two-year career in the military, Bivins received thirty-two medals, one for every year of service. Bivins studied taxidermy at the University of Minnesota, practiced that for a while, and did extensive truck gardening in the Billings area where he lived a long, quiet life.

From Montana Moments: History on the Go

P.S. Remember the accomplishments of another Buffalo Soldier?
P.P.S. Here are a few places to start your own research into our state's black history:
The Montana Historical Society has a lot of resources on African Americans in Montana.

Historian Ken Robison has shared much of his research on his blog, Historical Fort Benton.

Blackpast.org has information on African Americans in Montana and nationwide, including some primary source documents.

Listen to a series of oral history interviews from the Washington State University Libraries.

Read an interesting tidbit about jazz and CCC workers in Libby here.

If you or your library have access to JSTOR, start with this article from the Spring 2007 issue of Montana The Magazine of Western History.

And of course, you can always look back at all the Montana moments labeled black history.
I'd love to know what you turn up in your research. Leave a comment!

Not in Our Town

Do you remember this bit of recent history? It happened just eighteen years ago today.

On December 2, 1993, a brick came hurling through 5-year-old Isaac Schnitzer’s bedroom window, landing on his bed in a hailstorm of glass. Isaac was fortunately uninjured. Because his bedroom window displayed a menorah, a symbol of the family’s celebration of Hanukkah, the Schnitzers became a target of religious bigotry and vandalism. Montana’s early settlement history included a large Jewish population. But lack of economic opportunity prompted most second generation Jews to move elsewhere. Butte, Great Falls, Billings, and Helena’s historic Jewish cemeteries recall these pioneers who helped lay Montana’s very cornerstones. But in 1993, the Schnitzers were among the few Jewish families in Billings. Supremacist groups that settled in the Northwest in the 1980s had begun to commit brutal hate crimes against various minorities. Billings suffered desecration of a Jewish cemetery, telephone threats to its Jewish citizens, and swastikas painted on the home of an interracial couple. The Schnitzers were advised to remove the religious symbols from public view. This infringed upon their First Amendment right to religious freedom. News reports left Christians wondering what it would be like if a Christmas tree in the windows of their own homes invited violence. An idea quickly took root. Menorahs began to appear in thousands of homes in Billings, sending a powerful message of community solidarity. Harassment continued, and some non-Jewish citizens suffered vandalism, but gradually the perpetrators withdrew. The next December, 1994, families in Billings again displayed menorahs, reaffirming their commitment to peace and tolerance. This quiet, courageous message spread and came to be known as the “Not in Our Town” movement. It is a message that continues to reverberate.