May 2016
Day Trips Steeped in History
Cindy Shearer
Did you know the little Montana town of Ringling was named after the world-famous circus family, the Ringling Brothers? Or that one of the brothers, John, who was one of the richest men in America in the early 1900s, started a ranching empire there…
April 2016
Rachel Phillips
In a century-old photograph, William Ginn proudly poses with six gigantic trout, a hint of a smile on his lips and a sparkle in his eyes. In another image, he is propped up on a bicycle in front of a curtained backdrop, muscles straining for the…
March 2016
Politics, Poultry N’ Pottery
Cindy Shearer
Mabel Van Meter Cruickshank and her carpenter husband Pete settled in Bozeman in 1899; Mabel was 27. In Bozeman she reared their two sons, James and John, and found time to go back to school at Montana State College subsidizing their family income by…
February 2016
Cindy Shearer
Bozeman was not the original county seat for Gallatin County. In 1865, the first Montana Territorial Legislature established counties and designated Gallatin City, located near modern-day Three Forks, as the county seat. Gallatin City held that…
January 2016
Bozeman’s Choice Business or Structure You Wish Was STILL Here But Is Gone
Rachel Phillips
In 1922, the Rialto Theater opened for business in downtown Bozeman while the Roaring Twenties pop culture spread across America. In national entertainment news, Italian-born heartthrob Rudolph Valentino starred in the silent film Beyond the Rocks…
December 2015
Courtney Kramer
October 15 was my last day as Historic Preservation Officer for the City of Bozeman. Rather than the usual article about a place or person important in our community’s history, this article is a soliloquy on the state of cultural resource…
November 2015
The first Crow Indian Agency, or Fort Parker as it is commonly known, was established in 1869 to distribute the annuity goods promised to the Crow tribe in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Superintendent of Indians for Montana Territory, Alfred…
October 2015
Pat Hill, photos by Zach Hoffman
The Murray Hotel in Livingston has had many guests since it was first constructed over a century ago, and if the stories are to be believed, it could be that some of them have never left.Originally called the Elite Hotel when it was first constructed…
October 2015
Courtney Kramer
Bozeman generally prioritizes preservation of our historic buildings. Two demolitions, however, will haunt Bozeman contractors in the next year. Workers demolishing the existing bank building on the North West corner of West Mendenhall and North…
October 2015
Spiritualism in The Old West
Ramona Mead
Not all the stories in Bozeman’s past are those of triumph and positivity. There have been scandals, murders, and unsolved mysteries. This is the side of history often swept under the rug, but there is a group in town, comprised of history…
