Buy the Book
See a book you'd like to purchase? Fill out the details on our Book Order Form.
Featuring our e-books!
The Best of Glacier National Park
by Alan Leftridge
- A detailed guide to the best of all that Glacier has to offer. From the best photography spots to the greatest day hikes and best wildflower meadows, this book contains all the don't-miss features of Glacier National Park (and Waterton too!). The perfect size to slip into a daypack, don't visit Glacier without it. Buy the ebook for $9.99!
The Best of Yellowstone National Park
by Alan Leftridge
The Best of Yellowstone National Parkreveals the best things to see and do in the world's first national park, from the best day hikes and scenic drives to the best places to see wildlife and wildflowers. Former National Park Service ranger Alan Leftridge guides the reader through all the superlatives Yellowstone has to offer, including sections on the best activities for kids and the best things to do on a rainy or snowy day. Where are the bears? Where can wolves be seen? Where are the best fishing spots? What are the must-see historic sites? Where are the best waterfalls? This handy guide has all the answers. Amply illustrated with 195 color photographs and 15 locator maps, The Best of Yellowstone National Parkshould be in every visitor's backpack and within easy reach on the dashboard. Buy the ebook for $9.99!
The 1959 Yellowstone Earthquake
By Larry Morris,
Foreword by Lee Whittlesey, Yellowstone National Park Historian
At 11:37 p.m. on August 17, 1959, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake rocked Montana's Yellowstone country. In an instant, an entire mountainside fractured and thundered down onto the sites of unsuspecting campers. The mammoth avalanche generated hurricane-force winds ahead of it that ripped clothing from backs and heaved tidal waves in both directions of the Madison River Canyon. More than two hundred vacationers trapped in the canyon feared the dam upstream would burst. As debris and flooding overwhelmed the river, injured victims frantically searched the darkness for friends and family. Acclaimed historian Larry Morris tells the gripping minute-by-minute saga of the survivors who endured the interminable night, the first responders who risked their lives and the families who waited days and weeks for word of their missing loved ones. $21.99
40 Years from the Brink of Extinction
America's Bald Eagle
by John D. Chaney
photography by John D. Chaney
Bald eagles get a warm salute in 40 Years from the Brink of Extinction, a handsome new photography book by John D. Chaney that collects 40 years of his work documenting America's favorite bird. This large-format hardcover features 63 beautiful photographs of eagles in their natural habitat, interspersed with interesting facts about our national symbol. Chaney's photographs capture eagles' majesty in flight, on the hunt, raising their chicks, and interacting with others. Bird lovers, nature enthusiasts, and true-blue patriots will be proud to display this volume on their coffee tables. $39.95
56 Counties
A Montana Journey
by Russell Rowland
A native Montanan and an applauded novelist (In Open Spaces, High and Inside), Rowland spent the better part of a year studying and traveling around his beloved home state, from the mines of Butte to the pine forests of the Northwest, from the stark, wind-scrubbed badlands of the East to the tourist-driven economies of the West. Along the way, he considered our state’s essential character, where we came from, and, most of all, what we might be in the process of becoming. $22.95
American Plains Bison
Rewilding an Icon
by James A. Bailey
published by James A. Bailey
- For many, plains bison are the embodiment of wildness and the pre-settlement American West. After millennia of evolution through natural selection, however, the species was nearly wiped out, only to be subjected to domestication for more than 100 years. Domestication alters the bison genome through inbreeding, crossing with cattle genes, shrinking genetic diversity and artificial selection. These forces continue to replace natural selection and valued wild characteristics of bison. Does the future hold only continued domestication for plains bison in the United States? With a view from over 50 years in the profession of wildlife biology, Bailey probes this and other questions inThe American Plains Bison: Rewilding an Icon. The book presents his original and lively analysis of 44 conservation bison herds on native range in the United States. He focuses upon the gray area between wildness and domestication and sheds light on domesticating practices of Native American and government agencies, as well as commercial bison producers. He challenges the profession of wildlife management to expand its views on manipulating wildlife populations. For bison, Bailey makes a strong case for creating large reserves to restore wild bison and their natural contributions to our grassland ecosystems. $19.95
As I Remember
Vol. I & Vol. II
Stories of Eastern Montana's Early Settlers
As told to Mrs. Morris (Gladys) Kauffman
In 1964, during Montana's territorial centennial celebration, Mrs. Kauffman noticed the dwindling numbers of the pioneers who had settled Eastern Montana. Someone really should record their stories!
Although she had 9 children, the youngest still a baby, she set out to interview as many settlers as possible. Over the next 10 years she recorded the stories of over 160 pioneers and published those stories in the local newspaper, the Ranger Review. vol. 1 $14.95 and vol. 2 $15.00
Bad Boys of the Black Hills
...And Some Wild Women, Too
BARBED WIRE
The Fence That Changed the West
by Joanne Liu
In a style that will capture the interest of adult and teen readers, Barbed Wire: The Fence That Changed the West reveals the surprisingly critical role the invention of barbed wire played in the settling of America. From the legal battles over barbed wire patents to the brutal fencing wars that erupted on the frontier and the ultimate end of the open range, author Joanne Liu tells the fascinating story of how a simple twist of wire transformed a country’s landscape and ushered in a new way of life. $14.00
Bleed, Blister, and Purge
A History of Medicine on the American Frontier
by Volney Steele, M.D.
Lewis and Clark treated fevers with pills caled "thunderclappers," a strong laxative. Mining camp "soiled doves" may have used opium as birth control. Pioneers sometimes applied fresh cow manure to snakebites. And nineteenth-century doctors recommended soaking in natural hot springs for alcohol and drug addiction. These are just a few of the remedies - some effective, some not - described in Bleed, Blister, and Purge. Yet this book is much more than a summary of peculiar medical practices of the past. Dr. Volney Steele wrote Bleed, Blister, and Purge "to shed light on and celebrate the dedication and humanitarianism of those many physicians, nurses, shamans and people of sound practical sense who saw their patients - often friends and family - through the adversities that bedeviled them." $18.00
Blind Tom
The Horse Who Helped Build the Great Railroad
by Shirley Raye Redmond
Learn all about the building of the world's first transcontinental railroad through the true story of Blind Tom, a sightless workhorse who contributed in his own way to this important part of American history.
Tom was blind, but because of his strength and spirit, he was chosen to be the lead horse for the Union Pacific line. Stalwartly pulling his heavy load through rain, mud, and snow, he was the pride of the UP. He even became a minor celebrity as reporters picked up the story of the intrepid blind horse. With its engaging narrative and striking illustrations, Blind Tom will delight animal lovers of all ages. $10.00
Blue Lines:
A Fishing Life
BY TOM REED
Blue Lines is about fishing small streams in the Rocky Mountain West. It follows one man's life from Colorado childhood streams to Montana high country creeks. Blue Lines is filled with superbly told fishing stories, and it shows us fishing as a healer, fishing as common ground between adversaries, and fishing as a way to escape the travails of the mundane. $12.95
BOLD WOMEN IN MONTANA HISTORY
Author: Beth Judy
From the Blackfeet warrior Running Eagle to the stereotype-smashing librarian Alma Jacobs, the eleven women portrayed in this engaging book were indeed bold—breaking down barriers of sexism, racism, and political opposition to emerge as heroines of their time. The sixth in this Mountain Press’s state-by-state series for teen readers, Bold Women in Montana History reveals the feminine side of the Treasure State’s storied past.
Within these pages are stories of fearless femmes who dared to dream and resolved to take action. Among them we meet Annie Morgan, a Philipsburg homesteader whose mysterious life is only now coming to light; the bronc-riding Greenough sisters, Alice and Marge, who became rodeo stars during the sport’s heyday; and Elouise Cobell, champion of Native American rights.
Perfect for school or home, this collection of short but informative biographies is both a valuable resource and an entertaining read. For readers young and old, Bold Women in Montana History proves what women can accomplish when they dare to be bold. $14.00
Boudoirs to Brothels
the Intimate World of Wild West Women
by Michael Rutter
- Come peek between the covers for an intimate look at the lives of women of the Old West. Once fallen or widowed, a woman had few options and almost none that were socially acceptable. Many turned to the red light district to survive.
Mary Elizabeth Haley was born into a wealthy Texas ranch family, but she was kidnapped in a Comanche raid at age ten. Three years later, her father paid a ransom for her return. Fearing Mary had been defiled, the family shunned her. When she brought home a suitor, her father shot him dead. Mary fled to Kansas and into a life of prostitution.
Maggie Hall was a gorgeous Irishwoman who married soon after arriving in New York City. But her gambler husband was drowning in debt, which he paid off by pimping his own wife. Excommunicated from her church and betrayed by the love of her life, Maggie made her way West as one of the most popular and well paid harlots of the mining camps.
As a child in the 1890s, Thelma Dolly Copeland suffered repeated sexual abuse and ran away at thirteen. She worked in restaurants and bars, but soon realized she could make more money from the attention of men than by waiting on tables. Settling in Ketchikan, Alaska, Dolly soon enjoyed a thriving trade. She finally closed her door at 24 Creek Street in 1954.
Illustrated with rare historical photographs, Boudoirs to Brothels: The Intimate World of Wild West Womentakes you inside the dark, dangerous lives of 18 madams and working girls. $14.95
CROMWELL DIXON
A BOY & HIS PLANE
Boy Genius, Inventor, Dirigible Pilot, and Aviator: Cromwell Dixon
For nearly a century, the accomplishments of a bold and audacious young aviator named Cromwell Dixon have been lost to history. But with the approaching 100th anniversary of his record-setting flight in 2011—and his violent and untimely death—the life story of this remarkable prodigy is finally emerging.
Hailed as a mechanical genius in 1907 at the age of 13, teenage inventor Cromwell Dixon built and flew airships in Ohio before signing on with the famous Glenn Curtiss in New York and flying the world’s first airplanes. At the time, he was youngest licensed pilot in the nation.
At age 19, Dixon became the first pilot in history to fly over the Continental Divide. He made the landmark flight over the Rocky Mountains near Helena, Montana, in 1911, a triumph that made news around the country. Just two days later, while performing an exhibition flight for the state fair in Spokane, Washington, a sudden and violent crash took young Dixon’s life.
Like the tale of Icarus, Dixon’s story is one of great daring, accomplishment, and tragedy. $14.95
BUFFALO COUNTRY: AMERICA'S NATIONAL BISON RANGE
by Donald M Jones (Photographer)
Absolutely gorgeous color photographs by a premier wildlife photographer make this a very special book about the National Bison Range in Montana, and the text about bison, Native Americans, and ecology make it a must-have book for anyone interested in bison and their incredible history on the continent. $14.95
Camas & Sage
A Story of Bison Life on the Prairie
by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
In Camas & Sage: A Story of Bison Life on the Prairie, kids are invited to explore and discover the northern plains in a truly unique way: through the eyes and ears of a bison calf. From Cama's first attempt to stand on wobbly legs, this tale of an adventure-filled first year will have young readers hooked. Full-color illustrations splash across the page, illuminating each of Cama's firsts, including encounters with rascally prairie dogs, a crackling and booming thunderstorm, and irritable bulls. Kids won't want to wait to turn the page to see what happens next! $12.00
THE CASEBOOK OF SHERIFF PETE BENSON
BY JOHN S. FITZPATRICK
Pete Benson was a big-city police detective. His job was intense, dangerous, and 24/7.
He loved it.
But he also had a loving wife and two young children he hardly saw.
So he made a choice.
Now Sheriff Pete Benson patrols Rhyolite County, Montana. His beat is bigger than some states, but it’s beautiful country with tall mountains and broad valleys—and more cows than people.
Rodgersburg, the county seat, has fewer than three thousand people. That’s where Benson and his family live, where he gets the daily gossip from the regulars at the Apex Bar, and where he knows most everyone and they know him.
Most people in Rhyolite County are good, honest, friendly folk—a bit quirky sometimes, but loveable. There’s Bootsey Gorman, an octogenarian prospector still looking for the one big mine he can call his own. And Mandy Lynn Marks, the town beauty who leaves a trail of bruised hearts and broken marriages in her curvaceous wake. And Kay Best, the sheriff’s indispensable right-hand “man” —when she isn’t playing practical jokes on him.
Of course, even in paradise trouble sometimes comes calling. Fortunately, Sheriff Pete Benson is on the job. He loves it.
These are his stories. $12.95
THE CHANGE
by Deanne Smith
There is an unknown predator in a tiny Montana town in 1920. Older women are disappearing in staggering numbers, fourteen so far.
When Clara Terrel, a faith-filled prairie wife, learns the terrifying truth - that men are having their menopausal wives arrested, tried, and sentenced to the state insane asylum - she narrowly escapes the same fate.
At the state capital, Clara fights to have the fourteen women released and to take down the powerful, ruthless men responsible for the injustice. Annie Hazelton, Clara's charismatic, progressive friend; Connor Sullivan, a passionate attorney; and Maxwell Heinz, an awkward yet powerful man in the capital, help Clara in her quest for justice.
The four of them form a strong bond as they face danger, murder charges, and disbelief; and along the way, they uncover facets of themselves that have long lain dormant.
Although a story of fiction, The Change has truth at its roots. $13.00
THE CHARCOAL FOREST
How Fire Helps Animals & Plants
by Beth A. Peluso
Unlike most books, which concentrate on the fire itself, The Charcoal Forest explores the new habitat created by the fire. Focusing on the Northern Rocky Mountains of the United States and Canada, the book describes twenty species of animals and plants that contribute to the reclamation and renewal of the charcoal forest. Why do some beetles fly toward a fire? Why will you almost never see a black-backed woodpecker outside of burned areas? How do fires help grow yummy treats like huckleberries and morel mushrooms? Kids and adults will delight in discovering the answers to these and other burning questions-and don't forget to find the black-backed woodpecker in every picture! $12.00
CHARLIE RUSSELL
The Cowboy Years
Second Edition
by Jane Lambert
Charlie Russell: The Cowboy Years is not an art book, research paper, or novel, and its definitely not fiction. This engaging narrative chronicles the eleven years Charles M. Russell spent on the open range of Montana working as a cowboy, from 1882 until 1893. With Charlie cast as the centerpiece--which he often was during this period--with a supporting cast of friends and horses, this colorful history is filled with adventure. These years as a working cowboy were a formative time for this talented and complex artist, a man of integrity who had a great sense of humor, both childlike and raucous.
Saddle up, and ride along with Charlie and his friends. Tighten your cinch, adjust your stampede string, keep a leg on each side, and expect to have a good time! $20.00
CHASING TIME:
LAST OF THE ACTIVE ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS IN MONTANA
TEXT BY KEITH GRAHAM
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEITH GRAHAM AND NEIL CHAPUT DE SAINTONGE
In the 2013-2014 school year, Montana had 68 active one-room schools, the most of any state. That year, University of Montana professor Keith Graham and Missoula photographer Neil Chaput de Saintonge visited 26 of these far-flung outposts of public education. Traveling more than 12,000 miles in all seasons, they encountered dedicated teachers and eager students, and they discovered that Montana’s one-room schools fostered creative teaching, in-depth learning, and close bonds between teachers and students. Whether the school had one student or a dozen, the schools also served as important focal points for isolated communities. With 240 vibrant color photographs and engaging writing, their book, Chasing Time: Last of the Active One-Room Schools in Montana, is an unforgettable portrait of these important cultural icons and their place in the modern world. $32.95
Cold Hands
by Kathryn R. Stahl
Adventure and romance on the Upper Missouri River of Montana $12.99
Concise History of Fly Fishing, A
by Glenn Law
Fishing is among the most ancient and popular pastimes throughout the world. In this brief but detailed history, Glenn Law examines the development of fly fishing, from the earliest Egyptian copper hooks dating to 2600 B.C. and the first recordings of catch-and-release fishing in China’s Zhou dynasty, to the most modern innovations in tackle and the rise of fly-fishing personalities.
Confessions of a Camo Queen
Living with an Outdoorsman
Conibear Beaver Trapping in Open Water
Master Beaver Trapping Techniques
by Wesley Murphey
Deadwood Saints and Sinners
by Jerry L. Bryant
and Barbara Fifer
Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane get all the press, but Deadwood was as rich in remarkable and eccentric personalities as it was in ore. Authors Bryant and Fifer have mined the archives for obscure (and true!) tales of murderous women, artful con men, woebegone children, an African American orator, a determined temperance activist, and a lovesick assayer. Discover Deadwood as it really was! $14.95
Death & Survival in Glacier National Park
True Tales of Tragedy, Courage, and Misadventure
by C. W. Guthrie
and Ann & Dan Fagre
Sheer cliffs, avalanches, turbulent rivers, cold lakes, severe weather, grizzly bears - these are just a few of the ways you can die while visiting Glacier National Park. Since 1910 when the park was established, 296 people have perished within Glacier's boundaries, and many more somehow survived close calls with death. Death & Survival in Glacier National Park recounts their true tales, as well as stories of the brave and often heroic search-and-rescue professionals who put their lives on the line so that others might live.
Written by local Glacier National Park experts.Jam-packed with gripping stories of courage and survival against all odds.Featuring the most complete chronology of all 296 deaths in Glacier National Park, including names, ages, locations, and causes.
Includes maps, charts & graphs. $18.95
Deeper Than Memory: Our Struggle With Alzheimer’s
Pamela Harr-Rattey
My name is Pamela Harr. This is my story. This is my story of my experiences when my husband, Harvey Rattey, was in the last stages of Alzheimer’s Disease, as told through email messages to friends and family. As clearly as I could I told how I felt while Harvey and I experienced our lives as the days and months passed. I will take you on a day-to-day journey with me as I struggle to balance life with other family members, with my husband’s and my business, and daily activities, all the while seeking the best available care for my husband. While Alzheimer’s is a tragic disease, my story is not tragic. Every day brought moments of intense love, times of joy, and unexpected humor. In seeking to understand how I could best care for my husband, I met new friends and helpers, strengthened my relationship with friends and family in our isolated eastern Montana community, and found a support group who will remain with me through the remainder of my life. I am aware that often my fears, my frustrations and my helplessness, my love, colored my observations and my perceptions. I mean no offense to anyone. I appreciate the gentleness and dedication of the caregivers who worked with us. I appreciate the care and support of my friends.
Artist, speaker, writer, illustrator, physical therapist, rancher, cowgirl, wife and mother, Pamela Harr has led a rich and varied life. Pamela’s background as well as her talents, have given her unique insight and strengths as she tackled the job of care-giver and advocate as her husband, Western Artist, Harvey Rattey, declined with Alzheimer’s Disease. With candor and honesty Pamela has shared her day-to-day struggles during Harvey’s last months. She juggled ranch work, family, business, on-going sculpting, sales, with counting medicines and seeking the best care available for her husband. She depicts the tears and frustrations as well as the tender moments and laughter. Pamela has written articles for Creative Living, Western Horseman, South Dakota Heritage, Southwest Art and a quarterly marketing newsletter. $24.95
Digging Up Dinosaurs
by Jack Horner
illustrations by Robert Rath
and Phil Wilson
More than just a book about dinosaurs, Digging Up Dinosaurs teaches kids ages 8 to 12 about paleontology through the remarkable story of the recent discovery of a Tyrannosaurus rex bone with flexible blood vessels, found in Montana.
Horner takes kids along on the dig, explaining step by step how fossils are formed, the best places to find them, what it takes to get them out of the ground, and what the fossils tell us about the dinosaurs that ruled Montana, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota. $14.95
Dinosaurs Live!
The Ultimate Coloring Adventure!
by Ted Rechlin
illustrations by Ted Rechlin
Bring the prehistoric world back to life in your own ultimate dinosaur coloring adventure. Dinosaurs Live! features wonderfully detailed and scientifically accurate coloring pages from acclaimed artist and dino-enthusiast Ted Rechlin (Tyrannosaurus Rex, Jurassic). Each page is jam-packed with amazing facts and coloring areas of your favorite dinosaurs as fossilized museum mounts and in their full glory as they triumphantly roamed the Mesozoic earth.
-
Featuring thirty-one dinosaurs in prehistoric scenes and species ranging from famous favorites to more recently unearthed finds, Dinosaurs Live! is the perfect coloring adventure for dinosaur lovers of all ages. $9.95
Eastern Montana
by Leland Howard and Lynna Howard
The beauty of eastern Montana's rolling prairies, wild rivers, and far-flung ranches is captured like never before in Eastern Montana, published by Al Myra Communications of Miles City. With stunning full-color images by award-winning photographer Leland Howard and insightful writing by award-winning author Lynna Howard, Eastern Montanais an informative and beautiful celebration of the culture and landscapes of this unique region, a treat for even longtime Montanans. $24.95
Evelyn Cameron:
Montana's Frontier Photographer
photography by Evelyn Cameron
text by Kristi Hager
Born in 1868 to a wealthy British family, Evelyn Cameron traded privilege for adventure, the lush English countryside for the austere eastern Montana badlands, a lavish estate for a tiny homestead shack.
In 1894, at the age of 26, Evelyn turned to the burgeoning art of glass-plate photography as a way to support the Camerons' struggling horse ranch, producing some of the most remarkable images of pioneer life ever seen.
Often riding twenty to thirty miles roundtrip, carrying her nine-pound camera around her waist and her wooden tripod in a gun scabbard, she spent thirty-four years documenting eastern Montana. She captured western landscapes: the ruggedly beautiful badlands, vast expanses of unfenced prairie, and otherwordly sandstone formations. And she photographed western characters: sodbusters, cowpunchers, and sheep shearers, stern-faced ranch families, and hopeful, dreamy-eyed immigrants. She also produced some of the first photographs of North American birds.
Evelyn Cameron: Montana's Frontier Photographer showcases 117 of the finest and most fascinating images by this adventurer, homesteader, ranchwoman, and great American photographer. $14.95
EVELYN CAMERON
Photographer on the Western Prairie
Author: Lorna Milne
In her first biography, author Lorna Milne uses diaries and letters to reconstruct how Evelyn lived in the harsh eastern Montana landscape and how she became an extraordinary photographer. Evelyn may have been born in England, but through heart and temperament, she was a Westerner. She was resourceful, hard working, observant, artistic, adaptable. According to her contemporary, a traveling Englishwoman, Evelyn was described as “one of the great wonders of Montana.” $14.00
FLOATING ON THE MISSOURI:
100 YEARS AFTER LEWIS & CLARK
BY JAMES WILLARD SCHULTZ
In 1901, almost a century after Lewis and Clark toiled along the same route, noted writer James Willard Schultz and his Blackfeet wife Natahki (Fine Shield Woman) made a float trip on Montana’s Missouri River from Fort Benton to the mouth of the Milk River, a distance of more than 200 miles. In a small boat, they passed through what is now the Upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic River, the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, and the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.
On one level, this book is an entertaining travelogue about the river’s extravagant scenery, its plentiful wildlife, and the joy of drifting day after day through wild country. On another level, it is a remarkable record of the vanishing American frontier. Each tributary, island, rapid, and geological formation was the scene of some notable event to Indians or white men, including Schultz himself, who had lived in the area since 1877. Schultz relates those events with verve and dialog as if they happened yesterday. The result is an extraordinary book for travelers and historians alike. $19.95
Going Along With Lewis and Clark
by Barbara Fifer
Topic-by-topic, visual treatment of the Lewis and Clark Expedition for children ages 8 to 12. Color maps, sketches, paintings, and photographs with fascinating text, presented in bright and active style, covering 'Who They Were,' 'People They Met,' 'What They Ate,' and more. $12.95
Hand Raised
The Barns of Montana
by Christine Brown and Chere Jiusto
photography by Tom Ferris
Symbols of the agricultural settlement that transformed Montana’s landscape and culture, barns bring to mind images of people drawing their living from the land. Stone barns, round barns, ethnic barns, dairy barns, some veritable castles for racehorses, others hewn from rough logs—they were all built to serve utilitarian purposes: sheltering livestock and storing crops and equipment. As these handcrafted buildings reach a venerable age, some of them having survived a hundred years and more, we recognize them not only for their utility but also for their beauty. Photographer Tom Ferris’s color images capture the barns’ majestic exteriors as well as telling details of their construction, use, and preservation. The photographs are accompanied by stories of individual barns and their builders. Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana recognizes these invaluable buildings, encourages their preservation, and honors the ranch and farm families that built them. $27.95
Hard Twist
Western Ranch Women
A Hard Won Life
A Boy on His Own on the Montana Frontier
by H. Norman Hyatt
- Based on the hand-written memoir of Fred Van Blaricom, this true story recounts a life of hardship and hope in the Montana Territory during the late 1800s. Told in Fred’s affable voice and rich with historical detail,A Hard Won Life is a coming-of-age story packed with adventures and grounded in the remarkable lives of the earliest homesteaders—men and women—of the Lower Yellowstone. Meet young Teddy Roosevelt, famed buffalo hunter Vic Smith, saloon owners, devious outlaws, and persistent sheriffs. Working as a cowboy, young Freddie broke horses, helped catch a horsethief, survived the cattle-killing winter of 1886, and at age ten rode alone 100 miles to work a season on a ranch in the Dakota Territories. Fred’s was a life of struggle against many obstacles, but he overcame them or abided them with no complaint. As he himself put it: “The hero was throwed, but the horse was tamed.” Meticulously researched and superbly written, A Hard Won Life is a tale of bravery, determination, and one boy’s embodiment of the spirit of Montana. $25.00
Haunted Montana
BY KAREN STEVENS
Here’s your ghostly guide to spooks, spirits, and specters of Montana. From haunted hotels to eerie inns, this book will take you to all the spookiest spots in the state. Want to meet a phantom? Experience a poltergeist? Commune with the dearly departed? Let Haunted Montana lead the way to places you can stay to experience the other side. $24.00
MORE HAUNTED MONTANA
BY KAREN STEVENS
Want to bowl with the ghosts at a bowling alley in Anaconda? Explore a spooky mine near Helena? Have you ever slept with a ghost? At a bed-and-breakfast inn near Missoula, you might find yourself sharing your bed with the ghost of the former landlady! Thirsty? You’re welcome to hoist a cold brew at a haunted bar in Billings. But if you don’t believe in ghosts, then avoid one particular barstool—or wear a hard hat! One of the resident spooks doesn’t care for scoffers.
In More Haunted Montana, certified ghost hunter Karen Stevens once again focuses on haunted sites of historic interest that are open to the public. Just like she did for her first book, Haunted Montana, Stevens personally investigated each haunting and interviewed eyewitnesses to the paranormal sights and sounds. She describes the history behind the haunting, the specific phenomena, and the best way to maximize your chances of encountering the Other World.
You’ll find thirty-four spooky stories from all over the state, from the historic Bitterroot Valley to the starkly beautiful prairies of the east. Use this book as a travel guide to the supernatural or simply enjoy it as an entertaining narrative about Montana’s most haunted places. $25.90
Homesteading
Settling America's Heartland
Author: Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
Photographer: William Munoz
Beginning with the Homestead Act of 1862, hundreds of men and women seized the opportunity to create a new life on the western prairie. In Homesteading: Settling America's Hearland, award-winning children's autor Dorothy Hinshaw Patent and photographer William Munoz reveal how these brave pioneer families made the most of their scarce resources to build a house, cultivate crops, and bring up children on the desolate grasslands of the American Great Plains. Some failed, but others survived and eventually thrived, opening the way ofr generations of Westerners to come. $12.00
HONEY - THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG COWBOY
by Stu Campbell
Follow our young cowboy friend while he works his summer job at a dude ranch where he picks up the nickname "Honey"-a moniker he doesn't much like. He also finds himself with a girlfriend-a situation he does like. "Honey" is the second book in a series that follows our young friend on his journey into manhood, which includes nightly kissing practice with his girlfriend Sally. $16.95
The House of Bair
Sheep, Cadillacs and Chippendale
by Lee Rostad
The House of Bair tells the story of one of the most remarkable families of the early 20th century.
The Bairs built a dynasty in the small ranching community of Martinsdale, Montana. They left behind a legacy of philanthropy, and displayed in their ranch house, a vast and invaluable collection of American and European art and antiques.
The Bairs left their home as a museum to the people of Montana, a seemingly simple request that ultimately divided friends, sparked numerous lawsuits, and made national headlines. Rostad details the fight of the community to save the ranch museum and uphold the wishes of these beloved and colorful figures in Montana's history. $18.95
IMAGES OF AMERICA: GLENDIVE
by Dr. R. Michael Booker Jr.
Glendive was founded in the early 1880s, and its growth was promoted and sustained by the Northern Pacific Railroad. Legend holds that Sir George Gore, on a hunting expedition with famed mountain man Jim Bridger, named a creek in the area Glendale Creek after a similar one in his native County Donegal, Ireland. Over the years, the word “Glendale” somehow transformed into “Glendive.” Prior to the arrival of European Americans, indigenous peoples, including the Crow and the Lakota Sioux, called the area home. The arrival of the Northern Pacific in 1881, along with the passage of the Enlarged Homestead Act in 1909, lured people from America and abroad to this isolated region to pursue their version of the American dream. $21.99
Lakota Noon
The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat
Author: Gregory F. Michno
"With careful attention to his book's subtitle, Michno presents the most important surviving testimony of Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux participants in the 1876 Little Bighorn battle. He follows the virtual minute-by-minute approach successfully used in John S. Gray's Centennial Campaign (CH, May'77) to describe events in meticulous detail. Michno's intimate knowledge of the battlefield, as well as his close reading of white accounts and recent archaeological investigations, helps bring the conflict into sharper focus. He also discusses many of the long-standing controversies about the number of warriors in the encampment, the weaponry arrayed on both sides, the movements of various companies and even individual soldiers, the exploits of specific Indian warriors, and the probable casualties. For this reason, the frequent content footnotes must be read in their entirety because they deal historiographically with the points of dispute and conflicting testimony. A final chapter traces the lives of some of the most prominent Indian participants during the decades after the battle. Although intended for the specialist who is well grounded in the literature, this book can be enjoyed by anyone interested in the story of Plains Indian warfare or 19th-century military history." --M. L. Tate, University of Nebraska at Omaha $18.00
THE LAST BUFFALO HUNT AND OTHER STORIES: ADVENTURES IN THE GREAT AMERICAN OUTDOORS
by J. I. Merritt
LAW OF THE RANGE:
PORTRAITS OF OLD-TIME BRAND INSPECTORS
by Stephen Collector
More than a decade ago, Stephen Collector began photographing brand inspectors throughout the West. This simple curiosity gradually became an obsession, resulting in Law of the Range, runner-up as the best Art Book in the Rocky Mountain region. Collector's goal was to achieve the portrait as landscape, and to know the landscape and its people. His black-and-white photographs document beautifully a part of the West missing and presumed dead. However, rustling is not entirely a thing of the past, and the profession of the range detective did not die out with Tom Horn. Collector's fifty duotone portraits of inspectors, with short biographies and a dozen detail shots, are wonderfully enriched by Annick Smith's evocative and informative introduction. This is indeed the portrait as landscape, and though the landscape may be irreparably altered by progress, the souls of these men endure. $45.00
LIFE OF A SOLDIER ON THE WESTERN FRONTIER
by Jeremy Agnew
Focusing on the Indian Wars period of the 1840s through the 1890s, Life of a Soldier on the Western Frontier captures the daily challenges faced by the typical enlisted man and explores the role soldiers played in the conquering of the American frontier. In addition to describing the nitty-gritty details of a soldier s daily life, this fascinating study explores the Indian Wars from the perspective of both the military and the Indians and examines all aspects of the post Civil War army, including its organization, its weapons, and its personnel. The book also contains two appendices, one summarizing significant battles and the other listing selected western forts. Both include site locations and information for visitors. Dozens of photos and several maps add to the reader s understanding and enjoyment. $18.00
MAMMALS OF MONTANA
Second Edition
Author: Kerry R. Foresman
This comprehensive guide details the taxonomy, ecology, behavior, reproductive biology, and distribution of all 109 mammal species in Montana, from the pygmy shrew, one of the tiniest mammals in the world, to the bison, the largest land mammal in North America. Whether you want to distinguish between the 15 species of bats that live in or migrate through the state or are simply trying to identify the squirrel in your backyard, Mammals of Montana is for you. This second edition contains more than 500 color photographs, many by renowned wildlife photographer Alex Badyaev. Scattered throughout the species descriptions are interesting and curious facts about these wild creatures. Learn which shrew is venomous, how the pika survives winter in its alpine habitat without hibernating, and what animal squeezes through vole tunnels in search of dinner. Author Kerry Foresman also covers the reintroduction efforts to save Montana species, such as the black-footed ferret and swift fox, from extinction, and he cautions how climate change may push others, such as the northern bog lemming and wolverine, to the brink. $32.00
Mercy for Me
By Arlie Rauch
A ruptured brain aneurysm plunged this couple into the strangest period of their lives. Arlie Rauch, husband of the patient and pastor at Community Bible Church in Glendive, Montana, tells the true story of their excruciating experience. This drama is a tribute to the inexhaustible love and goodness of God, poured out upon two people from sparsely populated eastern Montana. $13.95
Montana 1864:
Indians, Emigrants, and Gold in the Territorial Year
by Ken Egan
In 1864, vast herds of buffalo roamed the northern short-grass prairie and numerous Native American nations lived on both sides of the adjacent Continental Divide. Lewis and Clark had come and gone, and so had most of the fur trappers and mountain men. The land that would become Montana was mostly still the wild and untrammeled landscape it had been for millennia.
That all changed in a single year—1864—because of gold, the Civil War, and the relentless push of white Americans into Indian lands. By the end of that pivotal year in the history of Montana—and in the history of the American West—Montana was the newest United States territory.
In Montana 1864, writer and scholar Ken Egan Jr. captures this momentous year with a tapestry of riveting stories about Indians, traders, gold miners, trail blazers, fortune-seekers, settlers, Vigilantes, and outlaws—the characters who changed Montana, and those who resisted the change with words and war.
Egan’s vivid narrative style immerses readers in the conflicting currents of western expansionism as it actually happened, providing a unique and thought-provoking examination of Montana’s beginnings. $19.95
MONTANA 1889:
INDIANS, COWBOYS, AND MINERS IN THE YEAR OF STATEHOOD
BY KEN EGAN JR.
When Montana became the 41st state in 1889, an old pinoeer lamented, “Now she's gone to hell,” but most Montanans embraced statehood as the inevitable culmination of one of the most rapid and dramatic transformations in United States history.
Only twenty-five years after becoming a territory, Montana was profoundly different: the buffalo slaughtered and gone, the Indian wars fought and ended, the tribal nations confined to reservations, cattle and sheep raised by the tens of thousands, Butte exploded into a rich, wide-open town, and railroads built to link the once remote land with the world.
Montana 1889 tells the many stories of this overwhelming transformation by entering into the lives, emotions, and decisions of diverse peoples cooperating and competing on this contested ground. As in Ken Egan’s highly acclaimed Montana 1864, these stories are told month by month, deftly showing the flow and friction of events and the unfolding destinies of individuals and nations. $22.94
MONTANA AMERICANA MUSIC: BOOT STOMPING IN BIG SKY COUNTRY
By Aaron Parrett, Foreword by Smith Henderson
Montana’s relationship to Americana music is as wide and deep as the famed Missouri River that inspired countless musicians seated at its shores. From the fiddling of Pierre Cruzatte and George Gibson in the Corps of Discovery to the modern-day loner folk of Joey Running Crane and Cameron Boster, the Treasure State inspires the production of top-notch country music. In the 1950s, bands like the Snake River Outlaws fostered a long-standing love of hillbilly honky-tonk, and in the 1970s, the Mission Mountain Wood Band added a homegrown flavor of its own. Contemporary acts like the Lil’ Smokies and songwriter Martha Scanlan promise a vibrant future for the local sound. Author and musician Aaron Parrett explores this history to show what it means to boot stomp in Big Sky Country. $21.99
Montana Battlefields, 1806-1877
Native Americans and the U.S. Army at War
by Barbara Fifer
Montana's era of "Indian Wars" consisted of nearly a century of skirmishes, battles, and large-scale wars between the U.S. military and native nations, including Blackfeet, Sioux, Northern Cheyennes, Arapahos, Gros Ventres, and Nez Perces and the army's Crow and Shoshone allies. These battlegrounds remain today, a testament to the clash of cultures that defined the region in the nineteenth century.
Author Barbara Fifer takes readers on a historic journey to the solemn sites of Montana's most fascinating and storied battles, from Two Medicine Creek to the Little Bighorn and on to the Sweetgrass Hills, revealing engaging tales from fighters and witnesses on both sides. $14.95
Montana Beer
By Ryan Newhouse
Montana's brewing history stretches back more than 150 years to the state's days as a territory. But the art of brewing in Montana has come a long way since the frontier era. Today, nearly forty craft breweries span the Treasure State, and the quality of their output rivals the best craft beer produced anywhere in the country. Maybe it's because there's also a little piece of Montana in every glass, as the state's brewers pride themselves on using cold mountain water and locally sourced barley harvested from Montana's ample fields. From grain to glass, Montana Beer: A Guide to Breweries in Big Sky Country" tells the story of the brewers and breweries that make the Treasure State's brew so special." $19.99
Montana Chillers
13 True Tales of Ghosts and Hauntings
by Ellen Baumler
Do you believe in ghosts?
Prepare for thirteen encounters with the supernatural as you shiver through some of Montana's most chilling tales of ghosts and hauntings.
All of these stories are true. They are about real people, real places, and real events. Are you prepared to be scared?
Take a peak inside: The Harlem Hotel, Spirit Horse, The Legend of the Boy Who Drowned, The Ghost of Elling House
Tommyknockers, Garnet Ghost Town, Haunted Bannack, Secrets of the Montana Club, The Conrad Mansion, The Mansion's Little Ghost, The Weeping Woman of Fish Creek, Man in the Mirror & Mystery of the Metal Coffin $12.95
MONTANA IS...
BY MIKE LOGAN IN CONJUNCTION WITH BUGLIN’ BULL PRESS
Mike Logan’s photography showcases the majesty of Montana, high, wide, and wonderful! $11.95
A MONTANA JOURNAL
BY CHRISTOPHER CAUBLE
This is a beautiful new book for all who love Montana. A cloth hardcover with a “tipped-in” front cover photo and foil stamping, it features 144 lined pages for writing and 36 pages of evocative color photography from across the state, plus several treasured quotations about Montana from famous authors. The writing pages have subtle lines on matte paper, perfect for pen or pencil. The color photographs are brilliant on art-quality glossy paper. The book has a sturdy sewn binding and a bound-in ribbon marker. There is no other Montana book like it, an elegant journal that is functional and durable, great for home or backpack. $24.95
Montana Madams
by Nann Parrett
Men flooded to the Montana frontier for gold, furs, rich land, and jobs. Women followed, but their options were more limited. Here are stories of women who made a desperate choice, turning the law of supply and demand to their advantage. Many eked out a meager but independent existence; grit and business acumen brought remarkable wealth and influence even respectability to a few. From Alzada to Yaak, these enterprising women shaped Montana communities, in some cases helping to fund social programs and public education.
The Montana Medicine Show's Genuine Montana History
by B. Derek Strahn
Step right up for entertaining Montana history
Montana’s history is never dull in a new book packed with lively accounts of the state’s people, places and events.
“The Montana Medicine Show’s Genuine Montana History” by Derek Strahn is based on Strahn’s popular radio show that originates at KGLT studios on the campus of Montana State University-Bozeman.
“The Montana Medicine Show’s main objective is to entertain—to relate some interesting or quirky anecdote and provide a thought-provoking glimpse of Montana’s past,” Strahn said.
Given the fleeting nature of radio and the need to make a quick impression, the radio scripts lean heavily on vivid historic quotes and dramatic first-hand accounts. This style makes the book fun to read, and, unlike the radio show, the book adds intriguing historic photos and illustrations for each of the 117 stories.
The book highlights little-known hucksters, risk-takers, reformers, and reprobates along with famous politicians, artists, Native Americans, and sports heroes. Numerous women are featured, including ground-breaking professionals, Hollywood stars, and fearless human-rights activists. Natural events such as floods, fires, earthquakes, and blizzards take their turns, too.
Readers of the book will discover the truth of journalist Joseph Kinsey Howard’s famous observation: “Montana has lived the life of America, on a reduced scale and at breakneck speed.” $15.95
Montana State Parks: Complete Guide & Travel Companion
BY ERIN MADISON AND KRISTEN INBODY
Montana’s 55 state parks are a spectacularly diverse collection of natural areas, historic sites, and fun places where visitors are welcome to hike, camp, fish, swim, boat, photograph, watch wildlife, learn, and explore.
Join award-winning Great Falls Tribune reporters Erin Madison and Kristen Inbody as they visit each park and interview park managers, historians, and visitors to provide the most complete and up-to-date information about these remarkable public lands. Their unique book is packed with current information and special features, including:
- Key information at a glance
- Best parks for camping, boating, hiking, and recreation
- Best parks for history and natural wonders
- Author-recommended activities
- Photos, maps, and directions
- Accurate information on all campgrounds, fees, and facilities
- A foreword by Montana Governor Steve Bullock
- A special Smith River essay by Montana novelist Maile Meloy
- Perfect size for taking along on trips
- The only guidebook to all the parks
- Use this book to find a favorite park—or take the State Park Challenge and visit all of them! $19.95
Montana Stories of the Land
by Krys Holmes, with major contributions by Dave Walter and Susan C. Dailey
More than 12,000 years of Montana history come to life in Montana: Stories of the Land. This new book, created for use in teaching Montana history, offers a panorama of the past, beginning with Montana's first people and ending with life in the twenty-first century.
Incorporating Indian perspectives,Montana: Stories of the Land is the first truly multicultural history of the state. It features hundreds of historical photographs, unique artifacts, maps, and paintings largely drawn from the Society's extensive collections. Sidebar quotations bring the stories of ordinary people to life while providing diverse perspectives on important historical events. $59.95 AWARDS: Honor Book, 2009 Montana Book Awards.
MONTANA UFOS AND EXTRATERRESTRIALS
BY JOAN BIRD
In 1950, two spinning disks flew over Great Falls, Montana, and were filmed on a hand-held camera. Today, those “flying saucers” in the now-famous “Montana Movie” still defy conventional explanation.
In the 1960s, UFOs were reported at Minuteman missile silos in Montana. In separate incidents while a UFO was overhead, armed and ready nuclear missiles were suddenly deactivated as missile launch officers watched helplessly. The U.S. Air Force ordered these men never to tell anyone what happened.
This book critically examines these and other UFO events in Montana, including reported contact with extraterrestrials. Drawing on recently declassified government documents, historic reports, and first-hand interviews, Ph.D. zoologist and author Joan Bird presents compelling evidence that UFOs are real, have frequented Montana’s Big Sky, and have landed in the state. $14.95
MONTANA WATERFALLS:
A GUIDE FOR SIGHTSEERS, HIKERS & WATERFALL ENTHUSIASTS
BY LARRY AND NATHAN JOHNSON
This one-of-a-kind book describes how to find more than 50 spectacular waterfalls in Montana. From thundering drops to vibrant cascades, each waterfall is clearly described with photos, maps, directions, and helpful information on nearby camping, hiking, geology, and history. Some of the waterfalls can be driven to; some are an easy walk from a parking area; and some require hiking or bushwhacking. Each one was handpicked by the authors who spent seven years searching for the best waterfalls in the state, from known attractions to hidden wilderness marvels they found on their own. Now you can use Montana Waterfalls to make your own discoveries and see, hear, and enjoy some of the most beautiful phenomena in nature. $24.95
Montana Women From the Ground Up: Passionate Voices in Agriculture & Land Conservation
By Kristine Ellis, for Broadwater and Glacier County Conservation Districts Growing up on the family ranch, Linda Finley fought hard to gain the acceptance and respect as a ranch hand that her brothers took for granted. Arlene Pile barely remembers learning to ride a horse and run machinery—she was so young. She learned to drive on an 8N Ford tractor with a buck rake. Lee Jacobsen became the first woman in the state licensed to artificially inseminate cattle. Meet these and other Montana women passionate about caring for their land and determined to make the lifestyle their own. Many never doubted for a moment that they would spend their lives in agriculture, while others speak of their surprise and delight to find themselves living on the land. All agree that they wouldn’t be happy doing anything else. $21.99
MONTANA: A CULTURAL MEDLEY
BY ROBERT R. SWARTOUT, JR.
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts when Montana historian Robert Swartout gathers the fascinating stories of the state’s surprisingly diverse ethnic groups into this thought-provoking collection of essays. Fourteen chapters showcase an African American nightclub in Great Falls, a Japanese American war hero, the founding of a Metís community, Jewish merchants, and Dutch settlement in the Gallatin Valley, as well as stories of Irish, Scots, Chinese, Finns, Mexican Americans, European war brides, and more. $19.95
Montana's Dimple Knees Sex Scandal: 1960s Prostitution, Payoffs and Politicians
By John Kuglin, Foreword by Pat Williams
Beverly Snodgrass made a lot of poor choices. Once a prostitute in the old mining town of Butte, she later became a madam running two of the most popular brothels. She fell deeply in love with a crooked politician, whom she nicknamed “Dimple Knees.” When corrupt cops in uniform came to her businesses, it usually wasn’t to serve and protect but rather to collect payoffs. Butte is sometimes described as a town that “drinks her liquor straight,” but things never were the same after Beverly told her story to a newspaper reporter. That reporter, John Kuglin, recounts the scandal that rocked The Richest Hill on Earth and for a time made Dimple Knees the most famous name in Montana. $21.99
THE MYSTERY OF E TROOP
Custer's Gray Horse Company at the Little Bighorn
Author: Gregory F. Michno
Names on the Face of Montana
The Story of Montana's Place Names
Author: Roberta Carkeek Cheney
"This is probably the most universally appealing Montana book ever published. Literally hundreds of Montana's colorful and historic places are detailed in their evolution."--Tom Behan, Montana Magazine
Follow the prospectors of Gold Creek or Granite, honor government officials with Jefferson and Meagher, smile with the old-timers at Ubet, and ride the prairie with cattlemen turning brands into Two Dot and Seventynine.
NATURE'S YUCKY!
Gross Stuff That Helps Nature Work
by Lee Ann Landstrom and Karen I. Shragg
Younger children will love having the book read to them, while older children and adults will also enjoy the "Animal Facts" section in the back, which has more in-depth information on the featured animals. Kids of all ages will get a kick out of learning to identify the droppings of various animals by making (and eating!) "scat cookies." Lovely watercolor illustrations balance out the "yuckiness," reminding us that nature is not just disgusting, but beautiful, too. For K-5th grade. $10.00
Nature's Yucky! 2
The Desert Southwest
This follow-up to the disgustingly popular Nature’s Yucky! takes young naturalists and other lovers of foul facts and icky information on an expedition to the American Southwest. Nature’s Yucky! 2 introduces readers to sixteen desert creatures and vividly answers such scintillating scientific questions as: How does the regal horned lizard squirt blood from its eyes? Why do dung beetles eat poop? Why does the piglike javelina smell like stinky socks? Astonishingly detailed illustrations capture not just Mother Nature’s revolting qualities but her stunning beauty.
Nature's Yucky! 3
The Eastern United States
OWLS, WHOO ARE THEY?
Author: Denver W. Holt
PHOTOGRAPHING MONTANA, 1894-1928: THE LIFE AND WORK OF EVELYN CAMERON
Promises to Grace (Welcome Home Book 1): A Christian Western of Revenge and Redemption
by Deanne Smith
IS THERE REALLY A TIME TO KILL? Young Elizabeth believes there is, and that time is now. Eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Chamberlain has come to Wyoming with a single purpose - to avenge her family's brutal murders that she and her little sister Grace witnessed over three years ago in 1887. Armed with a hot flame in her soul, expert fighting skills, weapons and disguises of all sorts, will Elizabeth be able to exact vigilante justice on the killers so she can return quickly to Grace and her life in Missouri? Or will she be deterred by the people she encounters in Wyoming who test the beliefs she has held to so tightly since the day her world was destroyed? Will she win her fight against the emergence of long-buried feelings - faith, love, friendship, home - that these people bring about? Skeeter is a quirky and persistent street boy who resembles Elizabeth's brother and creates the first fissure in her hardened heart. Petra is a strong, motherly Christian woman who found power in forgiveness in her own tragic life. She gently works to restore Elizabeth's faith and reliance on God. Kitch is the only man who can crumble Elizabeth's heart-walls and let in the light of love. However, Kitch has a secret of his own that threatens to re-ignite the red flame of hatred in Elizabeth's soul and send her retreating into the isolation of distrust that has been her foundation for so long. Will these people help or hinder Elizabeth's quest for vengeance? Read this Christian historical fiction novel of western revenge and find out. $14.99
A Pronghorn Year
A Visual Tribute to North America's Pronghorn
by Dick Kettlewell
Our prairies, plains, and rangelands would be empty landscapes without the supremely adapted pronghorn. InA Pronghorn Year: A Visual Tribute to North America’s Pronghorn, Dick Kettlewell beautifully captures this animal’s amazing speed, eight-power eyesight, and all-season hardiness. More than 100 full-color images—including rare close-ups of newborn fawns—complement the lively, intriguing text, sure to entertain and inform readers of all ages. $14.95
Raptors of the West
Captured in Photographs
Winner National Outdoor Book Award
by Kate Dunlap
Davis's books are not only the best books available on (western) American birds of prey for the lay reader and serious amateurs, but their sensational photographs and sound technical information also make them useful and enjoyable to hardcore raptor biologists --Lloyd Kiff, Raptor Researcher
With their striking looks, keen vision, and hunting prowess, the birds of prey—eagles, hawks, falcons, and owls—have long captured the human imagination. Now Raptors of the West, a collection of some of most remarkable and action-packed raptor photographs ever taken, can inspire your own imagination to take flight. This book, the latest collaboration by award-winning photographers Rob Palmer and Nick Dunlop and author/ photographer Kate Davis, is a glorious photographic ode to the forty-five birds of prey that roam the skies of the American West.
Instead of grouping the birds by type—owls with owls, hawks with hawks—the book has chapters arranged by the habitat type and region where each bird spends the breeding season. Whether you’re enjoying these pages from the comfort of your own armchair or taking a trip to the field you can see which birds to look for in that area—Swainson’s Hawks soar over grasslands next to Prairie Falcons while Cooper’s Hawks share mature forests with Flammulated Owls. While the 430 stunning color photographs are enough to set this book apart on their own, Davis’s informative and entertaining text completes the picture. $30.00
ROADSIDE GEOLOGY OF MONTANA
by David D. Alt
Montana's geologic history includes a long succession of disturbances that changed the rocks, then changed many of them again. Unraveling these events reveals a geologically quiet continent that got scrambled in a long and grinding collision with the Pacific crustal plate. Through detailed geologic maps and lively text, Roadside Geology of Montana deciphers the complicated rock record and uncovers each layer of Big Sky Country. $20.00
SACAGAWEA'S SON
The Life of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau
Author: Marion Tinling
When the explorers Lewis and Clark asked the Shoshone woman Sacagawea and her husband, French trapper Toussaint Charbonneau, to act as interpreters for their expedition, the couple brought along their two-month-old son, Jean Baptiste. Over the course of the two-year journey, baby Baptiste won the hearts of the rough men of the corps. Captain Clark called him "my little dancing boy." But the rest of the story of this intriguing young figure has been largely untold--until now.
Sacagawea's Son: The Life of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau tells the action-packed, sometimes poignant story of a boy born to adventure. Baptiste's experiences with the Corps of Discovery were only the beginning. Educated in St. Louis by Captain Clark, he went on to live in a royal palace in Europe and to speak many languages. But, truly his parents' son, he returned to the American West, living out his life as a trapper, scout, and explorer alongside the likes of Kit Carson, James Bridger, and John Fremont. Readers ages ten and up will thrill to this lively and fascinating account of the life of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau--a child chosen by history. $12.00
Shot in Montana: A History of Big Sky Cinema
by Brian D'Ambrosio
For nearly a century, movies have been made in Montana. The state played itself in Cattle Queen of Montana, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Winter in the Blood, and the iconic A River Runs Through It, and it doubled for an Arctic ice pack in Firefox, Nebraska in Nebraska, the authentic Old West in Heaven’s Gate, and even heaven in What Dreams May Come.
Montana’s Kootenai River swallowed up Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep in The River Wild, a stunt double for Leonardo DiCaprio tumbled down Kootenai Falls in The Revenant, and Forrest Gump ran through Glacier National Park. The city of Butte played itself in Evel Knievel, substituted for San Francisco’s Chinatown in Thousand Pieces of Gold, and hosted a zombie apocalypse in Dead 7. Charles Bronson’s Telefon blew up a school in Great Falls, Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando battled in the badlands of The Missouri Breaks, and Far and Away’s Oklahoma land rush with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman actually thundered across Montana prairie.
From megahits with the biggest Hollywood stars to acclaimed independent films and forgettable flops, nearly a hundred movies have been made, in whole or in part, in Montana, and for the first time this treasure trove of filmmaking has been thoroughly researched and documented. Montana author Brian D’Ambrosio (Warrior in the Ring) describes every movie, including the actors, directors, and shooting locations, and reveals fascinating stories and incidents that took place behind the cameras.
Featuring 120 photos and interviews with actors and filmmakers, Shot in Montana is a blockbuster adventure through the Treasure State’s cinematic history. $22.95
Since the Days of the Buffalo
A History of Eastern Montana and the Kalfell Ranch
by Michael Bugenstein
A comprehensive history of Eastern Montana in nine chapters, as well as the experiences on an a long-term family ranch on the High Plains. Since the Days of the Buffalo covers important and little-known facets of Great Plains history including tribal migration and settlement, open range days, homestead life, railroads, horse capture and outlaws, and the effect of the Great Depression, New Deal, and war effort in Eastern Montana. Ranching topics cover droughts and water supplies, economic downturns, diversification, land disputes and inheritance issues, presented with a "human" perspective. Since the Days of the Buffalo is an easy-to-read reference, as well as a "road map" of what today's ranchers can expect in the future. $24.95
Soul of the Rockies: Portraits of America's Largest Mountain Range Hardcover
by Ed Cooper
This is the second book in Ed Cooper's Soul of the Heights series and is intended to be a celebration of the Rocky Mountains, capturing on film and in text what the author describes as the soul of the Rocky Mountains. $39.95
THE SUN GOD'S CHILDREN:
THE HISTORY, CULTURE AND LEGENDS OF THE BLACKFEET INDIANS
BY JAMES WILLARD SCHULTZ
The Blackfeet were people of the buffalo. They originated on the plains of today’s southern Alberta, western Saskatchewan, and central Montana. In the 1830s famed artist and explorer George Catlin called the Blackfeet “the most powerful tribe of Indians on the continent.”
Fur trader, hunting guide, and later, acclaimed chronicler of Native American culture, James Willard Schultz lived with the Blackfeet for many years from the 1870s to the 1930s. The tribe named him “Apikuni” (Spotted Robe). Schultz said the purpose of writing this book was “to integrate the activities of the life of the Blackfeet tribes, in the days of the buffalo, and including certain of their ceremonials of the present time.” The Sun God’s Children describes the Blackfeet as they lived before the coming of the fur traders and their customs, traditions, and religious beliefs, as told to Schultz by the Blackfeet themselves. $19.95
They Called Me Buster
by Bus Morris as told to Karen Morris
"We were what people of this day and age would consider to be poor and underpriveliged. But it was just a way of life. Everyone was in the same boat."
These are the recollections of Bus Morris. More than that, they are also the recollections of many of the people who grew up in the hard times of the 30s. His story is also their story. Over the years, things have changed, but the memories of these times and the way things were have had a continuing impact on the lives they have led.
Join Bus for a stroll down memory lane and, just perhaps, along the way, you may gain a bit more insight into this very special generation. $7.50
This is Montana
by Rick and Susie Graetz
A comprehensive look at the geographic beauty of the state through 151 lively essays. Features 124 black-and-white photographs. $25.00
An Uncommon Journey
by H. Norman Hyatt
The History of Old Dawson County, Montana Territory
The Biography of Stephen Norton Van Blaricom, A True Story of the First Settlers of the Last West
Based on the memoir of Stephen Norton Van Blaricom, An Uncommon Journey details the origins of Dawson County, Montana, in the late 1800s.
The oldest of nine children, Van Blaricom left home at the age of thirteen and worked for many of northeastern Montana's earliest ranches. After working for the Northern Pacific Railroad, he married Maud Griselle, one of the first female telegraphers for the Northern Pacific.
More than a family history, An Uncommon Journey tells the personal stories of many of the first settlers of this last West: buffalo hunters, cattlemen, train drivers, early tradesmen, saloonkeepers, scallywags, and lawmen.
This is the story of many of the long-forgotten first settlers of old Dawson County and how they met the challenges of a country that was then primitive and remote at its best and deadly at its worst. For all of them it was, indeed, An Uncommon Journey. $24.95
Vigilante Days & Ways
by Nathaniel P. Langford
Riders in the night... impromptu "trials"... corpses dangling from cottonwood trees and makeshift scaffolds... When the outlaws called themselves "Innocents," and their leader masqueraded as sheriff...
-
Before formal law enforcement arrived on Montana's gold frontier, a few good men tried to restore order themselves. They succeeded for a time, but then went too far. Here is one insider's version of the story.
Langford's Vigilante's Days & Ways was first published in 1890. This edition features a vigilante oath and signatures from the Montana Historical Society. $14.95
Wanted!
Wanted Posters of the Old West And Stories Behind the Crimes
by Barbara Fifer
and Martin J. Kidston
This rare collection of wanted posters from the American West is a historical treasure. The book's nearly 150 original wanted posters, fugitive notices, and Pinkerton Agency circulars are supplemented by fascinated details about the technology of identification, the history of wanted posters, and the stories behind the crimes, which ranged from horse theft, safe blowing, train robbery, seduction, ''white slavery,'' and murder. Posters for notorious bandits such as Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, and the Sundance Kid are also featured. $19.95
Warrior in the Ring: The life of Marvin Camel, Native American world champion boxer
Brian D'Ambrosio
In the Golden Age of boxing, Marvin Camel—a mixed blood from the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana—defied all obstacles of race, poverty, and geographical isolation to become the first Native American to win a world boxing title.
Complex and wildly charismatic, Camel combined tremendous physical talent with staggering self-discipline—forged by the sting of his father’s belt—to claw his way to the top, twice winning world titles in the newly minted cruiserweight division and fighting on the same cards as boxing icons Roberto Duran, Larry Holmes, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Bob Foster.
Camel’s journey was an amazing example of gritty determination: punishing runs on Montana’s back roads, relentless training in make-shift gyms, sleeping in beat-up cars before fights in glittering Las Vegas, and even training and fighting for a world championship in a foreign country, alone.
Always, Camel willingly represented his state and his people, proudly wearing his eagle-feather headdress into the ring. Yet with success came sacrifice and pain, both physical and personal, but in life as in the boxing ring, Camel emerged bloody but unbowed.
With irresistible detail gleaned from years of frank interviews with Camel, his family and friends, his former opponents, and seasoned boxing insiders, Brian D’Ambrosio’s gripping biography captures the drama, danger, beauty, and ugliness of boxing, of Indian life on reservations, and especially, of the life of a stereotype-shattering man who inspired his people and boxing fans everywhere with his courage, achievements, and great warrior heart. Finalist, High Plains Book Award $15.95
Western Butterflies for Young Explorers
An A to Z Guide
by Sharon Lamar
Anyone who has ever stopped to watch a butterfly flit across a mountain meadow or backyard garden will love Western Butterflies for Young Explorers. This beautifully illustrated guide helps children identify twenty-six butterflies of the western United States—one for each letter of the alphabet, from the Anise Swallowtail to the Zerene Fritillary. In between, young explorers will discover a wide variety of species, including such favorites as the Monarch, the Tiger Swallowtail, and the Painted Lady. Each entry presents a lovingly rendered watercolor of a specific butterfly along with a simple but thorough description of its caterpillar, it coloring, and its mature wingspan, as well as its range, habitat, and preferred host plant. In addition are fun facts about butterfly natural history. Did you know that butterflies identify their host plants by tasting them with their feet? Western Butterflies for Young Explorers is a wonder-filled guide for budding naturalists and their families to share. $14.00
The Whole Country was... 'One Robe'":
The Little Shell Tribe’s America
Co-published by the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana and Drumlummon Institute
“The Whole Country was . . . ‘One Robe,’” by historian and folklorist Nicholas Vrooman, is an extraordinary account of an extraordinary people. Dr. Vrooman, after a lifetime of engagement with the history of a burgeoning and distinctive aboriginal amalgam culture on the Northern Plains, gives us the untold story of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana. $39.95
Wise Animal Handbook
Montana
By Kate B. Jerome
Read-aloud time is about to get a lot more fun! The Montana Wise Animal Handbook offers laugh-out-loud animal kingdom advice for kids of every age! Engaging animal photos entertain while charming read-aloud rhymes help jump-start conversations about practical life solutions. The Read Together/Do Together™ experience continues with pull out coloring pages in the back of the book featuring fun facts about special Big Sky Country animals including the grizzly bear and morning cloak butterfly. Enjoy the opportunity to share your own practical wisdom with your favorite little one as you read-aloud… and laugh-aloud….again and again. $16.99
Yellowstone Memories
30 YEARS OF STORIES & PHOTOS
BY MICHAEL H. FRANCIS
Few people know Yellowstone National Park as well as nature photographer Michael H. Francis. For thirty years he has worked and played in Yellowstone, his favorite place on the planet. This book is a collection of some of his favorite stories and photos, from bears and bison to weather and wildflowers. For anyone who loves Yellowstone, this is a memory book to treasure and enjoy. $22.95
YOU CAN BE A NATURE DETECTIVE
Author: Peggy Kochanoff
Learn which moth or butterfly a caterpillar will turn into. Use clues left behind on the bark of trees to figure out what animal has been there. Study tiny holes in the ground to discover which creatures have been burrowing in the soil. Part field guide and part whodunit, You Can Be a Nature Detective has something for naturalists of all ages. $14.00
Yellowstone Newspapers
- Big Horn County News | Hardin, MT
- Big Timber Pioneer | Big Timber, MT
- Carbon County News | Red Lodge, MT
- Dillon Tribune | Dillon, MT
- Forsyth Independent Press | Forsyth, MT
- Glendive Ranger-Review | Glendive, MT
- Judith Basin Press | Stanford, MT
- Laurel Outlook | Laurel, MT
- Lewistown News-Argus | Lewistown, MT
- Livingston Enterprise | Livingston, MT
- Miles City Star | Miles City, MT
- Stillwater County News | Columbus, MT
- Terry Tribune | Terry, MT