December 2024
Rachel Phillips
On December 6, 1956, the Gallatin County Tribune and Belgrade Journal announced the official beginning of the Christmas season. “Coincident with the drop in temperatures there was an appreciable rise in that intangible thing called Christmas…
November 2024
Memories of Early Montana Politics
Rachel Phillips
This Election Day, voters may appreciate a brief respite from current campaigns to hear about local politics in the early twentieth century. Roy Keister, a Democrat, and George Sinton, a Republican, were both interviewed by Lee Cooper in 1975 as part…
October 2024
Sydney Jones
On a cold fall night in Deer Lodge, Montana, the Old Montana Prison glows softly from the inside out. You can’t help but notice the enormous brick structure, sitting directly on Main Street in a small town of only 3,000. A chill greets your…
October 2024
Attempting to Solve a Historical Mystery
Rachel Phillips
The old 1911 Gallatin County Jail on Main Street is full of secrets. During its seventy-year use, the castle-like structure housed thousands of unwilling occupants during some of the grimmest times of their lives. When prisoners were relocated to a…
September 2024
Ken Walcheck
I’m a member of the Silent Generation, (1927-1945), a slice of history sandwiched between the Great Generation (1901-1926), and the Baby Boomers, (1946-1964).A 1951 essay in Time magazine coined people in the 1927-1945 age group as the Silent…
September 2024
Rachel Phillips
As automobiles became popular and affordable for Bozeman’s middle class in the first half of the twentieth century, a new type of business emerged that changed the local cityscape. Automobile service stations sprouted up around Bozeman –…
September 2024
East Side School to Art Deco Hub
Hawthorne School is a familiar sight to both locals and visitors alike. It sits at the prominent corner of Rouse and Mendenhall streets, visible to anyone heading into downtown from the north side or heading towards the Bridger mountains from Main…
August 2024
Rachel Phillips
One day in August of 2023, a man wandered into the Gallatin History Museum research center and introduced himself as Raphael Lang. He was trying to find information on his great-great-grandmother and asked if we could help him. He explained that he…
August 2024
Ken Walcheck
Touring Yellowstone National Park in the 1920’s by automobile was a spirited adventure in itself, especially if your touring vehicle was a 1920’s Model T Ford. The Model T was colloquially known by many during this era as a “Tin…
July 2024
Rachel Phillips
As a kid, one of my favorite summertime activities was helping my parents make homemade ice cream on the Fourth of July. We had a bright blue slatted wooden bucket with a hand crank and interior metal canister with wooden paddles. After filling the…
