Alberta-Montana Discovery Guide: Museums, Parks and Historic Sites

by Alberta-Montana International Partnership

Alberta and Montana have much to offer the modern-day explorer: world-class museums, parks set in spectacular natural surroundings, and historic sites that bring the past to life. This indispensable guide includes over 300 color photographs, descriptions, easy-to-follow directions, and contact information for nearly 500 attractions across Alberta and Montana.

358 pages, illus.
ringbound, ISBN 0-7732-1240-X, $12.95

More About This Title

Montana Mainstreets, Volume 1

A Guide to Historic Virginia City

by Marilyn Grant

The gold-rush-era town of Virginia City, recently purchased by the State of Montana to preserve for posterity, makes a fitting first subject for the Montana Mainstreets series. Once it was Montana's acting territorial capital and the center of trade for Alder Gulch, the site of the richest placer mines in the world, but Virginia City became a town almost frozen in time once gold deposits played out and the state capital moved to Helena in 1889. Today, Virginia City attracts visitors from all over the world, who marvel at its intact architecture. If walking down Virginia City's streets is like a trip backwards in time, the road map for that journey is Guide to Historic Virginia City.

80 pages, maps, illus.
paper, ISBN 0-917298-56-X, $9.95

Books of related interest available in the Mining section.

Learn more about the Montana Mainstreets series.

Montana Mainstreets, Volume 2

A Guide to Historic Glendive

by Montana Historical Society

Rooted in the railroad and ranching industries, Glendive lies in the lower Yellowstone Valley about thirty miles from the North Dakota border in southeastern Montana. First and foremost a railroad town, Glendive's development and architecture reflect its Northern Pacific heritage and the spirit of its residents. Discover the history of "Gate City" of the Yellowstone Valley in this lively guide to Glendive's historic buildings.

88 pages, maps, illus.
paper, ISBN 0-917298-58-6, $9.95

Learn more about the Montana Mainstreets series.

Montana Mainstreets, Volume 3

A Guide to Historic Lewistown

by Ellen and Ken Sievert

In the geographic center of Montana sits Lewistown, whose rich history is still reflected in today's streets. A testament to the homesteading boom at the turn of the century, Lewistown grew with the surrounding communities. A service center, rail stop, and county seat, its population tripled between 1900 and 1910, then doubled again by 1920. The architectural heritage of this homesteading community awaits your discovery, on the streets of Lewistown.

92 pages, 40 illus.
paper, ISBN 0-917298-59-4, $9.95

More About This Title

Learn more about the Montana Mainstreets series.

Montana Mainstreets, Volume 4

A Guide to Historic Hamilton

by Chere Jiusto

Founded in 1890 against the backdrop of the lush Bitterroot Valley, the town of Hamilton's history revolves around timber, the railroad, and agriculture. Hamilton owes its early history to copper baron Marcus Daly, whose Anaconda Company sawmill and private Bitter Root Stock Farm dominated the community through the late nineteenth century. The drama of the twentieth-century apple boom and the saga of the battle to cure Rocky Mountain tick fever enrich the town's more recent past. Drawing the reader into the historical mosaic that is Hamilton, Montana, with architectural and historical information on town and valley history, buildings and historic sites, this guide is a treat for all those who would explore "the jewel of the Bitterroot."

88 pages, illus., maps
paper, ISBN 0-917298-67-5, $9.95

More About This Title

Learn more about the Montana Mainstreets series.

Montana Mainstreets, Volume 5

A Guide to Historic Kalispell

by Kathryn McKay

Founded in 1891 as a railroad town for the transcontinental Great Northern Railway, Kalispell, Montana, faced bitter disappointment when the railroad relocated its route to the north in 1904. Most towns suffering similar fates fell into decline, but not Kalispell, which had become Flathead County seat in 1894, remained a trade center of a large area, and later became a gateway to Glacier National Park. Discover the history and architecture of this leading town of northwest Montana.

80 pages, maps, illus.
paper, ISBN 0-917298-70-5, $9.95

Learn more about the Montana Mainstreets series.

Montana Mainstreets, Volume 6

A Guide to Historic Missoula

by Allan James Mathews

Winner of a Certificate of Commendation from the American Association for State and Local History

Situated west of the Continental Divide, the town of Missoula started in 1860 as a trading post called Hellgate. Supplying miners with produce, flour, other trade goods, and later with lumber was Missoula's early reason for being. Its designation as county seat in 1866 and the arrival of the Northern Pacific in 1883 and the Milwaukee Road in 1909 cemented the community's role as a center of commerce. Its economy diversified further when it became home to the state university-now called University of Montana-in 1895 and the U.S. Forest Service's regional district headquarters for the Rocky Mountains in 1908.

With a flourishing downtown district and well-preserved historic homes, Missoula's streetscapes today reflect the town's abundant history, thanks, in part, to a successful historic preservation program that has preserved the community's rich architectural legacy. Explore Missoula's buildings, parks, and historic sites through this guide.

181 pages, illus., maps
paper, ISBN 0-917298-89-6, $12.95

More About This Title

Learn more about the Montana Mainstreets series.

Montana Mainstreets, Volume 7

Montana Mainstreets Volume 7: A Guide to Historic Bozeman

by Jim Jenks

Founded in the 1860s on an important emigrant route to the territory's gold camps, Bozeman, Montana, grew rapidly from frontier farming settlement into a bustling center of commerce. The arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883 and the establishment of the Montana State College twenty years later secured the town's bright future. As Bozeman prospered, substantial buildings of brick and stone grew up along its Main Street and in its newly platted neighborhoods. Today, the town's historic center, substantial public buildings, and charming homes remain a vibrant part of the community. Discover Bozeman's rich history and architectural heritage through this lively guide.

AUDIOBOOK

Beyond Spirit Tailings: Montana's Mysteries, Ghosts, & Haunted Places

By Ellen Baumler and Philip Aaberg

In a new and exciting twist, Ellen Baumler's ever-popular historical ghost stories found an enthusiastic reader in world-famous composer Philip Aaberg. Inspired by the stories, he encouraged Ellen to produce and audio version of Beyond Spirit Tailings to which he could add his music. Ellen and Philip's spooky collaboration will evoke those places and images that make our imagination such a wonderful (and sometimes unearthly) destination.

Five-disc set
ISBN 0-9721522-9-6, $25.95

More About This Title

Beyond Spirit Tailings: Montana's Mysteries, Ghosts, and Haunted Places

by Ellen Baumler

Montana is alive with things that go bump in the Big Sky night. A World War II serviceman who lingers in a Billings business, a dearly departed priest who still hitchhikes around Helena, and a Hamilton socialite who adorns her mansion with the scent of roses-these are a few of the creepy tales from across the state collected in Beyond Spirit Tailings. Passed down through generations, these "spirit tailings" illustrate the subtle presence of the past in the everyday lives of modern Montanans.

Ellen Baumler has again traversed the state, interviewing and researching to present history with a ghostly twist. Her first book, Spirit Tailings, introduced Montanans to their haunted past. Beyond Spirit Tailings again offers ghostly encounters from Montana's heritage places, but Baumler also branches out to explore such historical mysteries as the monster said to lurk in the deep waters of Flathead Lake, the power of an ancient object revered by native peoples, and a possible explanation for the suspicious death of Thomas Francis Meagher. Richly embroidered with Montana's unique historical legacy, these eerie and mysterious tales will leave you looking over your shoulder, sleeping with the lights on, and always craving more.

200 pages, 20 illus., index
paper, ISBN 0-9721522-4-5, $13.95

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

By Jon Axline

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. Montana's historic highway bridges are symbols of the cooperative spirit that led to the economic and social stability of communities 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. Nonetheless all are representatives of the best in engineering practices and are testaments to the science of practical bridge design. From the aesthetically delightful Fort Benton Bridge to the more mundane Fred Robinson Bridge in the Missouri Breaks Country, Montana's bridges signify the best in American bridge engineering. Today, Montana's bridges are a visible, often overlooked, and fast disappearing part of the state's historic landscape. Yet the story they tell is significant to understanding the dynamics of Montana's development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the optimism many had in its future.

174 pages, 80 illus., maps, index
paper, ISBN 0-9721522-6-1, $22.00;
cloth, ISBN 0-9721522-5-3, $39.95

More About This Title

Helena: An Illustrated History

by Vivian Paladin and Jean Baucus

"Helena is perhaps this nation's finest living example of Western pioneers putting back as well as taking. This illustrated history, set in historical context, enlightens us about those visionary pioneers and the many who have followed."

-Max Baucus, United States Senator, Montana

"Helena: An Illustrated History is a priceless historical collection of faces and stories about our special state's capital and the lives and events that have shaped it-and us."

-Marc Racicot, former Montana governor

239 pages, illus.
paper, ISBN 0-917298-40-3, $22.95

Montana Native Plants and Early Peoples

by Jeff Hart

Illustrated by Jacqueline Moore

From Alder to Yellowbells, sixty native Montana plants are featured in this fascinating and informative guide, now in a new, easy-to-use format. Learn how Native Americans and other early inhabitants of the area used these plants for food, medicine, and religious rituals. Each illustrated entry also gives a detailed description of the plant and its habitat and range.

168 pages, illus.
paper, ISBN 0-917298-29-2, $14.95

More About This Title
 

Montana Moments: History on the Go

by Ellen Baumler

Forget dreary dates and boring facts. Montana Moments distills the most funny, bizarre, and interesting stories from Montana’s history into pure entertainment. Meet the colorful cast of the famous and not-so-famous desperadoes, vigilantes, madams, and darned good men and women (and a few critters) who made the state’s history. You’ll get a laugh from the story of the transient vaudevillian who wrote Montana’s state song. Captain James C. Kerr’s tale of the Flathead Lake monster might make you shiver. No matter your reaction, the episodes recounted here always entertain. Best of all, each vignette takes about ninety seconds to read. So have fun exploring Montana - and enjoy a little history as you go.

220 pages
paper, ISBN 978-0-9759196-8-2, $14.95

More About This Title

Revised and Expanded

Montana's Historical Highway Markers

Montana's Historical Highway Markers

By Jon Axline

Remarkable stories from Montana's historical highway markers combine with easy-to-follow maps, historical photos and sketches, and geological information to illuminate the paths of Montana's past and present. This guidebook alerts travelers about places that merit a stop and allows them to read about the site at their leisure. But even if time is short, travelers can refer to descriptions and historical photographs to learn about Montana's past as they journey across the state.

224 pages,
paper, ISBN: 10: 0-9759196-4-4, 13: 978-0-9759196, $13.95

More About This Title

Know of a good site for a Montana historical highway marker? Submit your idea.

Books of related interest available in the Guidebooks section.

Montana's State Capitol: The People's House

by Patricia M. Burnham, Kirby Lambert, and Susan R. Near

An imposing symbol, Montana's history.

Lavishly illustrated with both historic and modern photographs, Montana's State Capitol: The People's House provides a long overdue tribute to the crown jewel of Montana architecture. Essays explore the building of the Capitol and the creation of the sculpture and murals that adorn its halls-murals that include one of artist Charles M. Russell's most admired works. Published to honor the building on its centennial anniversary, Montana's State Capitol will provide readers with a fresh appreciation for this "Temple of Democracy."

112 pages, 88 illustrations
paper, ISBN 0-917298-83-7, $19.95

Praise for Montana's State Capitol
More About This Title

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

by Ellen Baumler

If ghosts are the restless spirits of those who died violently or in a state of unreadiness, then Montana's violent frontier history explains the richness and depth of these haunting stories. This wonderful collection-based on oral testimony, diaries, journals, and newspaper accounts-an eerie history of the state's legendary mining towns. In addition to their ghoulish intrigue, these stories combine to provide new perspectives and a great appreciation for Montana's past.

160 pages, illus.
paper, ISBN 0-917298-91-8, $15.95

A Traveler's Companion to Montana History

by Carroll Van West

Region by region this book gives you a roadside look at Montana's historical landscapes. Ideal armchair reading or keep in a day pack or glove box for travel reference. Illustrated with map and historical and contemporary photographs.

256 pages
paper, ISBN 0-917298-12-8, $10.95

Traveler's Guide to the Great Sioux War: The Battlefields, Forts, and Related Sites of America's Greatest Indian War

by Paul L. Hedren

Waged over the glitter of Black Hills gold, the Sioux War of 1876-77 transformed the entire northern plains from Indian and buffalo country to the domain of miners, cattlemen, and other Euramerican settlers. Keyed to official highway maps, this richly illustrated guide leads the traveler to virtually every principal landmark associated with the war, from Fort Phil Kearny where the Sioux besieged soldiers sent to guard the Bozeman Trail in the 1860s to Fort Buford, the site of Sitting Bull's surrender in 1881.

128 pages, maps, illus.
paper, ISBN 0-917298-38-1, $12.95

More About This Title

Books of related interest available in the Frontier Military section.