About
Somewhere along the line, I started seeing ghosts along the byways of Montana. You know the kind: Meriwether Lewis riding a horse up the Blackfoot … John Mullan camped for the winter in DeBorgia … Henry Plummer dangling from a noose in Bannack … Teddy Roosevelt delivering a speech from the bank balcony in downtown Missoula.
I cut my teeth at the Missoulian writing sports from 1974-1981, and from 1987-2006. When I got a chance for a day job on the news side, I jumped at it. A weekly Montana history almanac in the Territory section has allowed me to scratch my history itch, to the point where I’ve got a pile of great stuff on and inside my desk that I can’t do anything with. I hope this blog will help solve that problem.
I’m no professional historian, so there’ll be more questions and “is thought to be’s” than straight-out history facts here. Internet search engines have made it unbelievably easy to surf for things from the past. I know there are pitfalls, but we’ve got, for instance, a ream of published historic volumes at our fingertips, not to mention the archives of the New York Times from 1851-1922 — free of charge.
History is an onion. You peel off one layer and there’s another, and another and another. Maybe we can do some peeling together here.
Kim Briggeman
According to “Sources of the River:Tracking David Thompson Across North America” (by Jack Nisbet), Gauche (Left Hand) was a Kootenai hunter who lived near Kootenae House, and who had been supplying Thompson’s men with fresh meat for several months before their journey into the Missoula Valley.
I look forward to reading more of your blogs. As a paranormal investigator in the Bitteroot,I’m interested in anything that has to do with the history of the Missoula valley.
How wonderful to have this blog! Missoula is an amazing place and Kim is THE guy to coax the stories out of the past! I look forward to this and can’t wait to discover the deeper history along with you.
Interesting . . . it’s always good to see folks blogging Montana & Missoula history. Thanks.
As a former history major who now toils in the journalism field, I can relate to the history itch. This blog is a welcome and refreshing addition to the Montana news scene. Thanks.
Hi Kim. I enjoy your columns and welcome this new blog. Have only one factoid to add, for what it’s worth. “Lefthand” is a family name among modern Kootenais living on the CSKT Reservation. Decendents of “Gauche” maybe?
Another note Kim” I am researching the 7th Infantry Regiment, which formed the bulk of the “Montana Column” of the 1876 Sioux campaign.
Scouts of the Montana Column were first to find the bodies of Custer’s detachment on June 27, 1876. The 7th also also built the first buildings at Fort Missoula in 1877. The 7th(along with some civilian volunteers from Missoula and the Bitterroot)attacked the Nez Perce camp in the Big Hole Valley.
The best known account of the Montana Column’s 1876 campaign, beside the Catholic Quarterly Article by Col. John Gibbon, is Lt. James Bradley’s unfinished manuscript which was published by the Montana Historical Society. It is unfinished because Bradley was in the middle of writing the manuscript from his field notes in 1877 when he left Fort Shaw for the Nez Perce campaign. Bradley was perhaps the first US Army soldier killed in the initial attack on the camp.
Unfortunately, while the hand-written manuscript is in the possession of the Montana Historical Society, his field notes with the “rest of the story” are apparently lost to history. I am hoping to fill out the history by consulting other diaries by men who were on the campaign.
ES Curtis, author of Custer’s Luck, edited and published a paperback called “The March of the Montana Column.” It includes a forward by Curtis. Curtis adds to the manuscript of a letter written to the Helena Herald in July of 1876 in which Bradley describes the finding of Custer’s men. His manuscript left off on June 26, 1876, the day before they found the bodies.
Thanks, Doc. This is the kind of search and research I hope this blog can specialize in. If you haven’t already, check out the New York Times archives. You can pull up all the news stories from the Little Big Horn, etc., for free.
We recently received your article published in Montana Life Territory, from a friend that lives in Missoula, about the “Last Last Spike” on the Milwaukee Road. My grandfather is W. R. Lanning, is pictured as one of the officials. Could we get more information about the reinactment that will take place on the 19th of June. We will be in the area on that date and would like to attend. My Grandfather was also involved with saving may lives during the “Big Burn of 1910″, the 100th aniversary which will be next year. Thank you for any information you could provide.
Barbara Lanning Schuette
P.O. Box 279
New Meadows, Idaho 83654
I must add a belated correction. I had an over-50 memory lapse when writing my last post on the 7th Infantry. The autor of Custer’s Luck and editor of the James Bradley diary was Edgar I Stewart. I don’t know where the hell I got the name ES Curtis from. A former life maybe?
Edward S. Curtis, by the war, is a well know photographer and historian of Native Americans in the West. He died in 1952. My apologies to both Curtis and Stweart.
Hi Kim
I read a brief story recently about two old butte miners that captured my imagination. The story was about Con “the horse” and Frank McCaffery. It went that the two were unlikable hard drinkers and fighters. Paradoxically Con was killed in a fire and was found only feet from the station, apparantly having died attempting to drag a mule to safety. I thought the story would make a great song and have been looking for some other sources etc. Have you ever heard of the story/ have any more information about the two characters? Anything would help, thanks! and thanks for the blog, its great
Sam
I’ll keep my eyes open, Sam. It’s not a story I’m familiar with, but there are some great Butte storytellers out there. Anyone? Let’s get this song written.
The author has very much tried. I support the majority of commentators
What a brilliant blog! I’m thrilled to see this and love Montana history (coming from a family of Montana historians!) Thank you for your hard work putting this together, I look forward to reading more as time goes on!
I love reading this and your articles in the Missoulian. I had a teacher in Sentinel back in 1968 & 1969 who inspired a love of history in me. Both in his history class and working as a photog for the Konah and Bitterroot? Are you the Kim from back then by any chance?
I’ve just recently starting looking at blogs, and since I enjoy your writing and history in general, I decided to take a look. Thanks for doing this.
Maybe you and your readers can help me on a quest. I’m involved with the extension of the Milwaukee Road pathway system from Russell west to Davis Street. I’d like to find any photos that folks may have of the railroad when it was in operation through Missoula. I’m particularly interested in any that show the trains running through this neighborhood. At some point, we’d like to create an interpretative display that might feature some of these old photos. It’s about time that this railroad got some further recognition for its contributions to the history and economy of this region.
Hey Kent,
Have I mentioned looking up Kim Sol for Railroad History before?
He works on the 3rd floor of the Montana Building, at the north end or your/my block.
He’s in the lawyer office of Sol & Wolfe:
Michael “Kim” Sol
Sol & Wolfe Attorneys
101 E Broadway
Suite 300
Missoula, MT 59802
Business: 406-728-4727
mailto: kimsol@bigsky.net
Home: 406-721-2976
He keeps a ton of research documents on his personal website (for his reference) and he spend thousands of hours copying documents to this website. I believe that his long-ago dissertation was on the history of the Milwaukee Railroad.
Good Luck!
Scott Sproull
I found “Montana Yesterday” while researching info about Malcolm Story, and I just had to thank you for this great website.
I lived in Montana from the late ’70′s to the early ’80′s, until circumstances took me away – eventually all the way to Texas. But I never stopped missing Montana. I loved it the moment I arrived, and it never wore off!
Now, the internet makes it possible for me to indulge my secret vice: pictures, history, stories, news – all things Montanan!
Thanks again. I’ll be back often – when the world makes me crazy, and I need another “shot of Montana”!
I heard of a story a couple yrs back and I think that a lot ppl would like to hear of it also.When the city was digging the ground to lay the foundation down for rattlesnake school, they found bodies. It is the old potters cemetery and the city left the bodies there.
Heather,
We ran a story in the Missoulian on Oct. 14, 1992, written by Donna Syvertson about a memorial at Rattlesnake School dedicated to the dead who were buried where the school was later built. The memorial, described below, still stands with a dedication plaque that says the cemetery was used from 1888-1930.
Here are the first five paragraphs:
“Rattlesnake School dedicated a memorial Tuesday to the hundreds of dead who are buried in its schoolyard.
“The memorial consists of a 6-foot concrete arch with 10 faces on it; the faces represent different ages and races of the people in the cemetery. A smaller arch signifies a bridge from one kind of existence to another. Much of the work was volunteered.
” Pieces of human skeletons were discovered in 1989, when Chlo Murdock and her daughter were walking through the school grounds, where a new addition to the school was being built. After finding a skull bone, Murdock reported the findings to the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office.
“Murdock and Susan Liles began to research the graveyard, which was a potter’s field on the grounds of the old Missoula County Poor Farm, Detention House and Hospital. It was used through the early 1930s. The cemetery’s register could not be found. But old funeral home records, which started in 1901, turned up 454 people buried in the cemetery. There is a possibility 750 bodies actually were buried there, Murdock said.
” Not all of them are poor people. Many died without family or friends to care for them. Railroad accidents claimed 56 men. The bodies of children filled 37 graves and women, 19. Chinese people accounted for 14 graves while Indians and four blacks were buried in the field.”
On its website, the Missoula Cemetery offers an intriguing synopsis of local historical cemetery sites. Go to:
http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=406
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