All Aboard - Last Stop...

From Miles City to Helena, (the last research stop of my sabbatical year), I took as much of the more scenic route as possible along Highway 12 from Forsyth to the Martinsdale cut-off. I missed out on the famous beans of Ingomar, but caught a few more pictures of rural county courthouses to add to the collection I started two summers ago. I also fell in love with the views of the rolling hills and distant mountains of central Montana, near Two Dot.

Staying with friends just north of Boulder and south of the Wickes tunnel, I "commuted" for three days to the Montana State Historical Society research room. Tracing the various family brands was productive, and the historic Sanborn maps of Baker and Wibaux were illuminating; but I had little success with early Montana newspapers (other than getting eye strain from reading microfilm reels) and photo archives.

Now that I have been back in Missoula for a couple of weeks, getting settled back into a routine and reclaiming my house and yard, it's time for the writing to begin. My focus will be two journal articles; one each for the North Dakota and Montana Historical Society publications. Here's to a productive summer!

Cowboy Country!

I left Medora and made a few short stops in both Beach, N.D. (where I found a 1904 article from the Billings County Republican at the Golden Valley County Museum) and Glendive, MT (where I stopped at the public library and took a quick hike in Makoshika State Park) enroute to Miles City. The purpose of my research there was to retrace the final steps of Sophia's youngest brother, whose funeral was hosted by the local Elks Lodge, of which he was a member from 1908-1923. Through the good graces of my excellent hosts (who ranch in Kinsey), I even got a guided tour of the lodge, which is quite a spectacular old building. A stopover in Miles City is never complete without a visit to the Range Riders Museum, where the last remaining officer's quarters of Fort Keogh are on display, along with some pretty impressive portraits of early area ranchers. Before I left, I also had some success in the Custer County Clerk & Recorder's office and the Miles City Public Library.

My visit to Miles also happened to coincide with the world famous Bucking Horse Sale: with it's parade, quick draw art auction, and horse racing, you can't beat a weekend like that for entertainment! The Art Center (located in the retrofitted wastewater plant) had a great western art exhibit in conjunction with the bucking horse sale, and the Ursuline Convent (with it's wooden roller-skating floor on the third level) is also not to be missed.