Montana Historian 2018-2019

Montana

istori an H ISSUE 9

2018-2019

IN THIS ISSUE Belgrade, Montana Bozeman & the Gallatin Valley Philipsburg & Sapphire Gallery Haunted History

MONTANA HISTORIAN 2018

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WEST YELLOWSTONE AD FP

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IS IT THE MONTANA WATER OR IS IT THE BLOOD? Helping others is a way of life in Montana. In fact, the Montana environment demands we help each other. Winters can be severe, forest fires can be demolishing, the droughts can be crippling, and the economic challenges can be discouraging. However, Montanans help each other. It’s that simple.

Ed and Esther Randash experienced the Montana spirit of neighborly help when they became the first couple to deliver quadruplets in the state. Born at Holy Rosary Hospital in Miles City, Montana, the couple welcomed three girls and one boy on June 14, 1947. Delores Marie was born at 5:23am, weighing 2 pounds 15 ounces; Dean Miles was born at 5:51am, weighing 3 pounds 12 ounces; Dorothy Hilda was born at 5:57am, weighing 2 pounds 15 ounces; finally, Donna Mae was born at 6:04am, weighing 1 pound 12 ounces.

Within one hour, the Randash family went from being a family 0f three (mom, dad and Ed Jr., was 5) to family of seven. Ed and Esther had been told they were having triplets, but after the third baby was born, what doctors thought was the placenta being delivered was actually another baby! Sadly 56 hours after Donna Mae’s birth, she passed away. Esther’s mother Hilda, wrote in a letter that the passing of Donna Mae “was a blessing because she was so tiny. Her head was the size of a baseball. Baby clothes didn’t fit her and she was wrapped in cotton to bury her because she was so small.”

Citizens of Montana celebrated this historical achievement by lavishing the family with gifts ranging from $1,000 health insurance policies for each child, cribs, high chairs, booties, blankets, and cigars to a wringer washing machine that washed clothes and dishes. The Carnation Company donated a year’s worth of baby food. The babies were instant celebrities. People from across the United States wrote to the Randash family congratulating them and providing suggestions for baby names.

Indeed there was tremendous excitement for the quadruplets, but there were also tremendous hospital bills piling up. Ed’s small Dodge dealership in Baker Montana didn’t generate the amount of money required to pay for the intensive care of each baby; however, true to character, the citizens of Baker and Miles City set up collection jars in bars, grocery stores and offices to collect money. In the end, enough money was donated to pay the grand total hospital bill of $1,500.

Ed and Esther spent their lives helping others. Esther was involved in her church, where she taught Bible school, led Bible study groups, baked for bake sales and volunteered on the funeral committee. Ed was a volunteer fireman and took pride in going the extra mile with his customers. He gave his personal phone number to his customers so they could call him at any time of the day. He never wanted a person to be stranded late at night needing a water pump, or a farmer being halted during the critical time of harvest because his combine needed an engine part.

The Randash kids have upheld this tradition of helping one another by providing scholarships to high school graduates for the Billings Career Center, volunteering at community hospitals and churches, giving away school backpacks in August to school kids, sponsoring local non-profit

organizations, giving free turkeys away during Thanksgiving, sponsoring many youth sport organizations, helping with Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Walleyes Unlimited, and giving away bikes and coats at Christmas time.

Not only was the principle of helping one’s neighbor passed to every Randash child, but also the concept of being your own boss. As a result, each child grew up to be a business owner. Brothers George and Ed Randash opened the first Randash Motors in 1945 in Baker Montana.

George was in sales and Ed ran the shop. In fact, it was a car from the dealership that Ed drove the 81 miles, racing down the highway, from Baker to Miles City when his wife went into labor!

In 1960, Ed Randash moved from Baker to Great Falls, Montana to open a Napa Auto Parts store. Ed ran the stores until he retired in 1985 and Delores (quadruplet #1) and her husband took full ownership in 1985. The eldest Randash child, Ed Jr., opened a Champion Auto Parts store in Billings Montana in 1973 and then opened a Randash Auto dealership in 1987. Dean Randash (quadruplet #2) and his wife opened Napa Auto Parts stores in Livingston and Helena in the 1980s. Dorothy (quadruplet#3) and her husband own a farm in Highwood, Montana.

Also, the current owners of Randash Auto Bozeman and Randash Auto Billings are the sons of Ed Randash, Jr. The attraction to work in the auto industry for the Randash kids may derive from family influence, but the number of kids who have a true passion for cars can create a strong case of nature verses nurture. Many stories have been passed down from generation to generation of the Randash boys having a “knack” for mechanics and passion for cars. From Ed Sr. being a Master Sargent repairing Sherman tanks damaged in the battle field in World War II, Ed Jr. citing the make and models of cars from a very young age, along with his love in racing cars, to the current Randash Auto owner in Billings who started his career by owning an auto window tinting business. Not surprisingly, the youngest Randash boy, who is four years-old, became fascinated with anything that had wheels at the age of one, and he loves to line up his toys cars like a car lot.

Even though the saying “It’s in the blood” is cliché, it can hold some truth, especially when examining the Randash family.

Did Ed and Esther learn the importance of helping one another because they lived through the Great Depression, World War I and World War II, and experienced, firsthand, the reality of having to help and rely on your neighbor? Did their historical day in Baker Montana, when they were overwhelmed in gifts and generosity from complete strangers, set a new core standard in the way they wanted to give to others, or did this event simply confirm the core values of Americans and the importance of living to give to others? Whatever the explanations, Ed and Esther Randash lived their lives and raised their family by the commandment of loving thy neighbor as thyself. Family extends beyond blood, as Montanans we get this and so did Ed and Esther. _____________________________________ A special thanks to John Mayer for my inspiration from his song “In the Blood”. - R. Randash MONTANA HISTORIAN 2018

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Features 43

4 Life in Gallatin County’s Bear Canyon 8 Belgrade, Montana

Montana

Historian Publisher Mike Rey

Editor

Jessianne Castle

Online Director Chris Rey

12 Bozeman & the Gallatin Valley

Contributors

16 Philipsburg & Sapphire Gallery

Jessianne Castle

30 William Ginn 48 Brief History of Fly Fishing

Steven Feagler

Rachel Phillips Anne Marie Mistretta Eagle’s Family

54 Haunted History

Randash Auto

62 Hot Springs

State Farm

In This Issue 7

Montana Camp Antiques

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Bozeman Clinic

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Ron Allen Real Estate

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Midtown Tavern

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34

Ambiance Lighting

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Eagle’s Store in West Yellowstone

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Backcountry Adventures

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Randash Auto

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Second Impressions

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Montana Expressions

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Prime Mortgage Inc.

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State Farm Insurance

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Alpenglow Construction

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Bozeman Audi

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Historic Crail Ranch

Midwest Welding

Ron Allen

Ad Sales Mike Rey

Design

Swenson Design

Published By

Rey Advertising 3378 S. 22nd Ave Bozeman, MT 59718 406-539-1010 reyadvertising@q.com REYADVERTISING.COM

On The Cover

Roosevelt Arch, Yellowstone National Park Historic Postcard, courtesy of Yellowstone National Park

Opposite - from top clockwise: Photo courtesy

of Gallatin History Museum; Photo courtesy of Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections; Photo courtesy of Gallatin History Museum; Photo courtesy of Historic Crail Ranch Homestead Museum; Photo courtesy of Gallatin History Museum MONTANA HISTORIAN 2018 3

LOGS, SKIS AND STEAM ENGINES Life in Gallatin County'’s Bear CAnyon

BY RACHEL PHILLIPS

Today, Bear Canyon is generally quiet and peaceful. A dirt road gently winds up the canyon, passing homes, outbuildings and barns. New World Gulch Trail begins where the road ends, leading adventurous hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers on a six-mile trek to Mystic Lake. Today’s Bear Canyon and the surrounding area hides a fascinating past. An incredible variety of industries, institutions and activities have contributed to the unique history of this eastern edge of Gallatin County.

Life in the Bear Canyon/Mount Ellis area began early with the establishment of Fort Ellis. In April of 1867, John Bozeman and Thomas Cover left the Gallatin Valley and travelled east toward Fort C.F. Smith, hoping to secure flour contracts with the U.S. Army.

According to the official story at the time, the two men were in camp one night along the Yellowstone River when a small party of Blackfeet approached. As the story went, John Bozeman was killed in the ensuing skirmish, but Tom Cover survived, sparking a debate about what actually happened that night. Regardless of who killed John Bozeman, citizens of Bozeman City requested—and 4

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were granted—a nearby military fort. Construction of Fort Ellis began in the fall of 1867 on military reservation land a couple of miles east of town. Fort Ellis was located just west of today’s I-90 Bear Canyon Exit and Frontage Road now bisects the area.

The fort’s first commanding officer was Captain R. S. LaMotte, who supervised the construction of the first buildings and surrounding stockade. LaMotte’s command drew to a close just two years later, when his infantry force was replaced with four cavalry companies. Though Captain LaMotte’s residence in the Gallatin Valley was short-lived, his name was given to LaMotte School, which opened in 1894 and is still operating today at a location near the entrance to Bear Canyon.

Industry reached Bear Canyon during the railroad’s arrival in Montana in the 1880s. Early Bozeman businessman Walter Cooper began logging in the canyon to supply the Northern Pacific with railroad ties. Cooper established several logging camps in the Gallatin Valley, including the one in Bear Canyon. While his logging operation in the Gallatin Canyon was much larger, Cooper did build an impressive flume in Bear Canyon that stretched from

PHOTOS: Opposite: LaMotte School, circa 1899. Photo by George Carolus.

Left: A portion of the old Cooper flume in Bear Canyon, which ran from Bear Lake to Moffit Canyon. Photo by Frances Hoell, January 10, 1980.

Next page: Bear Canyon ski area, circa 1941-1945.

All photos courtesy of Gallatin History Museum

damaged for logging, ending Ike and Phill’s hopes of establishing a lumber empire in the canyon.

The Alldritts’ engine sat idle for the next 50 years, trapped in Bear Canyon’s New World Gulch at the foot of Mount Ellis. In March of 1972, Forsyth, Montana, resident Don Bradley and a hearty crew of volunteers forged a path up the gulch to the engine, and as the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported, returned “the engine to civilization again.” Thanks to modern machinery, the Avery’s trip down the mountain took four hours instead of 10 days. The steam engine finally made it all the way to Forsyth, and was restored.

Bear Lake to Moffet Canyon.

Isaac “Ike” and Phill Alldritt were lumbermen who also operated out of Bear Canyon in the early 20th century. Isaac was born in 1855 in Illinois. According to Bozeman’s City Directory of 189293, Alldritt arrived in Montana in 1880. He married Mary Copple in Gallatin County and their son, Phill, was born in the early 1890s. As a young adult, Phill helped operate the Park Lumber Company in Bear Canyon with his father.

In 1920, the Alldritts purchased an Avery steam engine for use at the sawmill site at Park Lumber Company, but it took another year for the engine to be transported to the camp. According to a 1970 Bozeman Daily Chronicle article titled “Monument to Bygone Age,” local resident John Carolus agreed to move the engine four miles up New World Gulch to Park Camp’s sawmill. Carolus was paid $100 for his trouble, but the four-mile trip up the mountain took 10 days.

Unfortunately, the engine’s use at the lumber camp proved to be short-lived. After only a few years, the lumber operation at Park Camp ceased due to the prevalence of damaged timber. About ten years earlier, in the summer of 1910, forest fires raged across the Northern Rockies, including parts of western Montana and the Gallatin Valley.

The well-documented forest fires of 1910 culminated in a massive conflagration as the winds picked up on August 20. By the 23rd, rain and snow in the higher elevations slowed the burning in Montana, Idaho and Washington. As the Alldritts discovered, even years later, the timber in Bear Canyon proved to be too badly

Besides logging operations, Bear Canyon was also home to an optimistic gold prospector or two in the late 19th century. Miner Henry Guilford occupied a small cabin in the canyon while he searched for gold in his nearby mine shaft. As the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported in the 1970 article, the one-legged Guilford was known to locals by his nickname, “Step and a half.” Guilford’s life remains somewhat of a mystery. According to his obituary that appeared in the Bozeman Courier on March 26, 1943, Guilford was born in 1854 in Iowa. He came to the Bozeman area from the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1891.

Several other families called the Bear Canyon/Mount Ellis area home, including the Greens, Murphys, Martinz and Hoells. One local resident, Maude Sharp Hoell, treasured her memories of growing up in Bear Canyon. Maude was born in 1902 in Iowa, but her family moved to the Gallatin Valley in 1910. She attended LaMotte School and made friends with other local children, including the Hoells, Jenkins, Woods and McCallisters. In her memoir, Recollections of 94 Years (prepared by Susan Metcalf in 1996), Maude remembered the time when her friend Elsie Phipps fell in a logging flume.

“There was a flume made out of wood to float logs down Bear Canyon,” her manuscript reads. “Logs were loaded on a freight train at the overpass. The water in the flume moved very fast to carry large logs, and Elsie was almost out of grabbing distance when someone snagged the hem of her dress.”

The Bear Canyon/Mount Ellis area was a close-knit community, and its residents knew how to have a good time.

According to Maude’s memoir, “When Maude [Hoell] was young, their entertainment was dancing. People would have dances and MONTANA HISTORIAN 2018

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everybody brought food. They always had a big Christmas dance when they danced until three or four in the morning. LaMotte School always had a big Christmas program and a huge Christmas tree.” Maude married Bill Hoell in March of 1930 and the couple made their home in Bear Canyon, where Maude spent the majority of her life.

In 1902, another school, Mount Ellis Academy, joined LaMotte to provide education in the area. Run by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Mount Ellis is still operating today as a private boarding school. In the 1970s, students at the school enjoyed a ski program at the local Bear Canyon ski hill and went to work improving the nearby recreation area by repairing the chair lift. The Bear Canyon Ski area actually began several decades before Mount Ellis acquired the property. In the 1930s, skiing became Bear Canyon’s major claim to fame. Members of the fledgling Bozeman Ski Club enjoyed the near-perfect downhill skiing slopes, and installed a homemade rope tow and ski jumps.

In addition to skiing, several clubs were established in the area and fostered a sense of community. The Rocky Creek 4-H Club taught local children valuable skills outside of the classroom and provided them with a social outlet. For fun, Rocky Creek 4-Hers went on picnics around Gallatin County and even constructed elaborate floats for Bozeman parades.

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The Fort Ellis Woman’s Club started in 1925 as a way to bring together the ladies of Bear Canyon, Fort Ellis and Kelly Canyon.

The women met once a month to swap stories, discuss local events, support charities, and enjoy refreshments. Dues money purchased greeting and sympathy cards for members, and each year the remaining money went to a local charity. The Fort Ellis Woman’s Club disbanded in 2005, after 80 years of fun.

Bear Canyon is a quieter place now. Fort Ellis closed in 1886, its buildings dismantled or moved to other locations. Downhill skiing at Bear Canyon gradually declined as the larger Bridger Bowl Ski Area increased in popularity in the 1960s and ’70s. However, signs of the past still remain—place names, abandoned buildings and equipment high in the mountains, and an enduring sense of community pride.

Rachel Phillips is the research coordinator at the Gallatin History Museum in Bozeman. Visit the Gallatin History Museum at 317 W. Main St., gallatinhistorymuseum.org or on Facebook. Research and photos for this story were made possible thanks to the collections at the Gallatin History Museum, which are open and available to the public.

MONTANA CAMP ANTIQUES

BY JESSIANNE CASTLE

Montana Camp Antiques, located 1 mile west of the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, is a 10,000-squarefoot showroom with a seemingly endless array of novelties, furniture, gifts, and more. The shop sits along the railroad tracks in Belgrade’s sleepy downtown strip, which still breathes the stories of a town built for agriculture and the iron horse.

Owner Debi Moro and sister Jackie Erickson, formerly of the Antique Market, have been in the business over 20 years.

Jackie’s eye for design gives the store a unique feel, and passing from the Yellowstone room, by the western and cabin rooms, to the Victorian and country rooms, is nothing short of a museum experience. The age-old whistle of a train rumbling by is simply icing on the cake.

For Debbie, one of the joys of the business is rooted in history. “We especially like old Montana items,” she said. “Objects owned by various groups of people from the past shed a light on our history, and show how fast times change.”

Montana Camp carries both old and new items, and offers goods from over 30 vendors. The sheer variety in both price point and in physical collection is sure to mean there is something for everyone.

Montana Camp A &G ntiques

ifts

Located 1 Mile West of Bozeman Yellowstone Airport on Main Street Belgrade.

Open Mon.-Sat. 10-5 • 26 East Main Street • Belgrade, Montana 59714 • 406-388-0722

montanacampantiques.com

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BELGRADE: The Hub of the Valley

BY JESSIANNE CASTLE

While the new residents of Bozeman were settling swampy ground in the 1880s, Bozeman realtor Thomas Buchanan Quaw was narrowing his sites on a natural gravel bed about 10 miles west of town. He thought the rocky ground would make for a better building site and the central location within the valley could improve agricultural trade.

after hearing Serbian investors from the Northern Pacific proclaiming the area resembled their capital city.

Throughout the valley, farmers and producers were busy developing their beef, dairy and crop systems, providing necessary goods to the mining cities nearby. Quaw capitalized on this industry, selecting a townsite near the newly built Northern Pacific line.

In order to attract homesteaders to the new town, Quaw held a winter ball on New Year’s Eve, 1886. Two hundred couples flocked to the party, dancing well into the morning.

Quaw advertised the new town as “the Hub of the Valley,” saying that “Belgrade in five years will outvote Bozeman.”

The businessman named this new development Belgrade

Growth did come to Belgrade, though a severe fire attempted

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The townsite was filed in 1881 and six years later, the post office and telegraph office were established. By the end of that year, 1887, fourteen addresses had phone lines as well.

to stamp it out.

In the year 1900, the Belgrade hotel caught fire and flames rapidly spread up and down the street. When it was finally put out, the fire had consumed all or part of the hotel, post office, saloon, barber shop, and blacksmith shop.

Bozeman’s Avant Courier reported on Sept. 22, 1900, that “ The buildings were all frame structures and burned like a pile of shavings in the absence of any appliances to fight the flames.” A few years later, water was brought in from Ross Creek with wooden pipes to supply water for drinking as well as put out any new flames.

Right about that time, Belgrade residents began to stir, the idea of an established city hot on their minds. In 1906, the little settlement incorporated officially as a city, ushering further growth and business development.

With a steady influx of westering pioneers, Belgrade business boomed. Nelson Story’s grain elevator “Big Red”, a second addition to his operation in Bozeman, flourished in proximity to so many grain farmers and in 1902 the Gallatin Valley Milling Company built a new elevator and flouring mill that became the biggest plant in the area. By 1906, there were five grain elevators in the area.

While Belgrade came to be known within the Gallatin Valley for its agricultural community, the town garnered national notoriety in the early 1900s.

In 1889, a black-and-white calf was born on Jim Ballard’s ranch on Dry Creek, just north of town. This little guy, likely a Holstein dairy cow, was raised by hand and came to be known as Corbett, the Belgrade Bull, for his success in throwing gutsy riders from his back.

Corbett was named after “Gentleman Jim” Corbett, a

PHOTOS: Opposite: Belgrade circa 1800s.

Above: A winter view of downtown Belgrade, circa 1910. The view is looking east on Main Street. The two-story, brick Belgrade State Bank building stands on the far side of an intersection at the left, at the beginning of a row of buildings and storefronts that stretches into the background along the left side of the street. People stand on the boardwalk that stretches in front of the row of buildings, and a row of electric poles stands along the edge of the street. A sleigh, drawn by a two-horse team, drives up the street toward the camera, and two large grain elevators stand in the background.

All photos courtesy of Gallatin History Museum

national championship heavyweight boxer, and he enjoyed a national reputation in 1910 when his story was featured in the Saturday Evening Post. Corbett’s fame for being unrideable carried well into the 1930s and ’40s, and for a time, he toured the U.S. as a part of a wild west show. After 1949, stories began to fade about Belgrade’s Corbett the bucking bull.

While Corbett’s notoriety eventually diminished, the town of Belgrade has maintained its reputation as an agricultural community. Today, businesses are still centralized around the nearby railroad tracks and farmers bring their grain to the Columbia Grain elevator in the middle of town. With a population of nearly 7,500 in 2010, Belgrade continues to grow in the shadow of Bozeman development.

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The Bozeman Clinic Serving Patients in the Gallatin Valley Since 1930

Some of the most important people in a town are its physicians, and doctors have been calling Montana home since its earliest days. From working at military outposts to running modern hospitals, medical professionals touch every part of the region’s history. One of the longest continually operated medical providers is the Bozeman Clinic, which has called Bozeman home since the beginning of the 1930s.

Dr. Bernard Heetderks started the Heetderks Clinic in Bozeman in 1930 after taking over Dr. Clem Seerley’s local practice. Dr. Heetderks trained in medicine in Chicago before heading off to serve his country in France during World War I. Following the war, he worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad hospital, treating the workers laying the tracks to connect the country.

In 1936, Dr. Roland G Scherer joined his brother-in-law at the Heetderks Clinic following his work for the Mayo Clinic. The doctors practiced together for two decades until Dr. Scherer departed in 1955.

By then, Dr. Heetderks’ son, John, had finished medical school and was ready to join his father at the clinic. Dr. John had previously served in the Navy before studying at Montana State University and the University of Minnesota, where he earned his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1954.

Following his education, Dr. John decided to join his father back in Bozeman. Though it remained a family business, they renamed the clinic The Bozeman Clinic, cementing its connection with the town.

Soon thereafter in 1957, another son, Dr. Albert De Heetderks – known as Dr. De – united with his family at the clinic. Dr. De also studied at Montana State and the University of Minnesota. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Science and M.D. from Stanford University in 1954.

The father and two sons continued to practice together, often dressing in a suit and tie to make house calls or deliver babies in the middle of the night.

In fact, Dr. Heetderks mixed many of his own medicines for patients 10

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using meticulous notes he kept in a small notebook. Such was a doctor’s life on the frontier.

The family continued to practice together until 1969, when the eldest Dr. Heetderks passed away at age 74. His sons continued to grow and modernize the practice through the years, offering a broad range of medical care and surgical procedures.

Writing about the Clinic in the 1980s, the doctors noted that The Bozeman Clinic “offered quality diagnostic and treatment facilities including a clinical laboratory, with registered laboratory personnel; a radiology department with hospital grade diagnostic x-ray equipment including [an] image intensifier under the direction of registered x-ray technicians.”

Dr. De retired in 1987 and left the clinic in the hands of his brother.

Dr. John continued the practice until 1995, by which time the number of physicians had grown and they were ready to take the reins. Dr. Gabor Benda joined the clinic in 1989 and was joined by Drs. David McLaughlin, Larry Sonnenberg and Leonard Ramsey before Dr. John retired.

Today, the clinic has expanded to seven physicians specializing in the full spectrum of medical care for the whole family. The clinic has added Drs. Heather Wheeler, Steven Roberts and Christine Mitchell to provide a unique breadth of individualized care under the banner of a single practice. The Bozeman Clinic offers everything from pregnancy care to minor surgical procedures, continuing the clinic’s long tradition of offering compassionate care to the Bozeman community.

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A PLACE OF COMMON GROUND Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley

BY JESSIANNE CASTLE PHOTOS COURTESY OF GALLATIN HISTORY MUSEUM

If you listen, you can still hear the whispers of Bozeman’s past.

Carefully shaped spear and arrow points found in the Bridger Mountains tell the tale of early people, likely spending their summer and fall in the high country some 11,000 years ago. The remains of bison discovered in groups at two sites north and west of town suggest that indigenous peoples may have driven the buffalo into corrals they constructed for the harvest. And the oral stories of tribal historians describe a Gallatin Valley that was a place of common ground.

“From what I understand, Bozeman wasn’t anyone’s territory,” said Brad Hall, a Blackfeet historian and the current Institutional Researcher at the Blackfeet Community College in Browning.

“It was an important watershed, held in common by many tribes.

Bozeman wasn’t agriculturally developed as it is today; however, it was developed in the understanding that there were abundant resources available.”

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Hall described the three forks of the Missouri River, adding that the coming of the rivers was also a place of biodiversity where many plants and animals flourished and many tribes came together.

“Economics didn’t start with the Europeans,” he said, adding that the Gallatin Valley was a place where tribes gathered to trade food stuffs and other desirable items from others. Trade also included the relational exchange of ideas and knowledge, essential to survival and maintaining networks that persisted through generations.

“It was a fluid system where anyone could be involved, therefore, inequities were very rare,” Hall said. “It’s pretty likely that that economic system was very robust, and everything depended on relationships.”

In 1805, William Clark and Meriwether Lewis stopped at the three forks of the Missouri after eight months of upstream travel

and a winter spent among the Mandan people near present-day Bismarck, North Dakota.

They named each fork after gentlemen of the states—President Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the State James Madison, and Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.

The young Shoshone woman Sacagawea helped to guide this Corps of Discovery, recognizing familiar landmarks and eventually suggesting the way from what would be the Gallatin Valley to the Yellowstone River. In Clark’s journal, he described Sacagawea’s early memories of buffalo, plentiful across the valley, and he said she pointed him through a gap in the Bridger Mountains to the south, a low pass known today as the Bozeman Hill.

Ultimately, Lewis and Clark returned to Saint Louis after their exploration of Louisiana Territory, bringing word of their adventures to the states.

Fur traders and trappers made their way up the Missouri in the first half of the 1800s, finding friend and foe along the way.

According to Hall, tensions developed in the Gallatin Valley region as European settlement displaced local tribes and monopolized resources.

“They weren’t warring people necessarily. They did defend their territory and its resources, but they didn’t engage in full-scale warfare until [European] encroachment,” he said. “We were trying to survive. When you have tribes trying to survive in an area that was traditionally common ground, it increases that resolve for territoriality when newcomers have differing ideas of subsistence and land use. The U.S. Military intervention in the Gallatin Valley precipitated the Indian Wars, however this timeframe was just a blink of the eye compared to the long-standing relationship tribes had before then.”

He added that tribal lifestyles underwent drastic changes both socially and economically during this time, as tribal lands and resources diminished to accommodate settlement of the west.

Mountain men such as John Colter, who ran naked across the valley, pursued by Blackfeet defending their hunting grounds, and

Jim Bridger, a pioneer guide who later led wagon trains through his mountain namesake, moved in and out of the area, spreading stories along the way.

Naturalists came next, and the region struck awe in those such as PierreJean DeSmet, a Belgian Jesuit who spotted gold in Virginia City’s Alder Gulch and was amazed by the grizzly bear, and Joseph Burke, an English naturalist who wrote about the rumored boiling waters upstream on the Yellowstone River, though he did not make the journey to see them himself.

By midcentury, the move was on in the West and an assortment of westering people set foot in Gallatin Valley “to see the elephant”—a popular phrase used to describe gaining worldly experience at a significant cost.

Many filtered in searching for gold—a twentyseven-year-old John M. Bozeman left his home in Pickens County, Georgia, looking for color in the streams, first catching the fever in Colorado then turning north to Gold Creek near present Drummond, Montana, before coming to Gallatin Valley.

One thousand men were at Grasshopper Creek in 1862 in search of gold near an area eventually named Bannack City. By the end of 1863, roughly six thousand miners sought gold in Alder Gulch some sixty miles away.

It wasn’t long before the influx spilled over to the three forks.

Looking to make a profit by growing produce and grains that would supply the miners, farmers from the states took advantage of Gallatin Valley’s fertile soil.

In 1862, Frank J. Dunbar and his brother Thomas built the first white residence in the valley. Undressed cottonwood logs made up the eighteen- by twenty-foot cabin, which would later act as hotel and meeting place for Gallatin City near present-day Three Forks.

About that same time, John Bozeman set out with guide John M. Jacobs to find a shorter route from the states to Bannack and Virginia City. Their route, which was later known as the Bozeman Trail, crossed the Gallatin Valley following Clark’s trail, eventually making way to wagon trains in Wyoming. As was often the case, the trailblazers paid little attention to the fact that their route MONTANA HISTORIAN 2018

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Montana’s unruly weather treated many a new settler with hail unknown in the East, chilly interruptions to warm summer days, and variable rainstorms that could suddenly disappear.

Farmers dug ditches to irrigate their crops, brought in selections of seed hauled by steamboat and wagon, and explored with livestock breeds in order to find those hardy enough for Montana’s unforgiving hand.

A view of Main Street in Bozeman, Montana. Looking east circa early 1930s. The photo shows Main Street from 3rd and Main.

The Baxter Hotel & Story Motor Company are clearly visible on the left side of the photo, with the City Meat Market and Oxford Hotel on the right. Many other businesses are seen in the far ground. The street is lined with automobiles, many are parked on either side of the street at 45 degree angles and there are over 20 cars driving done the busy street. Many pedestrians are visible on the sidewalk on either side. Other Business signs which are seen are: Smith Furniture, The Ellen Theater, The Michigan Hotel, The Electric Shoe Repair, Has written in white on lower left corner (West Main Street, Bozeman). City Meat Market first listed in City Directories around 1930. B. H. Alexander photo.

entered lands reserved by treaty for the Crow, Sioux and Cheyenne.

Bozeman made plans with William J. Beall and Daniel E. Rouse, gentlemen he met in Virginia City, to develop a town farther up valley from Gallatin City in 1864. Despite swampy ground and beaver dams, the men determined the southeast location was surrounded by even richer farm ground than that of Gallatin City.

Beall and Rouse platted the town, which became the county seat in 1867. Four north-south running streets and four streets running east and west completed the first grid and during that first year, it cost $1 to record a land claim.

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In 1865, area farmers harvested twenty thousand bushels of wheat and two years later, that feat was dwarfed when three hundred thousand bushels were sent to market. Sheep, cattle, and thoroughbred horses brought from Europe grazed the native grasses where bison had been before.

Samuel E. Lewis, a black native of Haiti, made his home in Bozeman in 1868, as did other black families from the states.

Lewis worked as a barber out of his shop and bath house on the south side of East Main Street in Lewis Block, a structure he built that housed a number of other businesses as well.

Margaret Macumber became the first woman to file for a homestead in the Montana Territory in 1870, for which she paid ten dollars to acquire land southwest of Bozeman.

The new community feared conflict with the local tribes and after John Bozeman’s death in 1867—purportedly at the hands of the Blackfeet—the U.S. government established Fort Ellis east of the town. With additional efforts by the government, which included forced relocations to designated Indian reservations, it wasn’t long before the presence of native peoples faded from the landscape.

Ushering in further settlement, the Northern Pacific Railroad laid track leading from Livingston to Bozeman and in March of 1883, the first locomotive came barreling into town along a temporary rail line set while laborers—often Chinese—built a tunnel through the Bozeman Pass. Once completed in January of the following year, the tunnel marked the highest point on the Northern Pacific line from Lake Superior to Puget Sound: 5,562 feet.

A street-level view of Main Street, Bozeman, October 17, 1957. The view is looking west from the intersection of Main and Rouse.

The Bozeman Hotel is in view in the foreground at the right, cars line the sides of the street, and the Baxter Hotel and Holy Rosary Catholic Church are visible in the background at the far end of the street. A 1957 Chevy station wagon, with emergency light on top, sits in front of City Hall.

Telephone service also came to the valley in 1884, with electricity following in 1886.

With Montana statehood in 1889, towns quickly began to vie for the state capitol. In 1893, after Helena won out over Anaconda and Bozeman, Montana’s legislature christened the Montana College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts on the property originally intended for the state capitol in Bozeman.

During the last decades of the nineteenth century, Bozeman was becoming a recognizable foundation for what it is today—although the daily challenges have certainly changed. The notoriously muddy Main Street was navigated by pedestrians on wooden plank sidewalks, while four-horse teams pulled wagons from the gumbo.

Women sewed black ruffles to the bottom of their dresses, which could easily be removed for cleaning.

In 1908, two years after the first Sweet Pea Carnival, several blocks of Main Street were paved with cement to reduce the summer dust. At that time a trolley line was extended to Salesville (Gallatin Gateway) from the 1892 route on Main, with stops at the Patterson Ranch, Ferris Hot Springs (Bozeman Hot Springs), Chapman, and Blackwood, to name a few.

Businesses quickly opened shop in the blossoming downtown and a sparse few have remained in operation. In 1881, Michael Langohr began selling vegetables, an iteration of which still exists as Langohr’s Flowerland flower shop. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle began publishing in January of 1883, though the original weekly paper was called the Bozeman Chronicle. E.J. Owenhouse and Frank L. Benepe Sr. started the Benepe Owenhouse Company

as a hardware store in 1890, which is recognized today as Owenhouse Ace Hardware. And the Pray Lumber Company was acquired by Squire C. Kenyon in 1892, taking the name Kenyon Noble in 1906.

Over the years, the story of Bozeman has remained relatively unchanging, with growth as the underlying plot while the main characters continue to be people transfixed by the area. Whether for the economic potential, agricultural boons, or grandeur of the region, Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley remain a place that attracts, ultimately drawing individuals who seek common ground.

PHOTOS FROM PREVIOUS PAGES: Main Street in Bozeman, looking east, circa 1873. A train of Conestoga wagons drives east down the center of the dirt street, which is lined by buildings on both sides. A large brick building stands at the right side of the street, the brick Metropolitan Hotel is visible in the background on the left, and all of the other buildings appear to be of wood construction. A few wagons and horse teams are stopped in front of the store in the left foreground, and a rifle, mounted on the awning above the boardwalk, and serving as a sign, is visible just behind the wagons.

Portrait: John Bozeman

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Reviving Philipsburg’s Stamp Mill Tradition For the last several years, the Granite County Historical Society has been erecting a stamp mill on the east end of Broadway, at the old James Stuart or Hope mill site. The stamp mill, which was moved in pieces from the Royal Gold Mine near Princeton, is intended to be the centerpiece of a historical park with exhibits explaining Philipsburg’s mining heritage.

A stamp mill is an ore processing plant that uses pistons (the stamps) lifted by a camshaft and then falling on the rock to break it up and liberate the valuable minerals, such as native gold or silver sulfide, from the worthless material, such as quartz. Various mechanical and chemical processes are then used to concentrate the valuable minerals into a saleable form. If this description seems obscure it would be best to see the stamps actually working in one of the demonstrations planned by GCHS… yes, unlike many other stamp mill exhibits, this one is operational!

In the 19TH century there were at least 290 stamps pounding away day and night on the silver ores of the Philipsburg district.

However, beginning about 100 years ago, miners replaced stamps with more efficient rotating grinders (like ball mills) and the old banks of stamps have become rare.

When members of GCHS conceived the idea of a historical park, the Antonioli family stepped forward to provide a site, and Dave Harris and Paul Antonioli stepped forward to provide stamps and other equipment from their Royal Gold Mine east of Maxville. Many were involved in fetching the equipment, cleaning up the site, putting in foundations, erecting the battery, and making the whole thing functional, with Dave Harris guiding the process along with the steady assistance of Jim Waldbillig. Larry Hoffman spearheaded the transport of the equipment and the initial engineering of the foundation, while Phil Richardson and Bill Antonioli provided technical assistance in the tricky process of making the parts work together in the new installation.

The site chosen to host the mill has a rich history directly involving the development of the Flint Creek Mining District. A century and a half ago, in the summer of 1867, the town of Philipsburg sprang up, practically overnight, as a construction boomtown – housing, feeding and

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entertaining a workforce of hundreds of men who were building the first silver mill in Montana, immediately east of our modern stamp mill exhibit.

If we took a trip in a time machine to check this out, we would be impressed at how familiar Philipsburg looks, with businesses in restored buildings all along Broadway, and residential side streets named, as they are today, after the streets of San Francisco—the Superintendent’s home town.

Following Camp Creek a little ways west, we come to the dairy farm and washeteria of Kate Perry, the town’s only woman resident, who is accumulating a small fortune washing miners’ shirts and selling them milk. Let’s let Kate speak for herself, from a letter she wrote years later, recounting her experiences as a pioneer.

“Now mind there was not another woman in the camp or within twenty miles of me. When I relate this story here now they ask me,“Were you not afraid of the men?” No indeed, God Bless the miners, a better class of men never lived.”

Near the east end of Broadway we meet one of the best regarded of these miners - Hector Horton, who staked the first claim in the district. The front door of Horton’s cabin faces up the gulch, straight toward a small prospect a few hundred feet away, the Cordova lode, that he discovered in the Summer of 1865. Looking east up Camp Creek, Horton points out the claim of his friend William Graham, atop the big spring that would eventually serve as the water supply for the town brewery. Smart guy!

Now, our attention is drawn to the impressive stone structure under construction about half way between Horton’s cabin and Graham’s spring.

This is the mill of the St. Louis and Montana Mining Company, designed and laid out (like the town itself, according to Kate Perry) by the famed German mining engineer Philipp Deidesheimer. The overall supervision is provided by a company director, James Stuart, a man of great energy and drive, and the man for whom the mill is named. Assisting Deidesheimer is a large crew of mining and construction professionals, laborers, loggers, carpenters, stone masons, machinists, and teamsters.

For a description, we turn to the Report of mining engineer Rossiter Raymond to Congress for 1869.

The James Stuart mill at Phillipsburg, built in 1867 for silver ores, is a stone building; engine, 50 horsepower; boilers, 40-inch diameter and 20 feet long; runs ten stamps, 650 pounds each; six Wheeler pans, 4 feet in diameter, and three concentrators, 8 feet in diameter; stamps and pans are geared to make from 60 to 75 drops and revolutions per minute. Capacity from 12 to 15 tons per twenty-four hours, according to quality of ore. It has crushed about 1,000 tons of quartz in all, which yielded about $100,000. The rock worked was principally croppings and ore taken from near the surface. The mill is now idle, awaiting repairs of crank and cylinder. It cost, all told, about $75,000, currency, and is considered the best mill in the Territory. It is situated in Flint Creek district, which first became generally known in the winter of 1866.

Many components of the mill, including 10 stamp heads, 2 battery boxes, flywheel, and a 12x24 steam engine, were shipped by boat from the Marshall foundry in St. Louis to Fort Benton in April of 1866. Pans and settlers were purchased from the Miner’s Foundry in San Francisco. The original plan was to set up a mill at the Argenta silver district near Dillon, but the equipment was diverted to Flint Creek early in 1867. A later description by W.H. Emmons for the US Geological Survey says that a Blake jaw crusher was installed ahead of the stamps, and that a “mixing floor”, where mercury, salt, and copper sulfate were mixed with the ore, was present between the settlers and the pans.

Perhaps it was a good omen of things to come that when it came time to name their town along Camp Creek.“…The name of Phillipsburgh was unanimously adopted by the miners, Philip being the Christian name of Mr. Deidesheimer, principal Superintendent of the St. Louis

and Montana Mining Co., a gentleman whose urbanity of manners and scientific attainments have won the respect and good will of everybody.

Phillipsburgh, Flint Creek District, June 22, 1867.” They had good reason to be proud of their work and their boss, as the mill they built together ran with only small modifications to Deidesheimer’s original design for the next 40 years, even during the silver crash of 1893, and was a mainstay of the local economy.

Given its pioneering nature and the difficulty of getting equipment from San Francisco and St. Louis onto the site, it should not be surprising that there were cost overruns. Surviving correspondence relates complaints

by James Stuart that Deidesheimer spent too freely and paid the crew building the mill far too much, and before 1867 ended, Deidesheimer had been forced out as Superintendent. Stuart’s subsequent mistakes in managing the mill led to financial disaster. The St. Louis and Montana Mining Company disappeared, the creditors took over, and a new company called the Hope Mining Company would carry on. The renamed “Hope mill” would provide returns totaling many times the

initial expense. But the greatest stroke of fortune for the Hope’s investors was when their mill Superintendent, Charles D. McLure, brought them in on the ground floor when he developed the great bonanzas of the Granite and Bimetallic mines. These mines paid off beyond their wildest dreams, and amply justified the new name–Hope –that they had chosen for their mill and their enterprise.

Images, clockwise from top right: Restored battery stamp, Mill equipment drawing, James Stuart, Royal Mill stamp, Hope Mill, Mill stamp, Philipp Deidesheimer.

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Prohibition Memories of a Young Boy

When Montana repealed its state prohibition enforcement law in 1926, Philipsburg voted over two to one for repeal. This left enforcement of federal law completely to the federal agencies from Seattle. Local law officers were unconcerned to the point of occasionally having a drink with the residents. Although seven saloons had closed their doors by December 31, 1918, at least three moonshine joints and a number of freelance sales agents sprang up. Home brewing also had its followers. Bottle cap sales at just one of the local hardware stores were over 22,000 in 1928 with unknown amounts from other vendors and mail order. Home brew could be had over the counter at the Red Onion, formerly located on the corner next to the McClees Building, the Busy Bee (now the White Front Bar), or Big Pete’s (now the Town Hall). The tunnel under the alley into the basement of the Busy Bee is an overheard but unconfirmed story of local lore.

Some of the more prosperous bootleggers and moonshiners, often upstanding businessmen of the town, were quite willing to regularly contribute to civic causes and maintain their generous reputations.

Moonshining was an ongoing activity with some of the operators actually acquiring a good reputation for quality, but fines of $250 and thirty to sixty days in jail was the sentence for those convicted. In 1922 a single raid at a cabin near Tower, netted two 80 gallon stills and one 60 gallon running full blast. However, juries of peers and relatives often returned not guilty verdicts. One proprietor having his moonshine joint closed and padlocked of an evening had a new location open in the next block the following morning. Another managed to keep his joint open and operating while serving sixty days in the state penitentiary.

According to a living Philipsburg resident who grew up during prohibition through his teen years, recycling is not new. The young boys in town, upper grade school age, would scavenge the local dump for pint and half 18

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pint flasks to sell to the proprietors with moonshine connections. The boys also collected fifths and coveted flasks with tapered necks and corks for closure, thin enough to fit unseen in an overcoat pocket. Picking up information “when their folks were talking,” the lads had to know which establishment to approach, because to be paid one dollar per flask in 1927 was quite worth the digging.

Times were tough and the sales helped with the income at home.

One secondhand merchant would stockpile the flasks in the back room until there were enough to refill. A couple of the brasher young boys would work their way to the back of the store and retrieve some of the flasks they had just sold, only to return a few days later and sell them to the merchant again.

The repeal of prohibition gave the bars cause for celebrations and attracted big crowds for several months. The cases of hard liquor and barrels of beer began arriving by train. After-shifters were the standard–if you bought a beer, a shot was free. Hard working and drinking miners often worked their way down the street one beer and shot at a time. One family, who bought beer by the lard bucket to take home, greased the upper several inches of the inside of the bucket. Proprietors considered your pail full when the foam reached the top of the rim. The lard greasing kept the foam down giving the purchasers more beer to the bucket.

The bars only allowed men and boys. An adjacent lounge served the ladies and wives. These lounges were usually quite well appointed and luxurious and were the standard in all the bars in Philipsburg. Gradually, the men began bringing their wives into the bars and the lounges became a thing of the past or became dining rooms. This background comes down to the present day with many P-burgers still enjoying the occasional stout drink.

(See Historic Walking Tour #19 – Beley and Delery Saloon and #43 – Cartier Building)

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PRESERVING THE PAST ENJOYING THE PRESENT EMBRACING THE FUTURE As Philipsburg celebrates its 150TH year this summer, interest in its early origins and colorful history as one of the Rockies’ booming silver and sawmill towns prevails. However, for all the stories from the heyday of western mining, the tale of the last quarter century in Philipsburg is perhaps the most compelling.

above; Broadway Street 1957, below;1957; Broadway Street 2010 Above: Broadway Street Below: Broadway Street 2010

Commodities like metals and lumber are always subject to the vagaries of economic times and government regulations. While silver drove the mining efforts in Granite County, its value fluctuated wildly during the town’s first century. Other minerals helped keep things humming.

Manganese ore, newly vital to dry cell batteries and steel production, became a huge revenue source during World War I. The nearby Anaconda copper smelter produced well-paying jobs for local residents.

Two sawmills operated at high volume, cutting upwards of 40 million board feet of lumber from the national forests. It would not last.

By the time Philipsburg celebrated 120 years in 1987, the economy needed a boost…or two. The Opera House Theatre—oldest operating theatre in the state—opened showing movies. The box office receipts were so minimal in 1989, Hollywood sent an auditor to count attendees.

The once proud, 3-story Courtney Hotel across the street, built in 1918 during the flush manganese days, stood empty, unheated, and a shadow of the former glamorous establishment. The Sayrs building hosted a thrift shop rent-free courtesy of the local bank. It was one of several bank-owned buildings from a decade of closed mines and shuttered sawmills.

The economic downturn got an assist from the Montana winter weather in 1989. The huge, vacant, and unheated Mercantile Building could not withstand the extreme cold. The floors buckled into waves of twisted wood. Any unheated building experienced similar damage. Homes sold for what economy cars cost in other parts of the country. To take a chance on any of the empty downtown buildings meant high risk.

Pburg—The Come-back Kid The town “founded on hope” found hope again. In 1991, the bank paid local painters to spend the summer bringing the iconic Sayrs building back from the brink. Blessed with a Mesker Brothers metal front, the weathered facade gave way to ornamental flourishes and colors from its heyday. Its good bones and corner location were perfect for the future microbrewery. Owners began fixing up their own pieces of history. Paint, determination, and lots of “elbow grease” went into sprucing up the historic downtown. In1992, new owners of the Mercantile Building restored heat to the lower level and welcomed the H&R Thrift Store. The Sapphire Gallery opened and public projects brought more progress to town.

Donated by the local bank to a community group, the Courtney Hotel became a museum and meeting venue. Local voters, faced with a ballot to renovate the 1889 grade school or build new, opted for history. Today, the school is the oldest operating in the state. In 1998, citizens lobbied federal officials to keep the post office downtown and the USPS constructed a new facility. The brick exteriors of the post office and remodeled Granite Mountain Bank fit the town’s National Historic District aesthetic.

The Opera House Theatre with its original seats and great acoustics brought back live theater and popular music events in 1999. The Sweet Palace opened in 1998 and Schnibbles in 2001. The renovation of The 20

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Broadway Hotel finished in 2003. The Rotary Club initiated a large project in 2004—Winninghoff Park. Local volunteers restored and expanded the ice rink to NHL-size, terraced a 3000-capacity seating area into the hill above the rink, and built a large warming house with rent-free skating equipment. The park hosts hockey tournaments, local events, and summer concerts.

Best in the West The list goes on of projects, people, and businesses who saved the community’s most critical currency—hope. The promotional work of businesses brought more visitors pleasantly surprised by the continued polishing of this mountain gem. In 1998, Montana’s first award for Tourism Community of the Year went to Philipsburg and the following decade brought even more recognition and awards. Local and national magazines and news networks feature the town regularly.

A recent award shows Pburg’s ability to punch above its weight—Sunset magazine’s 2015 Best Municipal Makeover Award. The criteria required finding the best municipal makeover in a community of “advanced excellence and innovation.” Of five finalists, three came from California (Alameda, Sacramento, and Ventura), one from Nevada (Reno), and the fifth finalist—Philipsburg, population 840. Among cities dwarfing Pburg by up to 600 times its size and using federal and state funds to overcome economic hardship, the story of Philipsburg’s reinvention was unique.

There had been no government plan, no grant money, or tax revenue woven into the process. It was simply a story of one significant victory after another.

Philipsburg took first place; capping a quarter century of hardship, care and hard work that led to a dynamic, historic downtown listed in the National Register of Historic Places and a well-earned reputation as a wonderful place to live or visit. Enjoy this story as you walk the sunny, flower-filled sidewalks. The recognition as the “Best in the West” by one of the West’s most respected publications just makes the stroll all the sweeter.

RON ALLEN: Your Advocate for Bozeman Real Estate Transactions From majestic snow-capped peaks in every direction, to a vibrant community hosting a variety of recreation, dining, and entertainment opportunities, it’s easy to see why so many seek to make Bozeman their home. While the decision to own a home and live in Bozeman is an easy one, the process of achieving that goal is often more bewildering. When buying or selling a home in the Bozeman area, many turn to Ron Allen at Aspire Reality. Upon completion of a nearly fortyyear career in the mining industry, Ron had no desire to settle down and watch the grass grow. As a lifelong resident of southwestern Montana who was driven by a desire to continue building relationships and help people navigate complex processes, Ron decided to begin a career in real estate.

Having worked in Montana as a licensed real estate agent for 10 years, Ron Allen is well versed in helping buyers and sellers achieve their goals. This profound knowledge, combined with the services offered through working with an Aspire Reality Broker, make Ron the most valuable asset you will have throughout your real estate transaction; knowing the value of a reliable broker who can not only lead you through your current transaction, but serve as a resource for years to come, he is Bozeman’s premier broker. When it comes time to buy or sell, Ron Allen is available at (406)600-6734 to answer any questions, and guide you through the complex world of real estate transactions.

Being a licensed agent for the last decade, and broker for the previous six-years, Ron Allen is intimately familiar with the Bozeman area real estate market. Having worked as a broker in a variety of market climates, he has the experience necessary to help buyers and sellers through every step of the process. In addition to the experience which Ron brings his clients, as an Aspire Reality team-member, he has a variety of beneficial tools at his disposal such as complimentary home staging, a feature which often decreases the time a home is on the market while achieving a higher selling price.

In addition to his experience in the Bozeman area market and the plethora of support that operating through Aspire Reality brings, one of the foremost services Ron Allen offers clients is his aptitude and desire to build long-lasting relationships.

While the magnitude of a current real estate transaction often limits people from envisioning their next, many people carry out multiple transactions throughout their lives. From former first-time home buyers now in the process of acquiring a rental property, to expanding families seeking a larger space, many clients who have worked with Ron years ago return when looking to expand or contract their real estate portfolio.

Those who have worked with him recognize how much of an asset an experienced and trustworthy advocate can be throughout the home buying process at any stage in life. Ron recognizes that in a community the size of Bozeman, you rarely see a client only once, and feels an obligation to utilize every resource available to find the best options for his clients every time.

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MIDTOWN TAVERN CHEF FINDS BALANCE OUTSIDE WITH HIS DOGS

BY JESSIANNE CASTLE

When Mason Zeglen grabs his foraging pouch, Laney and Rico head straight for the door, tails wagging. They know it means they’re going for an adventure.

Zeglen says the two dogs bound into the woods, as if they themselves are on the hunt for mushrooms or berries.

“But they always notice when I stop walking and crouch down,” he said. “They always run over to check out what I have found.

Laney has to sniff every patch we find.”

Zeglen, his wife, Ali, and their two dogs—both adopted from the no-kill Humane Society of Beaverhead County in Dillon—do 22

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nearly everything together, from hiking, Nordic skiing, camping, fishing, foraging, paddleboarding, and more.

Laney is Zeglen’s bearded lady, he says. Her whiskered face— probably stemming from a Jack Russell-collie cross—adds a humerus note to every interaction. And Rico, the 9-pound chugweenie, can plow snow drifts and ride the paddleboard with the best of them.

Zeglen is the head chef for Bozeman’s Midtown Tavern and 14 North restaurants, owned and operated locally by MSU alumni Josh and Justine Palmer.

For Zeglen, managing the kitchen at Midtown Tavern has become the perfect combination of his passions: cuisine and the outdoors.

The chef grew up in Killington, Vermont, on a 27-acre sustainable agriculture farm. “It’s a nice way to say my parents were hippies,” Zeglen said, smiling. When he was young, the family didn’t have electricity and water was supplied on a gravityfed system.

“I ate a lot growing up,” he said. “I was addicted to food. Some of my earliest memories are picking vegetables in the garden and eating them raw right off the plant.”

Zeglen graduated from the New England Culinary Institute in the year 2000, with a growing wave of younger students inspired by cooking shows and a new attitude about what it means to be a chef.

“It’s a much younger generation going to culinary school,” he said.

“I think that’s the driving force in modern cooking right now.

A lot of young, educated chefs are coming to the market and pushing the envelope. They’re trying to express themselves in their food and that’s what makes food unique.”

That love of flavor and satisfaction fueled Zeglen into what is now a 23-year career wearing an apron and chef ’s hat.

Zeglen moved with his wife to Bozeman in 2008, after owning his own restaurant in Vermont. Looking for a way to showcase his culinary style in Bozeman, Zeglen interviewed with the Palmers in 2012, when the couple was first getting started in the restaurant business.

At the age of 13, he got his first cooking job as a runner and prep cook at a restaurant in his hometown, where the head chef became Zeglen’s mentor. “The chef took me under his wing and he got me on my feet. In the kitchen, he got me a lot of experience and treated me like an adult, not a kid.”

“I was instantly inspired by Mason’s love for food,” Josh said. “It was evident that Mason was the right man for the job almost immediately. I soon found out that his love for food was just as big as his ability to manage people and inspire others to recreate his masterpieces.”

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Together, Zeglen and the Palmers opened 14 North in 2013. The partnership flourished and in 2016, Zeglen helped the Palmers open Midtown Tavern on 7th Avenue. In addition to managing a small kitchen staff at both restaurants, Zeglen prepares menus for the Crazy Mountain Ranch and helps the Palmers with a full catering service offered through 14 North.

He always makes it a point to get outside. “You get out there to recharge."

“You wouldn’t think I get out and do anything,” Zeglen said, but he added that he always makes it a point to get outside. “You get out there to recharge.

“Cooking is such a high-stress environment. It’s long hours, it’s a fast lifestyle. The orders are constantly coming at you, you’re trying to cook as fast as you can, you’re trying to make everything look as perfect as possible. … You learn to be on your toes and be a problem solver and at the end of the day, it’s great to jump on your road bike and go for a spin.”

For Zeglen and the Palmers, being involved locally is a responsibility that comes with having a local restaurant. This includes getting involved in the outdoor community, participating in cultural events, and sourcing food from the area.

“You’re keeping the money local. In my opinion, even though I’m not from Bozeman, I’m trying to be a part of the local environment,” Zeglen said.

He and Josh source meat within 100 miles of Bozeman and seafood is handpicked and flown in, never frozen. Fruits and vegetables also come from area producers.

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“It’s not something we can do all the time, but we try to when we can,” Zeglen said. “During peak summer, the farthest away our produce comes is Washington.

Often, products are picked that morning, driven to Montana and dropped off that night.”

Zeglen expresses his love of sustainable food practices and healthy living in every meal he prepares. “We build flavors in ways that complement each other,” he said. “We think about every flavor of the dish and try to make your experience unique.”

This summer, the Palmers plan to add the finishing touches to what already feels like a comfortable hangout scene at Midtown.

In addition to the central bar, open seating, high tops, side patio, and Montana modern décor, they will install a front patio and outdoor game space as a way of bringing the outside lifestyle further into the restaurant.

The final design will include 2 large patios, horseshoe pits and space to play games like ladderball and bocce ball. There will also be live music throughout the summer.

“With our patios and game spaces, combined with Mason’s exceptional food, we feel Midtown is a great spot to come and hangout,” Josh said.

Midtown Tavern is located at 726 N. 7th Ave. and is open 7 days a week from 4 p.m. to close. For a current menu or to make reservations, visit mttavern.com or call (406) 404-1404.

Jessianne Castle is a freelance writer and editor based in her hometown of Bozeman, Montana.

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"Communication is essential to keep projects running smoothly, convey the design, and ensure our clients' expectations are realized throughout the project. Ambiance has allowed this communication and vision to meld seamlessly into each of our projects." ~ Jamie Daugaard, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP More and more homeowners are continuously seeking progressive and creative lighting technologies to bring their architectural visions into reality. Every home project is unique, presents its own individual challenges and readily shows its need for specific attention to detail. Now, thanks to modern advancements in fully integrated home automation systems, homeowners have more tools than ever to control artistic lighting scenes, robust sound and many other lifestyle enhancements with just the press of a button.

For the past decade, home automation and artesian lighting design have taken center stage in the theater of upscale home development.

These critical aspects of new home construction and renovation are examples of the exponential growth and evolution of technology that has recently occurred. Increasingly, homeowners are realizing the benefits of customized home automation and design. Today, these once overlooked benefits are now considered essential and welcomed elements of new building projects across the United States, as well as the world.

Lighting the way for these fast evolving technologies is Montana’s own, Ambiance. Based in Bozeman, Ambiance specializes in providing complete lighting, power, and audio/ video planning to

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its clientele in Big Sky, the greater Gallatin Valley, and across the United States and Canada. “We optimize both indoor and outdoor spaces, particularly focusing on the architecture of living spaces to harmonize the structural design and artistic elements while creating points of aesthetic interest,” says Toby Zangenberg, Founder and President of Ambiance. “Bringing life to the home through automation,” the Ambiance team works closely with each project’s architect to accentuate the uniqueness of every home.

With 25 years of industry experience, Toby Zangenberg and the Ambiance team are veterans at designing innovative lighting and environmental automation schemes that accent the home as much as personality of the homeowner. Whether the client is at design conception, undertaking a new construction project, or updating an older home with conventional switching and outdated systems, Ambiance can successfully develop a solution to rise above any lighting or programming obstacle.

At the heart of every new project is the client’s vision. The Ambiance team uses this vision as the guiding light throughout the evolution of the design and implementation process. “We derive our inspiration from our clientele,” says Zangenberg. “We view them as part of our own family. It is not without their passion that we are able to truly bring our sometimes wild ideas to life. We rely directly on their appetite for unique, state of the art systems to create homes that are ever timeless and distinctly their own. It is never a question of ‘if’, but ‘how?’.”

"Toby Zangenberg and his staff are talented, professional, and dedicated. The lighting and window shade design that they developed for our new home is stunning.

They worked hard to keep the project on budget, and when a component price turned out to be over budget, Toby identified excellent alternatives. When field adjustments needed to be made, as they always do, Ambiance was cheerful and responsive." ~Jimmy Lewis. Home Owner

Moonlight Basin, Casey Bennet, Project Manager

It is through Ambiance’s commitment to excellence that these doors of possibility are unlocked. Toby and his staff understand that innovation breeds creation. “We continuously monitor the market for the latest advancements in lighting technologies and home automation so that we can deliver the best possible product to our clients,” says Mark Pospicil, lead Project Manager and Draftsman for Ambiance.

Yet, home creation requires a team effort. Ambiance proudly works alongside some of the most premier architects, including Jamie Daugaard at Centre Sky Architecture, to develop exciting and natural environments and paint them with light. It is, thanks to the seamless communication between Ambiance and its partners, that so many well planned and executed homes are being constructed today.

Since the opening of Ambiance in 2003 (then Ambiance Lighting), Zangenberg and his team have led the local industry in professional quality lighting design. “I love working in this field, with these clients and these amazing structures,” remarks Zangenberg. “Each house really has its own character, special features and unique spaces. I am so thankful for the privilege of being allowed to highlight those nuances, illuminate the shadows and bring the home to life for the owners and their families to enjoy.”

To learn more about Ambiance, visit their website at www.ambiaince.life or contact 406.585.2276.

MONTANA HISTORIAN 2018

29

BICYCLES and TAXIDERMY

A Bozeman Man’'s Passion and Career

BY RACHEL PHILLIPS

In a century-old photograph, Bozeman businessman 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 camera. Ginn truly loved the outdoors. Bicycling, fishing, hunting and taxidermy captured Ginn’s fancy, and his passions were burned into photographs that speak of days gone by.

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In the early 1900s, Bozeman vied with Livingston to provide the biggest and most spectacular Fourth of July event. Today, we think of our neighbor over the hill as the destination for Independence Day festivities, but there was a time when Bozeman held its own. Parades, fireworks, orations, feasts, games and dances often spilled over into a two-day party.

Some of the most popular events were the bicycle races.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the local long-distance cycling champion was a future civic leader named Frank Wilton. Wilton arrived in Bozeman in 1893 and remained a prominent businessman in town until his death in 1939. He worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Willson Company, and eventually launched his own store, Wilton’s Fashion Apparel. Wilton worked hard and was a talented cyclist. He was also about to get the race of his life.

Ginn was a 25-year-old Bozeman newcomer with a young family and a knack for mechanics. Born in Iowa and raised in South Dakota, Ginn himself was an avid bicyclist and loved competition. In July of 1901, both Wilton and Ginn entered the grueling five-mile road race that highlighted Bozeman’s Fourth of July athletic contests.

authority.”

Main Street was finally paved with cement in 1908, undoubtedly a great event for cyclists, who no longer had to contend with wheel ruts, dust

Race day dawned, and each rider prepared for the big event.

The Avant Courier newspaper later exclaimed, “[The] race put to the severest test the strength and physical endurance of those who entered it, and it was intensely exciting, too.”

To the thrill of the spectators, Ginn out-rode Wilton and won. People remembered this event for decades to come.

According to his obituary in the July 26, 1946, Avant Courier, “He was well known in his early days in Bozeman as a bicylist [sic] and took part in the racing sport. The day he out-distanced Frank Wilton, the champion, was a big event.”

Ginn continued his strong performance the next year at the 1902 Fourth of July races. Showing his talent for speed as well as endurance, he edged out Wilton again, this time in the shorter half-mile dash. Ginn secured victories in the one-mile handicap and the one-mile consolation race, cementing his reputation as one of Bozeman’s finest competitive cyclists.

At the turn of the 20th century, bike travel was popular in Bozeman. Streetcars clattered around town every day, but cycling held a certain charm. Some of Bozeman’s first city ordinances regarding bicycle use were introduced in 1901.

Initially, people were only prohibited from riding bikes on Main Street’s wooden sidewalks, but this law soon expanded to walkways all over the city.

As the Avant Courier noted on June 29, 1901, “Bozeman is the only city in this state where wheeled vehicles are accorded the privileges of the sidewalk, and the city council in according that privilege, in all probability, transcended its

and mud.

Taking advantage of the contraption’s popularity, Ginn decided to turn his talent into a career.

Soon after his arrival in Bozeman, Ginn opened his own bicycle repair shop, one of the first such establishments in town. His father, James, assisted for several years, and the two men ran their operation from a shop on Main Street. The business later expanded to include automobile repair, and Ginn enjoyed a 20-year career as a mechanic.

Ginn was a well-rounded outdoorsman, and other activities also caught his fancy. Like many locals today, he hunted and fished in the streams and hills around southwest Montana.

Photographs document several of Ginn’s excursions, providing a glimpse of early angling and hunting activities.

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Madison River fishing was quite popular in the first half of the 1900s, and remains so today. W. J. Thompson of the Bozeman Fisheries Station expounded on the virtues of this waterway in a letter to one Walter D. Warrick of Chicago, dated July 1, 1931. “ This Madison is one of the greatest fishing streams of the west, yet at the same time it might be difficult to land a big one just when you were in the humor; strangely enough, the big ones are not always in that frame of mind when you are,” he wrote.

If Ginn’s fishing photos are any indication, angling on the Madison River was indeed good at the turn of the 20th century.

Back then, hunting differed as well. Recreation took second place to acquiring food, although hunters like Ginn enjoyed the sport involved. In 1910, Ginn mailed one of his hunting photo-postcards to a friend in South Dakota. He wrote, “Well Major here I am & Mr. Johnson. We both went Elk Hunting & got our limit in Elk. 2 Day Hunting, I got the Bull. Six 32

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Points & now we are Eating fine Elk Stakes [sic] & Roasts.”

Ginn appreciated more than “Stakes & Roasts.” Something about the “Six Points” also attracted him.

As with his cycling passion, Ginn managed to incorporate an outdoor activity into a money-making venture. In addition to—and for a time along with—his bicycle shop, Ginn and his father ran a thriving taxidermy business. In a photograph taken about 1901, the two men pose proudly behind a pelt-covered counter in a shop filled with hanging hides and mounted deer, elk and pronghorn. Ginn’s passion for taxidermy must have rivaled his fondness for cycling. His obituary proclaims, “He also was a taxidermist and there are mounted elk and deer heads all over the country that testify to his craftsmanship.”

Ginn passed away in Bozeman in July of 1946 at the age of 70, survived by his wife, Ida, of nearly 50 years, and five of their six children. He lived an eventful life, filled with bicycles and taxidermy.

Rachel Phillips is the research coordinator at the Gallatin History Museum in Bozeman. Visit the Gallatin History Museum at 317 W. Main St., gallatinhistorymuseum.org or on Facebook. Research and photos for this story were made possible thanks to the collections at the Gallatin History Museum, which are open and available to the public.

Photos previous pages Left: William Ginn’s father, James, stands in the Ginn’s taxidermy and bicycle shop.

Right: Ginn seated upon a racing bicycle.

Photo opposite: Ginn posing inside his and his father’s bicycle shop in 1904.

The shop was located on the south side of Main Street, near Tracy Avenue.

Photo above: Mr. Johnson (first name unknown) and Ginn (right) pose beside a wagon carrying elk the men got on a two-day hunting trip in 1910. One of the animals is a six-point bull, shot by Ginn.

Photo right: Ginn posses with six large trout caught in the Madison River.

All photos courtesy of Gallatin History Museum

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MIDWEST WELDING & MACHINE: Carrying an Age-Old Tradition Into the Present

Midwest Welding & Machine, Inc.

BY STEVEN FIEGLER

The fabrication of metals is one late 1800Õs, metal goods were of the oldest traditions in human able to be freighted across the history. Beginning in the Bronze country via the transcontinental Age, early people found that the railroad, allowing the use of metals was paramount production of metal goods to be to advancing technology. By the performed en masse. Despite the medieval period, metalworking downturn which blacksmithing·-•�, was ubiquitous, with blacksmiths experienced at this point, a being a facet of nearly every variety of new technologies village throughout Europe. emerged, allowing the trade These blacksmiths worked in to continue as it had on the environments ranging from small micro-scale. For example, the villages to castles and abbeys. In 1920s saw major advances in this Medieval Period, blacksmiths welding technology, such as the would use bituminous coal 1920 introduction of automatic fueled forges consisting of a welding in which wire is IN THE OLD'WJ hearth which allowed for the continuously fed. Additionally, BLACKSMITH SHOP control of the air, fuel volume, as scientists looked for ways to and fire shape. In some instances, protect welds from the effects blacksmiths would use portable of oxygen and nitrogen in the which were fitted to remained a family business, atmosphere, shielding isgases As Val says,"The success Throughfurnaces the years, the company always of the company the result wagons.

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Eagle’s Store Celebrates 110th Year While working summers at the Fountain Hotel in Yellowstone National Park, Sam and Ida Eagle saw opportunity upon learning that the Oregon Short Line of the Union Pacific Railroad planned to run a spur route to the West entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

Sam negotiated with the US Forest Service to survey and later lease property across from the proposed rail station in West Yellowstone.

This is where the Eagle’s Store story begins.

Sam and Ida partnered with friends Alex and Laura Stuart to build and open a general store in 1908. By 1910, Alex and Laura had purchased Murray’s Store across the street and began a separate business. Sam and Ida built a second store in 1910 and had expanded into a third section by 1916.

The early store buildings were replaced by the current 3-story rough-hewn log and stone structure designed

by Bozeman architect Fred F. Willson. The rustic park architecture-styled building housed the business and was home for the Eagle family of 10 children.

Construction began in 1928 and was completed during the middle of the 1930 season with all work being 36

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done by the Eagle family and Sam’s Pennsylvania cousin, Raymond Mauger. The store was built in three sections around the older stores allowing the Eagles to continue operations during the profitable tourist season. The east wing was the last section finished and included the 1910 soda fountain.

Sam worked diligently to have the leased land near the railroad changed to land for purchase, which was instrumental in the development of West Yellowstone as a town. Sam and Ida were leaders in the community, active both in business and personally. Sam held Sunday school for children and adults. He applied to the state requesting and securing a school teacher for the children of the area. Eagle children were 4 of the 8 children in the first class. Sam and Ida provided land for the Protestant church and lobbied for an airport.

Ida was storekeeper, cook and seamstress, making sure each of the 10 children knew his or her responsibilities in the store and within the community. Sam was an entrepreneur who worked hard to assure the financial success of his family. For years he worked as a fishing and hunting guide. He and Ida sold staples including

food, camping, fishing and hunting equipment, and outdoor wear.

They later added products like gas, cameras and film, western wear and jewelry. Space in the store was rented to a barber and a baker.

Sam served as postmaster from 1909 to 1935 and housed the post office within the store. Sam expanded his business further when he bought a 1915 Ford so he could take tourists fishing and sightseeing.

Eagle’s Store had the only telephone switchboard in West Yellowstone for years. Sam and his older children built rental properties including storefronts, cabins and an auto garage in West Yellowstone. Sam and Ida were never idle and taught their children to have the same work ethic as they had.

Not having had the opportunity to attend college, Sam stated he wanted to have as many children as he and Ida could afford to educate.

They purchased a home in Bozeman so their children could attend high school and Montana State College (now MSU) which all 10 children attended.

Visitors today can wander through the wings of Eagle’s Store and treat themselves to ice cream at the original 1910 soda fountain. Mom Eagle’s recipe is still used for the chocolate sauce. Old photos of the Eagle family and early West Yellowstone life adorn the walls inside the east wing of the store. The original skis that Sam used to travel 14 miles to Henry's Lake, Idaho to exchange the winter mail when he was postmaster are proudly displayed in the clothing area of the store.

In the tackle shop, one finds Sam’s duck boat, photos of the family fishermen and some of their fish mounts.

PHOTOS: Top left: Painting by Duncan Kippen, grandson of Fred F. Willson Eagle’s Store is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Left: Celebration logo created by Rich and Joy Eagle.

Above left: Sam and Ida with their 10 children in the 1930’s.

Above right: Eagle’s Store, a gathering place for early West Yellowstone skiers including 4 Eagle children. Town rooftops provided the slopes.

Early Winter Tourism: dog sled races starting at Eagle’s Store Before catch-and-release, a day’s fish tale!

The Eagle’s Store 1910 soda fountain still delights customers with Mom Eagle’s original Chocolate Sauce.

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ADVENTURE in the BACKCOUNTRY Adventure in the Backcountry Jerry Johnson knows West Yellowstone hospitality. A second generation Montanan, the former mayor and current city commissioner grew up working with his parents, who have owned and operated motels in West Yellowstone for the past 65 years.

Now, through Backcountry Adventure, he shares the majestic beauty and vast grandeur that is West Yellowstone with locals and worldwide visitors alike.

Alongside his wife, Jacquelyn, their two children, Keith and Kendra, and a staff with experience in the West Yellowstone area ranging from 31 to 62 years, Johnson provides custom snowcoach, snowmobile, snowshoe and cross country ski excursions, as well as Old Faithful tours and full clothing and accommodation packages.

Featuring environmentally friendly snowmobile models from top manufacturers, Backcounty Adventure snowmobile rentals are completely customizable to include a guide, complete clothing package, accommodations packages, and even specific snowmobile models. And with a free tank of gas for each daily rental, the West Yellowstone world is your playground.

Jerry Johnson knows West Yellowstone hospitality. A second generation Montanan, the former mayor and current city commissioner grew up working with his parents, who have owned and operated motels in West Yellowstone for the past 65 years.

Now, through Backcountry Adventure, he shares the majestic beauty and vast grandeur that is West Yellowstone with locals and worldwide visitors alike.

Alongside his wife, Jacquelyn, their two children, Keith and Kendra, and a staff with experience in the West Yellowstone area ranging from 31 to 62 years, Johnson provides custom snowcoach, snowmobile, snowshoe and cross country ski excursions, as well as Old Faithful tours and full clothing and accommodation packages.

Featuring environmentally friendly snowmobile models from top manufacturers, Backcounty Adventure snowmobile rentals are completely customizable to include a guide, complete clothing package, accommodations packages, and even specific snowmobile models. And with a free tank of gas for each daily rental, the West Yellowstone world is your playground.

24 38 MontanaMONTANA HistorianHISTORIAN 2018

A great way to experience Yellowstone, snowmobile A great way to experience Yellowstone, snowmobiletours toursofofthe Park and surrounding the Park and surrounding area provide a unique view of the area provide a unparalleled landscape and abundant wildlife. Snowmobile tourof unique view the unparalleled stops in Yellowstone National Park can include Madison Junction, landscape Fountain Paint Pot, Midway Geyser Basin and Biscuit Basin. and abundant wildlife.

In addition, Backcountry Adventure provides three interpretive Snowmobile tour stops snowmobile trips to Old Faithful – the world’ s most concentrated in Yellowstone National area of geothermal features – and one tripPark to thecan Yellowstone include Madison Junction, Paint Pot, Grand Canyon each day. Guided snowmobile trips Fountain in the Gallatin Midway Geyser Basin National Forest just outside of Yellowstone Park, an area offering and Biscuit Basin. In addition, over 200 miles of groomed trails with spectacular viewsAdventure and deep Backcountry powder, are also regularly available throughout the season. provides three interpretive snowmobile trips to Old Faithful – thecomfort world’s Another great option for exploring the Park in absolute most concentrated area of and security is a snowcoach tour. Family- geothermal and group-friendly, Ford features – and E350 conversion van snowcoach tours areone highly ad tripaffordable to the Yellowstone Grand Canyon eachfor day. provide visitors with the freedom to stop whenever they want Guided snowmobile photo opportunities. In addition to Old Faithful and Canyon trips in the Gallatin National Forest Park tours, Backcountry Adventure also offers private just outside of Yellowstone snowcoach expeditions.

Park, an area offering over 200 miles of groomed trails withand spectacular Join the Johnson family the highlyviews and deep powder, are also regularly experienced, personable and knowledgeable available throughout the season.

staff of Backcountry Adventure to create the adventure of a lifetime.

Located at 224comfort N. Another great option for exploring the Park in absolute and security is a snowcoach tour. Familyand group-friendly, Electric Street in West Yellowstone, Montana, Ford E350 conversion van snowcoach tours are highly affordable Backcountry Adventure can be reached by ad provide visitors with the freedom to stop whenever they want calling 406.646.9317. For reservations, check out the for photo opportunities. In addition to Old Faithful and Canyon convenient rental calculator callprivate 800.924.7669 Park tours, Backcountry Adventure also and offers snowcoach expeditions. or email reservations@backcountry-adventures. com. For more information, visit www.backcountryJoin the Johnson family and the highly experienced, personable adventures.com or check them out on Facebook @ and knowledgeable staff of Backcountry Adventure to create the adventure of abackcountryadventures. lifetime. Located at 224 N. Electric Street in West

Yellowstone, Montana, Backcountry Adventure can be reached by calling 406.646.9317. For reservations, check out the convenient rental calculator and call 800.924.7669 or email reservations@ backcountry-adventures.com. For more information, visit www. backcountry-adventures.com or check them out on Facebook @ backcountryadventures.

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SECOND IMPRESSIONS Home Furnishings Gallery

By Jessianne Castle

Have you ever wondered what happens to furniture when a million-dollar home sells?

Then you need to visit store owner Corinne Hogan and manager Judy Jocelyn at Second Impressions Home Gallery in Bozeman to see where some of it goes.

“We sell high-end, gently used furniture that comes from nice homes,” said Hogan, who has been curating the unique 40

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collection at Second Impressions since 2005. “If you’re looking for that special piece, or wanting to change your home’s décor, please come visit us. You will be delighted.”

Hogan and Jocelyn enjoy developing relationships with their customers, helping to find that piece that makes a room sparkle. They offer furnishings in an array of styles, from rustic and western, to contemporary and traditional, with an eye for the eclectic.

A stop in the showroom is sure to impress, and you’ll be met by Hogan and Jocelyn’s smiling faces, as well as the happy, wagging tails of their dogs: Neci, a goldendoodle; Jaz, a yorkie; and Josey, a wheaten terrier.

“We’re a dog-friendly store. We love meeting you and your dogs, too” Hogan said, adding that customers are welcome to bring their dogs into the showroom.

Inventory is always changing, and often includes new and used quality furniture, stunning artwork, and exceptional décor.

Second Impressions Home Gallery is located at 1662 Bobcat Dr. and is open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. To learn more, visit secondimpressionshighendfurniture.com or call (406) 585-0700.

Bozeman, MT • (406) 585-0700 • secondimpressionshighendfurniture.com MONTANA HISTORIAN 2018

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THE ARTFUL CAPTURE OF A FISH A Brief History of Fly Fishing

BY JESSIANNE CASTLE

In the stillness of a slightly-overcast day, I watch the river slowly tumble over itself.

Water ripples over a shallow gravel bed then bubbles into swirls where the submerged landscape gets deeper. With gentle accuracy, I swing my rod, sending through the air a combination of elk hair and synthetic fibers made to look like a caddis fly. It falls to the water and begins a subtle down-drift.

The art of fly fishing is probably the oldest method of recreational angling, and has likely been a pursuit for fun rather than sustenance ever since its inception. “Fly fishing has always been a sport,” said James Thull, a librarian at Montana State University’s Special Collections who oversees the MSU Trout and Salmonid Collection.

“Fly fishing is the most ineffective form of catching fish.”

So it might bring pause to ponder fly fishing’s two millennia history. The earliest reference to fishing with an artificial fly is often credited to Roman author Claudius Aelianus, writing in his book De Natura Animalium in the second century AD. “And so with the skill of anglers the men circumvent the fish by the following artful contrivance,” he wrote. “They wrap the hook in scarlet wool, and to the wool they attach two feathers that grow beneath a cock’s wattles and are the colour of wax. … The fish attracted and excited by the colour, comes to meet it and fancying 46

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from the beauty of the sight that he is going to have a wonderful banquet, opens wide his mouth, is entangled with the hook, and gains a bitter feast, for he is caught.”

Somewhere along the line, an angler realized that feathers and fiber could be used to disguise a hook much more readily than live specimens, and in the matter of a few decades, the technique became fishing custom.

By the fifteenth century, fly fishing was practiced in the Southern Hemisphere in Europe and accounts by English writers during the fifteenth and sixteenth century describe the various fly patterns and techniques often used, as well as phases of fly development and how trout feed on the bugs.

English biographer Izaak Walton published a book on fly fishing in 1653 entitled The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation in which he describes various methods for catching fish in the English country side.

“It is said by many, that in fly-fishing for a Trout, the Angler must observe his twelve several flies for the twelve months of the year, I say, he that follows that rule, shall be as sure to catch fish, and be as wise, as he that makes hay by the fair days in an Almanack, and no surer,” Walton wrote. He mentions use of grasshoppers, the artificial stone fly, and various renditions of the drake fly, and with a total of twelve different variations, “thus have you a jury of flies, likely to

PHOTOS: Opposite: First tied by Lee Wulff, the Royal Wulff is a dry fly intended to imitate mayflies and some terrestrials. Photo by Jessianne Castle A plate from Mary Orvis Marbury’s 1892 volume Favorite Flies and Their Histories. Mary was the daughter of Charles F. Orvis, who founded the fly fishing tackle company Orvis in 1856. CC photo Right: Montana angler and former trout shop owner Bud Lilly (1925-2017) ties on a new trout fly. Photo courtesy of Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections

betray and condemn all the Trouts in the river.”

Walton’s literary work is recognized as setting the stage for modern angling, establishing fly fishing as a pastoral idyll that still inspires today. Modern-day novelist Thomas McGuane described Walton’s work for Penguin Random House as “not about how to fish but about how to be. [Walton] spoke of an amiable mortality and rightness on the earth that has been envied by his readers for three hundred years.”

As a fly-fishing tradition further developed in England, dry-fly purists and their wet-fly counterparts emerged onto the scene, arguing each variation’s advantage full-heartedly.

Immigrants brought fly fishing to the New World and according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, by the 1780s, fishing tackle dealers in Philadelphia were advertising a full selection of flies and fly tackle.

The advance of the railroad across the territorial U.S. saw to the further spread of fly fishing and it wasn’t long before anglers were developing their own fly-fishing strategies in the Rocky Mountains.

Jen Corrinne Brown, an environmental historian at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, calls fly fishing a masquerade in her 2015 volume Trout Culture: How Fly Fishing Forever Changed the Rocky Mountain West.

“The exciting and picturesque sport can be distilled down to just a unique method of catching fish,” she wrote. “Ever wonder what all the commotion over fly fishing is about? Basically, bug puppets.”

Working to reveal the often-untold story of fly fishing, Brown explores this variation of angling which often involved stocked nonnative fish, conflicts with Native Americans, and the use of toxins to control fisheries.

She wrote that during the nineteenth century, those who had the time and money saw angling as a restorative activity during an age of massive industrial expansion. Though lower classes were able to access the sport thanks to its simple gear—a pole, line and decorated hook—a division certainly emerged between those using the newest hook-and-line and those relying on more antiquated tackle.

Stemming from the industrial boom, many Americans began to confront negative changes in the environment during the latter

half of the nineteenth century, among which was a declining fish population. Hatcheries were an obvious solution and the augmentation of native populations, as well as the introduction of new species, became routine.

In Yellowstone National Park, where many waters were naturally uninhabited by fish, routine stocking became paramount to early park managers. Acting Superintendent Captain F. A. Boutelle wrote in his superintendent’s report for 1889, “In passing through the Park, I noticed with surprise the barrenness of most of the water of the Park.” He added that he hoped “to see all of these waters so stocked that the pleasure-seeker in the Park can enjoy fine fishing within a few rods of any hotel or camp.”

In addition to the hatchery near Bozeman, fish culture sites sprouted up throughout the West, while fly fishing remained mainstream. The sport gained even further refinement with the advance of catch-andrelease fishing, which took hold during the 1960s and ’70s, when anglers adopted the ethos of conservation over consumption.

Over fly fishing’s most modern century, historian Paul Schullery says the enterprise has changed more than the previous two millennia.

“Technology, commerce, and human values play major roles here, and they are all up for grabs,” he wrote in If Fish Could Scream, a collection of seven essays that explore some of the challenges that will affect fly fishing in the future. “We usually change in a haphazard way, and most of us don’t give it much thought.”

As synthetics gain in popularity in mimicking the same basic dozen flies, Schullery wonders about hero-worship, ease-of-access, competition and aggression, and the pros and cons of catchand-release fishing. And though concerned, Schullery still seems optimistic.

“Fly fishing positions us so superbly to feel and wonder—abstractly, reverently, analytically, poetically, whimsically, or in any other way within our capabilities—that it would be a tragic loss of intellectual and emotional opportunity if the sport had never arisen as a human pursuit.”

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BOZEMAN'S ORIGINAL AND UNEQUALLED

Prime Mortgage Lending, Inc.

Caroline Roy, Branch Manager/Loan Officer Whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your doctor or your accountant, doing business with professionals who are willing to take the extra time needed to fully grasp your unique situation is commonly agreed upon to be the best move. Very few people enjoy having the complex problems in life be answered with a generic, prepackaged answer that applies to a group theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in opposed to themselves. Despite this, every day people who are juggling everything from their current finances to the expected returns on a rental property walk into the branch of a large bank to be funneled through a series of forms and questions designed to determine their category, and the loan which suits those in their category. As an experienced lender who has been in the business for over a decade, Caroline Roy, who started the Bozeman branch of Prime Mortgage Lending, Inc., knows that packaged solutions are the least effective way to establish long-term satisfaction and financial prosperity for her customers.

Caroline Roy began her career in lending while purchasing her first home in Livingston over a decade ago. Working with her lender at the time, she became intrigued by the capacity of the profession to present homebuyers with solutions to complex problems; this led her to pursue the career. Since 48

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then, Caroline has strived to help clients attain solutions which complement both their short and long-term goals.

Unlike large banks, she does this by taking the time necessary to work with people and form a multi-faceted approach, which takes into account their current financial situation, along with their future goals, ranging from retirement planning to the acquisition of rental properties or a second home. Equally important are the steps necessary to prepare people to buy their first home, even if that is a goal that may take many months to bring to fruition.

Many Prime Mortgage Lending clients who have worked with Caroline years ago when buying their first home return when theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve outgrown their first home or are looking to expand their real estate portfolio. Those who have come to Prime Mortgage Lending recognize how much of an asset an experienced and trustworthy advocate can be throughout the home buying process at any stage in life. Caroline recognizes that in a community the size of Bozeman, you rarely see a client only once, and feels an obligation to utilize every resource available to find the best option for her clients; this ensures that their finances are stable throughout the years and workable when they buy their next home. Building

a relationship with customers is a crucial part of how they do things differently at Prime Mortgage Lending.

When choosing a loan officer, clients can be assured that no matter who they choose at Prime Mortgage Lending, they are doing business with a professional who has years of experience in the business. Leslie Largay, one of Prime Mortgage Caroline and her family.

Lendingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s additional loan officers, also has nearly 20 years of experience in the lending field. As a former small business owner herself, Leslie brings a unique perspective and customer service oriented approach to lending.

The loan officers at Prime Mortgage Lending have encountered a variety of people and situations; perspective home buyers are often unaware of the next step to take towards buying a home in their particular situation. Caroline Roy compiled the most common situations she encounters along with the options which are available: YOU ARE LOOKING INTO BUYING A HOME, INVESTMENT PROPERTY, OR VACATION HOME, YET DO NOT HAVE OR WANT TO ALLOCATE A FULL 20% DOWN. The goal of attaining a property with more limited financial resources is entirely possible. The loan officers at Prime Mortgage Lending have a vast knowledge of programs available to them. Second homes require only 10% down currently and investment properties can be purchased with as little as 15% down. For home buyers purchasing a primary

residence, Prime Mortgage Lending can help to find an FHA loan with 3.5% down, conventional loans with 3-5% down or a USDA Rural Development loan or VA loan with 100% financing available for qualifying borrowers.

They also work with the Montana Board of Housing offering several grant programs. Or with the Montana Community Development Corporation to offer their HomeNow program with a gift for the down payment or closing costs to compliment any of the other primary residence programs.

YOU ARE RECENTLY RETIRED AND HAVE SUBSTANTIAL ASSETS BUT LITTLE INCOME. Those who are retired, or nearing retirement still often desire to keep their assets productive. The loan officers at Prime Mortgage Lending are experienced in working with clients and their financial advisors to utilize retirement savings or other liquid assets as an income stream in order to qualify for a home loan even without a more traditional source of income.

YOU ARE A RECENT GRADUATE AND HAVE A SOLID INCOME BUT LITTLE ASSETS AND A SHORTER JOB HISTORY. Prime Mortgage Lending offers a variety of programs in this situation. Often, with the help of parents recent graduates can utilize gift funds as a means towards purchasing a home. In MONTANA HISTORIAN 2018

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other cases Prime Mortgage Lending offers programs which utilize co-signing to blend the debt ratios of more established family members in order to qualify.

YOU’RE INTERESTED IN BUYING A HOME, BUT NEED TO BORROW MORE THAN THE CONFORMING LOAN LIMIT OF $453,100.

Prime Mortgage Lending furnishes an array of offerings for Jumbo loans. Whether you are seeking a loan for a primary residence, vacation home, or investment property, a plethora of options which mirror conventional loans in regard to rates and down payments exist in the Jumbo marketplace.

YOU ARE NEW TO THE MARKET AND DON’ T KNOW WHERE TO START. By coming to Prime Mortgage Lending, Inc., you will receive the time and personalized treatment which a large financial decision calls for. In working with Prime Mortgage Lending, you are exposing yourself to a variety of programs and options which may 50

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not be available at larger banks. Small Mortgage Bankers such as Prime Mortgage Lending also operate outside of standard banking hours, allowing you to fit the home buying process in with your busy schedule Prime Mortgage Lending, Inc. is happy to make the process work for you and your style of business. They can do everything online safely and securely when it’s convenient for you, or they can meet face to face to talk about your plans, goals and needs.

Buying a home can be a complex process, luckily with Caroline Roy and Prime Mortgage, it can be simplified and suited to your individual circumstances.

For more information, you can contact Caroline at 406.624.6330 or apply online at www.

PrimeMortgageMontana.com. Caroline Roy NMLS # 271203, Prime Mortgage Lending, Inc. NMLS # 69551 Equal Housing Lender.

Their office is located at 2015 Charlotte St. Ste. 3, Bozeman, MT 59718. Prime Mortgage Lending Inc. is licensed in over 30 states with offices to help both here and away. Visit www.GoPrime.com for a complete list of Branch locations.

www.primemortgagemontana.com PRIMARY RESIDENCE • INVESTMENT PROPERTY • SECOND HOME CONVENTIONAL • FHA • VA • USDA RURAL HOUSING • JUMBO

TRUSTWORTHY • COMMITTED • DEPENDABLE

COME FOR THE VACATION.

STAY BECAUSE YOU

LOVE IT! Caroline Roy

Branch Manager/Loan Officer caroline@goprime.com Online Application available at: www.PrimeMortgageMontana.com

Prime Mortgage Lending, Inc. 2015 Charlotte St. Ste. 3 Bozeman, MT 59718 Office: 406-624-6330

NMLS #271703/69551 MONTANA HISTORIAN 2018 Idaho #MLB-8366

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THE HAUNTED HISTORIAN

BY JESSIANNE CASTLE

LOCAL HAUNTS: RIALTO 10 West Main Street, Bozeman The Rialto theater threw open its doors on January 16, 2018, after standing vacant for twelve years and while an often soldout crowd enjoys a variety of music and traveling acts, it seems there are ghosts enjoying the shows as well. An eerie mist has been spotted passing across the stage and chairs seemingly move on their own. The spirit of Pablo Elvira, an opera singer who passed away in early 2000, still wanders the Rialto’s aisles, haunting what is said to have been his favorite place to sing.

PROCRASTINATOR THEATER, STRAND UNION BUILDING Montana State University, Bozeman Montana State University’s Procrastinator Theater, operated by students and featuring new and old films no-longer in theater, has a particularly startling story, which still lingers today. In the early 1970s, the theater director sustained a head injury after falling down a staircase backstage. It is said he experienced mood swings after the accident, eventually leading to his suicide with a prop pistol loaded with real bullets. From an easy feeling in his office, to sightings of a black phantom roaming the theater, it’s said the old theater director still remains in the SUB. A second apparition appears time and again, taking the form of a woman who reportedly hanged herself in the ballroom in the 1930s.

BEAR CANYON Bozeman Forgotten stories of Bear Canyon linger in the supposed apparition of ghosts. A young girl has been seen walking up the trail, sometimes singing and inviting women to follow her; cigarette smoke has been caught wafting on the breeze without evidence of anyone smoking; and phone calls have come through with static white noise despite a lack of cellular reception.

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GALLATIN GATEWAY INN 76405 Gallatin Road, Gallatin Gateway The Gallatin Gateway Inn was built by the Milwaukee Road to house travelers on their way to Yellowstone. First opened in 1927, the inn ceased operations in 2013 and is currently leased by the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky to house employees. Over the last century, many individuals have passed through the inn’s doors, and it’s possible some never left. Some say a young housekeeper was murdered in her guest room at the inn and her reflection has been spotted in mirrors throughout the building. Another presence, thought of as male, has been known to move objects, turn lights on and off, and play the piano.

MURRAY HOTEL 201 West Park Street, Livingston The Murray Hotel comprises twenty-five rooms spanning over four floors, having celebrated a grand opening in 1904. Originally built to house railroad passengers traveling on the Northern Pacific Railway, the Murray is said to accommodate more than just today’s guests. Stories of a woman appearing in a second-story window and rumors of a young girl’s giggles late in the night have been told time and time again.

CHICO HOT SPRINGS RESORT 163 Chico Road, Pray Chico Hot Springs has been welcoming guests for more than one hundred years and many visitors and employees attest to a presence on the grounds. Some call her the Lady in White, arguing that the original proprietor, Percie Knowles (1860-1941), returned to watch over her beloved resort hotel. Stories center around room 349, the room which Percie called her own. It is said that the room’s rocking chair often turns to face the window and gently rocks back and forth despite an absence of breeze or seemingly human presence.

SACAJAWEA HOTEL 4 North Main Street, Three Forks Like the Gallatin Gateway Inn, the Sacajawea Hotel was built to house railroad passengers during the early years of the 20th century.

Milwaukee Railroad purchasing agent John Q. Adams, who built the hotel in 1910, reportedly walks the hallways and visits guest rooms even today, and a maid has been spotted passing through the hotel walls.

ROOKWOOD SPEAKEASY 117 North Main Street, Butte The Rookwood Speakeasy was discovered in 2004, sealed behind a bulletproof door in the basement of the former Rookwood Hotel. A stop on the old Butte historical tours, this site was an illegal drinking establishment during the Prohibition era and ghosts have been spotted sitting at the table next to the bar.

WORLD MUSEUM OF MINING 155 Museum Way, Butte Built to tell the tale of Butte’s early days, the World Museum of Mining is mostly outdoors and includes a mine tour as well as underground exhibits. It seems some miners are still hard at work, and their spirits have been seen walking the grounds and working in the mine.

LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD Crow Agency Little Bighorn memorializes the battle between the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry and the Sioux and Cheyenne, calling for reflection on what is sometimes known as Custer’s Last Stand, one of the Native American’s last armed efforts against the U.S. Visitors to the memorial have allegedly seen ghostly forms of soldiers and Native Americans and heard moans, screams and war cries.

GHOST TOWNS BANNACK With gold spotted in Grasshopper Creek, it wasn’t long before the area that is today known as Bannack was a bustling mining town.

Bannack City was founded in 1862 and just two years later, it became the Territorial Capitol of Montana for a brief period before Virginia City was given the honor. A discussion about Bannack City is hardly complete without mention of Henry Plummer, the town’s elected sheriff from 1863-1864. He was accused of being a leading member of the road agent gang preying on Virginia City travelers and shipments, responsible for over 100 murders and countless holdups and robberies.

In the absence of seemingly fair lawmen, he was arrested and hanged in Bannack by members of the Montana Vigilantes.

VIRGINIA CITY Virginia City remains frozen in time, with reenactments and bustling shops breathing new life into the old ghost town. As is the story for many early Montana communities, gold was the primary driver for this small settlement during the last half of the 19th century. In 1864, Virginia City became the new Territorial Capitol of Montana and the area quickly grew to house 10,000 people seeking to fulfil mining claims in Alder Gulch.

GRANITE The company town of Granite, Montana, was established in 1884 about 4 miles up Granite Mountain near today’s town of Phillipsburg.

Centered around one of the largest silver mining camps in the state, this little town was nicknamed “Montana’s Silver Queen,” and at one point, more than 3,000 residents called the settlement home. By 1889, there were four churches, a newspaper, school and 18 saloons, while residents enjoyed a roller-skating rink, library and four-mile bob sled run. The local hospital was reportedly very busy during the mine’s operations through the last decades of the 1800s, as accidents were common in the mines. A cemetery, though, was out of the question for the ground was far to rocky. Instead, the dead were hauled down the mountain and buried in the Philipsburg Cemetery.

GARNET Originally named Mitchell in honor of Armistead Mitchell who erected a stamp mill to crush local ore, the small settlement of Garnet was established along with dozens of other mining towns in the state during the latter part of the 1800s. By 1898, nearly 1,000 people resided in the town, seeking gold and other precious metals and stones. Today, Garnet is well-preserved and rests atop land owned by the Bureau of Land Management. There are two rental cabins available December through April and the visitor center is open May through September.

For a full listing of Montana ghost towns and related profiles, visit ghosttowns.com/states/mt. For more about haunted spots throughout Montana, visit hauntedplaces.org/state/Montana.

Sources:

Haunted Montana: A Ghost Hunters Guide to Haunted Places You Can Visit—If You Dare by Karen Stevens Bozeman Paranormal Society ghosttowns.com/states/mt hauntedplaces.org/state/montana

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INSURANCE NEEDS FOR MAJOR LIFE EVENTS Major life events - like buying a home or having a baby - have the potential to affect your insurance needs. What insurance moves should you make at every stage of your life to make sure your coverage doesn’t miss a beat?

Life event: Marriage • Insurance needs: Obtain life insurance • Why: Life insurance helps ease potential financial burdens after your partner’s death by helping you cover bill payments and other expenses.

• Did you know: 25% of Americans wish their spouse or partner would purchase more life insurance.footnote[1] Life event: New Home • Insurance need: Obtains homeowners insurance • Why: a new home is a big investment, and homeowners insurance will help protect it from things like fire, weather damage, theft, vandalism, accidental damage and more. footnote[2] • How: Get a professional to give you an idea of how much insurance you’ll need. You will want to insure your new home for 100% of its estimated replace cost - not market value. footnote[3] Life Event: New Baby • Insurance Need: Increase life insurance • Why: Having a baby is just the start of a huge financial commitment - increasing your life insurance will help you feel more secure about your baby’s future should you or your partner pass away unexpectedly.

• Did you know? According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it costs $245,340 to raise a child to age 18.footnote[4] Life Event: Teen Driver • Insurance Need: Increase auto insurance

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• Why: No driver should run the risk of being uninsured on the road, teens included especially since this group is the most at-risk for getting into car accidents.f ootnote[5] • Did you know? Adding a teen driver to your auto policy may raise your rates,footnote[6] but costs may drop gradually as your teen gains more experience behind the wheel. footnote[7] Life Event: New Business • Insurance Need: Obtain business insurance • Why: Running any kind of business - from a storefront to a one-person operation - means you can be at risk for a lawsuit.footnote[8] Business insurance protects against large costs associated with legal fees, settlements and more.

• How: Your State Farm agent will help you determine the kind of coverage your business needs.

References: [1] LIMRA 2015 Insurance Barometer Study [2] https://www.statefarm.com/insurance/home-andproperty/homeowners [3] https://www.statefarm.com/insurance/home-andproperty/homeowners/determine-home-insurancecoverage [4] USDA Expenditures on Children by Families, 2013, August 2014 [5] https://www.dmv.org/insurance/10-things-youmust-know-about-your-first-car-insurance-policy.php [6] https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/homemuch-does-adding-teen-driver-increase-your-autoinsurance-n375691 [7] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ jimgorzelany/2014/09/23/the-staggering-cost-toinsure-a-teenage-driver/#44d305d437fd [8] https://www.statefarm.com/insurance/liability/ business-professionals Disclosure

State Farm® (including State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company and its subsidiaries and affiliates) is not responsible for, and does not endorse or approve, either implicitly or explicitly, the content of any third party sites hyperlinked from this page. State Farm has no discretion to alter, update, or control the content on the hyperlinked, third party site. Access to third party sites is at the user’s own risk, is being provided for informational purposes only and is not a solicitation to buy or sell any of the products which may be referenced on such third party sites.

A good neighbor has your back.

Life’s a combination of good days and bad. I have your back for both. And who has my back? The company more people have trusted for 90 years. I’m here to help life go right. CALL ME TODAY. TM

Jeff Weedin, Agent 1351 Stoneridge Drive Bozeman, MT 59718 Bus: 406-586-4900 jeff.weedin.qswp@statefarm.com

State Farm Bloomington, IL 1606039

MONTANA HISTORIAN 2018

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Building In Big Sky Country

A lpenglow C onstruction n n n

A residential and commercial construction company based in Bozeman, Alpenglow Construction specializes in high-end residential homes and distinct commercial sites. As skilled with vertical, modern designs punctuated by corrugated steel and reclaimed wood as they are with rustic log constructions, Alpenglow applies the same unparalleled design knowledge and materials expertise to each sleek office space and cozy reading nook it creates.

Where nuanced details and craftsmanship identify an Alpenglow project, a first glance at the style of any of its buildings will not. When local architects needed a new office building that would demonstrate the quality of their work, they chose Alpenglow, as did the growing number of residential and commercial clients that have chosen Alpenglow over the years.

From the dream Montana estate in the mountains to the perfectly executed sustainable suite of urban offices, each project gets the uncompromised attention of Alpenglow’s talented, experienced team of professionals. Alpenglow is committed to expertly realizing each client’s vision and treating every 56

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project as a showcase for the exceptional.

For every budget, variety of building and measure of square footage, there’s a right way to get the job done. With a proven record of quality and excellence, Alpenglow works with an established network of talented craftsmen and suppliers to ensure clients receive the best products and services at the best prices. Dedicated to smart construction, Alpenglow has been employing “green” techniques since well before the concept was popularized, improving efficiency and conserving energy through distinct insulation, airflow and materials choices.

Over the years, Alpenglow Construction has partnered with proven professionals from design to finished product. Deftly enlivening the organic beauty of the old and emphasizing the concise efficiency of the new in each of its distinctive projects, Alpenglow Construction is Gallatin Valley’s premiere custom residential and commercial builder.

For more information on Alpenglow Construction, visit Alpenglowbuild.com or call 406.920.1029

2320 W. MAIN ST. SUITE 6 • BOZEMAN, MT 59718 • 406.920.1029

ALPENGLOWBUILD.COM MONTANA HISTORIAN 2018

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Bozeman Audi montana’s only premier luxury car dealership, parts, and service center Ever since the first modern Audi bore its iconic four rings on a track in 1932, the Audi brand has come to be known worldwide as a leader in the automotive industry, consistently pushing the boundaries of performance and technology.

The capabilities of Audi vehicles were, and continue to be the result of a history of unity and the exchange of ideas which have accompanied it since that year when four of the top German automakers came together to form the Audi brand. In this respect to unity, the exchange of ideas, and the constant push for improvement, the history of Bozeman Audi mirrors that of the larger brand in many ways.

Only twenty years ago, the needs of Bozeman auto enthusiasts looking for sales and service of powerful and efficient luxury vehicles were fulfilled for the first time with the opening of Montana’s first Audi dealership.

Not long after its initial opening, Bozeman Audi became part of the Montana Import Group, operating as part of a dealership specializing in several additional brands. As more drivers of Audis and other high performance vehicles began to call the Big Sky State home, Bozeman Audi recognized the need for a dealership which specialized in their maintenance needs and sales. Fulfilling this need, the Volkswagen and Subaru components of the Montana Import Group were sold to Ressler Motors. Currently, as a standalone Audi dealership, Bozeman Audi is Montana’s only premier luxury car dealership, parts, and service center.

Although Bozeman Audi is the only Audi dealership in a contiguous four state range, they not only carry a wide variety of new, and pre-owned vehicles, but have the capacity to service nearly any luxury brand. While living away from a larger city often poses a challenge to luxury vehicle enthusiast, Bozeman Audi works to mitigate any issues drivers face, with a team of five highly skilled service technicians.

SERVICE Just as the Audi brand was built on the combined knowledge and expertise of some of Germany’s top automakers, the service department at Bozeman Audi combines the mastery of five highly trained service technicians who consistently provide personalized service to a wide range of luxury vehicles. While providing first-class service is often a challenge for small dealerships, Bozeman Audi is able to routinely provide service which reflects the quality of the brand by not only hiring local technicians, but also investing heavily in its service department. Cars which are driven in Montana face a variety of unique conditions; from daily below-zero starts, to the necessity for reliability over long distance drives. To ensure that the service department is able to cater to these specific conditions, they are committed to hiring local technicians; currently four of the five technicians are Montana natives who have experienced the unique issues facing Montana drivers over their entire lives.

These service technicians are some of the most experienced in the industry; in fact, many of the technicians, such as Kyle McKinney and Mike Rooney, have been crafting their expertise in the automotive industry for over twenty years.

Because Audi is consistently applying the newest technology to its vehicles, and pushing the limits of what is possible, Bozeman Audi invests heavily in continuing

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education for all of the technicians to ensure that they are able to provide the best service available as vehicles increase in complexity and performance. Those who take their vehicles to Bozeman Audi know this firsthand from the quality of service they receive; these drivers never worry about needing to make a second appointment as Bozeman Audi has the highest fixed right the first time rate in the United States. This means that nearly one-hundred percent of vehicles that come into the garage, leave with their problem diagnosed and fixed without any need for followup. In the meantime, while their vehicle is in the shop, these drivers have the option of using a loaner Audi at no extra charge.

While it’s nearly unheard of for a small dealership to invest a half-million dollars every year in a loaner car program, it’s Bozeman Audi’s standard practice to ensure that every driver having their vehicle serviced has access to an Audi which is less than six-months old throughout the interim at no extra charge.

PEOPLE The shared expertise at Bozeman Audi is not unique to its service department; nearly every staff member has spent years crafting their skills. The dealership’s general manager, Michael Sosinsky, was raised in the automotive industry and began learning how to run a dealership from his father who owned dealerships across California; he went on to gain over thirty years of first-hand experience, continuing to this day. Bozeman Audi’s service manager Christian Pederson has spent twenty years in the industry, having worked not only for Audi, but also Volkswagen and Nissan. The parts manager, Lewis Cardwell, has spent the last seven years working in parts, and is passionate about using his expertise to strengthen the work performed on every vehicle which enters the shop.

Bozeman Audi prides itself in being people-centric first, and car-centric second.

Knowing that fitting people to the right vehicle is just as important as producing quality vehicles, the dealership vaunts an experienced and knowledgeable sales team. The top salesman, Max Ricci, J.P. Darden, and Andreas "The Greek" Koronopoulos have spent years acquiring the knowledge to pair prospective buyers with the Audi they will find the most pleasure in throughout the car’s life.

According to service manager Christian Pederson “A dealership is only as good as its support staff.” Under the financial guidance of chief financial officer Joanne Beringer, who is one of the best comptrollers in the industry, Bozeman Audi is not only able to provide customers with the best value in service and cars, but also to give back to the community. Bozeman Audi is not only a strong supporter of the arts in the Bozeman community, but also MSU Bobcat Athletics. Every year, the dealership helps to fiscally support endeavors such as the Intermountain Opera, Bozeman Symphony, and ballet while also donating vehicles to an assortment of athletic teams at MSU. In addition to giving back to the community, the dealership and service center work to mitigate any negative output which they could cause. Within the dealership, the utilization of disposable items such as plastic water bottles and paper napkins has been completely eliminated as a means of ensuring the smallest possible environmental footprint. Pairing this with investment in people, world-class service, and the highest quality vehicles, it’s easy to see how Bozeman Audi is truly Montana’s only premier luxury car dealership, parts, and service center.

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HOT WATER BATHS IN MONTANA

BY JESSIANNE CASTLE

Naturally occurring hot springs—or geothermally heated groundwater—have been a special treat for centuries.

Archeological finds indicate that indigenous peoples spent time at various hot springs throughout North America and stories such as the one centered around Sleeping Child Hot Springs near Missoula, Montana, suggest the power attributed to these unique areas.

Mathews purchased land containing a spring of hot water west of the early Bozeman settlement. He built a bathhouse and plunge and named it Mathews’ Warm Springs. He welcomed visitors to bathe in one of five private rooms or enjoy the plunge and on April 17, 1890, the Bozeman Avant Courier described the water as “remarkably soft, pure and delightfully refreshing for both beverage and bathing purposes.”

Located near Missoula, Sleeping Child gets its name from the tale of Chief Joseph and his people fleeing a group of U.S. soldiers. The Nez Perce left their infants near the hot springs and after evading their pursuers, they returned to find their children safe and peacefully sleeping, protected by the natural hot springs.

That same year, E. Myron Ferris purchased the site for a reported $25,000. He changed the name to Ferris Hot Springs and built a two-story hotel that featured a lawn for croquet and tennis, as well as a second plunge and additional private baths.

Ferris provided the early transportation, bringing guests the 8 miles from Bozeman to the resort in a horse-drawn carriage known as a herdic, which is characterized by open sides. Later, the Bozeman trolley stopped at the site.

White settlers also appreciated the influence of the thermal water, and for many, a soak in a hot spring was their only opportunity for a hot bath.

During the 19th century, the idea of medical tourism developed, and travelers sought thermal mineral waters to heal nearly any and all ailments, from arthritis and constipation, to blood impurities and indigestion. Often, they were prescribed daily soaks and to drink mineral water by doctors at the facility.

BOZEMAN HOT SPRINGS, BOZEMAN In 1879, a wagon and carriage maker named Jeremiah 60

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According to Jeff Birkby in his book Touring Hot Springs Montana and Wyoming, after World War I, Ferris sold the property in a public raffle, where $100 earned a purchaser the chance to win the hotel, hot springs and 10 acres. Seven hundred tickets were sold and a Bozeman restaurant employee won the parcel.

In 1920, Sam Collett purchased the property and expanded the resort by adding a ballroom that remained lively every weekend of the summer season throughout the 1920s and ’30s, though it’s popularity dwindled during the latter half of the

20th century and the dancing space made way for roller skating.

Today, the resort is known as Bozeman Hot Springs and after a series of recent renovations, it features 12 pools ranging in temperature from 59 to 106.

NORRIS HOT SPRINGS, NORRIS The area that is known today as Norris was picked over by miners in the 1860s during the heat of the Montana gold rush and somewhere amid the search for color in the rivers, thermal waters were found.

The land was homesteaded by Charles Hapgood and it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t long before a wooden pool was installed next to the springs.

The pool itself was 30-by-40 feet, at a depth of 4 feet, and fir planks lined the floor and sides. A wooden bench was also added along the sides of the pool, resembling its appearance today.

Early Norris Hot Springs operated in trust. The pool was fenced and the key was left at the hotel near the railway, available to anyone looking to enjoy the benefits of a natural hot springs soak. According to the current owner, Holly Heinzmann, however, the key was lost by the 1960s. Only the adventurous folks who jumped the old fence enjoyed a hot dip in Norris Hot Springs.

The Zankowski family purchased the property in 1972 and began charging a $5 admission for the pool. They also added a weekly Nudie Night. About that same time, hot water was also channeled into a pipe that shot the water some 15 feet in the air, allowing it to cool before collecting in the pool.

When Mike Zankowski took ill in the late 1980s, his wife, Doris, sold the property, though she regained ownership soon after. In 2004, Heinzmann took the reins and Doris remains living on the property.

LADUKE HOT SPRINGS, CORWIN SPRINGS French-Canadian Julius LaDuke established a simple bathhouse at a hot spring site just off the Yellowstone River in 1899, complete with a plunge bath and wooden tubs, though by 1908, Dr. Frank Corwin took over ownership of the property after leaving his position at Chico Warm Springs Hotel some twenty miles to the north.

The new Corwin Springs Hotel consisted of a 50-by-80foot enclosed swimming pool and an 89-room hotel with electric lights and a telephone in each room, which opened for operation in 1909.

Water for the pool was transported through wooden pipes from LaDuke Hot Springs. The hot water ran continuously, completely cycling through the pool every 6 minutes. There were also vapor baths, plunge baths and private soaking rooms, all at a cost of $15 per week for room, board and access to the pools.

During these early years, the Northern Pacific made daily stops across the river from Corwin Springs and travelers MONTANA HISTORIAN 2018

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crossed a suspension footbridge before arriving at the hotel.

The site developed with the times and Corwin eventually partnered with Park County to build an iron bridge across the Yellowstone.

In 1916, a fire burned through the hotel, sparing only the pool and stone fireplaces. Corwin, unable to rebuild, left the facility in ruins.

An ambitious Walter J. Hill of the Northern Pacific purchased the property in 1920 and began to rebuild. He opened Eagle’s Nest Dude Ranch two years later. The facility, taking on a Mission Revival style, included the swimming pool, a clubhouse, restaurant, golf course and dancehall, but it was forced to close in the ’40s, after which it remained unoccupied for nearly 40 years.

In the 1980s, the religious organization Church Universal and Triumphant acquired the property and established its headquarters, the Royal Teton Ranch, near Corwin Springs.

After nearly 80 years, the facility is set to reopen this winter under the name Yellowstone Hot Springs, owned by the Royal Teton Ranch.

into two smaller pools separated from a larger plunge by a cement barrier that still exists today.

Visitors arrived by rail at the Emigrant station on the Northern Pacific rail line, often on their way to Yellowstone National Park. From the station, guests were shuttled by horsedrawn carriage—and later Cadillac automobiles—to the resort.

In 1910, William passed away and Percie took the reins running the health spa. In 1912, she stopped serving alcohol and that same year, Dr. George A. Townsend began providing therapeutic treatments, following his predecessor, Dr. Frank E. Corwin who left in 1909 to develop his own facility approximately 26 miles south on the Yellowstone River.

Several years following Townsend’s retirement in 1925, Percie succumbed to mental illness and was sent to the state hospital, where she passed away in 1941.

Chico has changed hands several times over the years, but today, Chico Hot Springs Resort is alive and well under the ownership of Colin Davis. In 1957, the roof collapsed and the facility was repaired, though the pools were left uncovered.

Warm water will once again filter into the pools and the resort will include warm and cold pools, as well as a Kneipp walk, which is a shallow wading pool with alternating hot and cold water designed to improve blood circulation.

PHOTOS (left to right, previous page):

CHICO HOT SPRINGS, PRAY

Chico Hot Springs, circa 1912. Photo courtesy of Chico Hot Springs

According to geothermal specialist and author Jeff Birkby, the hot springs at Chico remained a local secret until the end of the 1800s. In 1899, William Knowles purchased the springs and together with his wife, Percie, he opened the Chico Warm Springs Hotel the following year.

Two women and two girls before a large two-story frame building at Ferris Hot Springs, now known as Bozeman Hot Springs. Photo courtesy of Gallatin History Museum

At the time, gold-seekers sought color in nearby Emigrant Gulch and the warm waters of the covered Chico pools were a popular respite.

Dorothy Ferris, a child at the time, sweeps snow from the walk in front of the hotel building at Ferris Hot Springs. Photo courtesy of Gallatin History Museum

The hotel included a two-story clapboard building with a 40-foot-long, 6-foot-deep covered pool. Hot water was piped

Above: Cinnabar Mountain rises on the west side of Paradise Valley near Corwin Springs and the new development of Yellowstone Hot Springs, located 8 miles north of Gardiner.

Photo courtesy of Gallatin History Museum

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A large log and stucco building at Bozeman Hot Springs, circa 1950. Photo courtesy of Gallatin History Museum

THE FIRST RESORTS OF BIG SKY, MONTANA

By Anne Marie Mistretta, Lead Conservator for Historic Crail Ranch Homestead Museum Photos courtesy of Historic Crail Ranch Homestead Museum

Throughout the latter half of the 19th century, trappers, prospectors and loggers trekked into the relatively untouched and pristine Gallatin Canyon – just to the northwest of what is now Yellowstone National Park – to harvest its resources.

The earliest residents traveled through the unforgiving Gallatin and Jack Creek drainages in the 1880s, searching for good land for grazing and potentially profitable homesteads. Ranching here was challenging for homestead families, who were often crammed into log structures that were poorly insulated against a harsh climate. Dryland farming in high altitudes tested homesteaders’ hardiness, self-sufficiency and spirit.

As early as the first decade of the 20th century, some residents began to realize that, rather than mining and timbering, it was the area’s landscape and tourism possibilities that held the promise of an economic motherlode. At that point, change was truly underway in the Gallatin Canyon, culminating later in the century with the opening of Big Sky Resort.

Tom Michener, among Gallatin Canyon’s first champions, hoped his slog up the riverbed road would be rewarded by the mineral fortune that surely lay in the mountains and streams. “ The Gallatin Basin…is destined someday to become one of the main wealth producing parts of the county,” MONTANA HISTORIAN 2018

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PHOTOS: Previous: The Half Way Inn became today’s Rainbow Ranch Right from top: Buck’s T-4 began as a resort.

Lilian Crail and her Chicago friends prepare the 1915 Dodge camper for their trip into Yellowstone National Park.

Horses are loaded for the pack trip, a highpoint of a dude’s experience.

Michener wrote in a Seattle magazine in 1908. “ The most important part….is its undeveloped mineral resources.” Michener established and sold stocks in the West Fork Mining Company, owned by Hercules Dredging Company and Eureka Improvement Company of Spokane and Seattle.

Walter Cooper, another entrepreneur, sought riches in timber standing in the Upper Gallatin watershed.

Backed by Helena money, he formed the Cooper Tie Company in 1904 and set up a tie hacker camp in Eldridge on the Taylor Fork, supplying railroad ties to the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Michener’s West Fork Mining Company failed to produce much gold, and mining in general didn’t “pan out” here, so to speak. Cooper Tie folded four years after it began.

Many homesteaders abandoned their ranches and moved on. But some ranchers continued to work hard to eke out a living and build a community.

Although the canyon developed first, the West Fork drainage saw successful homesteading in the early 1900s. The Crail Ranch, a section and a half (960 acres), dominated what is now known as Big Sky Meadow Village, through two generations of Crails. Clarence Lytle, a Crail neighbor who ranched an adjacent quarter section (160 acres), sold out to Julius Butler and Don Kilbourne (the B Bar K) in 1926. Henry Johnson sold his 160 acre homestead on the South Fork of the Gallatin in the 1950s to the McBrides.

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DUDE RANCHES: ENTERTAINING YELLOWSTONE’S EARLY VISITORS As early as 1906, ranchers along the Gallatin supplemented their finances by enticing Yellowstone visitors to extend their vacations as “dude ranchers.” Sam Wilson, owner of Buffalo Horn Ranch and Resort (now the 320 Ranch),

collaborated with Michener, who owned a ranch near the current Big Sky Conoco gas station, to regulate rates for the dude ranches. For $12 a week – plus another $6 for a horse – vacationers could escape urban stress by renting a cabin, donning chaps and tackling ranch chores.

Many of the area’s current resorts opened their doors to tourists throughout the early 1900s. The Lemon Family purchased the Dew Drop Inn in 1919, renaming it HalfWay Inn (now Rainbow Ranch). They offered lodging, a café, a gas station and convenience store, and “dude” adventures. The B-K evolved into a boys’ camp and eventually became the Lone Mountain Ranch.

Pete Karst, mail and supply freighter for Cooper Tie Camp, acquired the Cold Springs Ranch when Cooper’s operation folded. The 1910 railroad extension to Gallatin Gateway was a boon for the Karst Kamp and other canyon dude ranches, such as Elkhorn and Covered Wagon, that cropped up along the Improved “Gallatin Way to Yellowstone.” Buck and Helen Knight, who had relocated from Paradise Valley, built a resort on the old Stillman Ranch in 1945.

Eventually the Crail Ranch, which operated as a ranch for a half century, succumbed to dude ranching under new owners in the 1950s. It was the intact Crail Ranch, along with the timberlands of Andesite, which became core elements of famed NBC newscaster Chet Huntley’s vision for Big Sky Resort.

When Huntley’s Big Sky Resort opened in December 1973, he reached across the country, inviting visitors to experience this exhilarating environment of unique natural resources that had lured and thrilled tourists for nearly a century.

This area has become an economic engine not only for the Gallatin County, as Michener had predicted, but also for the Greater Yellowstone region. Michener had foreseen the value of tourism, but real estate and resort resources have exceeded his wildest visions.

First published in October 2017 Explore Big Sky

Experience Big Sky History VISIT ORIGINAL SETTLERS’ HOMESTEAD & MUSEUM Open for free guided tours, Saturdays & Sundays June through September

SELF-GUIDED WALKING TOUR during daylight hours all year HEIRLOOM GARDEN throughout the summer Big Sky Meadow Village 2110 Spotted Elk Road Across from the Community Park MUSEUM ANNEX with year ‘round exhibits in the Visitor Center at the corner of Lone Mountain Trail & US 191

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