Montana Books

This is a well writtern compilation of historical tales. Highly informative to me as a visitor to this great state.

I bought this at a used bookstore intending to give it to a friend who used to live in Montana. But after leafing through it I had to try some of the simple, yet intriguing recipes. Now I can't bear to give it up, so have come to Amazon to find a new copy to give Gerald. This book is full of comfort food favorites as well as some new (to me) concoctions that have gotten rave reviews from eaters who don't have to be polite (family).

Ther Montana Cree Book was in Excellent condition, was delivered in good time and was very professional about the deal.
Thank you.

This is a great 'slice of the life' kind of book. You get a real sense of the diversity in that state-yesterday and today. The photos are wonderful. This is not a travel guide or a history book, but instead a bit of both.

John and Durrae Johanek really seem to get what it is about the people they interview that makes them uniquely Montanan. The book is not just a quick snapshot of these people's lives, nor does it just slap a label on them. It tells who they really are, what they do, and often, why they choose to live their life in Montana the way they do. They interview some amazing, truly interesting people who do things foreign to many of us. The stories are astounding, and so are the people behind them. The book is well-written and is humorous where appropriate. Helps you to "walk in someone else's shoes." I happened to meet, entirely by accident, one of the people they interviewed, and the portrait of her in Montana Folks was right on. Meet some new people today. Get the book.

Originally published in 1925 as Volume I of Granville Stuart's classic Forty Years of the Frontier, this book is based on his reminiscences and journals. The opening chapter reviews his early years in Virginia, Illinois, and Iowa; the narrative proper begins in 1852 when the eighteen-year-old Stuart headed for California with his father and his brother James. ("There was not a habitation from the Missouri river until the small settlement of Salt Lake was reached; nor one from Salt Lake until the Sierra Nevada mountains were crossed.") The volume covers his experiences in California, including an account of the Rogue River War, and describes how - almost fortuitously - he was able to confirm rumors of gold in present-day Montana. Because they lacked equipment and supplies, the Stuart brothers were unable to cash in on their find until 1860; during the interim they were traders along the emigrant road near Fort Bridger. After 1860 Stuart became a permanent resident of Deer Lodge; in 1864, thanks in great part to his efforts, Montana became a United States territory.

"Here are the incidents and characters for the making of endless novels - pioneers, trappers, squaw men, braves, prospectors, vigilantes, gold seekers, cowboys and cattle barons, sketched against the tremendous scenic background of the high Rockies." - New York TImes

"The odyssey of a nineteenth-century Ulysses." - New York Evening Post

Also available in a Bison Book edition: Pioneering in Montana: The Making of a State, 1864-18887 (BB 648) Volume II of Forty Years on the Frontier.

Cover design by Jack Brodie

If you grew up gobbling down books about inspiring, independent women with pioneer spirit, you will enjoy reading this loving and learned biography of the author's grandmother born in 1865. Ms. Litz' research fleshes out the economic and social circumstances only slightly apparent in the books of our youth. Lillian Weston Hazen was a successful syndicated columnist in New York City in the late 1900s when she married a promising, rich Dartmouth graduate. The Depression of 1893 bankrupted them and dried up job prospects in the East. The only position her husband could find was bookkeeper for a mining company in a rough frontier town called Gilt Edge near Lewistown, Montana. Despite tremendous physical hardships and economic setbacks, they made a life for themselves and a surviving son where many were ground down and dropped out. Despite heavy ranch labor, Lillian carved out time to write and published in Scribners and some farming journals. Her lasting legacy will turn out to be the trunk of diaries and clippings that Joyce Litz found in 1949 following her death.

Unknown to each other two hardcases are heading into Judgement Creek. One on the run and in need of money, the other after vengeance. Here their trails will cross in a twisting drama of love, hate, double-cross, cowardice and murder. At the centre of it all is the long-standing, respected sheriff - a lawman who is as yet untested.

A story that begins almost gently as we are introduced to the main players of this tale. The author takes care with his characterizations, their backgrounds, giving the reader enough to believe they are the people they're painted to be, yet gives a few little hints that some, or all, may not be quite who they seem.

The story builds well through a couple of killings and the ensuing manhunt which leads to the so far separate incidents becoming entwined in a tangle that doesn't have a clear and easy outcome that's obvious to the reader.

The story has a tough and brutal conclusion that's not without surprises that left me feeling well satisfied of having read a good book.

Charles Langley Hayes knows how to tell a great story, is author I shall be looking for more from.

Recommended.

Story is excellent - characters good - my cover is better than the one shown -- with my favorite guy model.

Lucius, Montana -- home of the Golightly's and Runyans.

Sheriff Shane Golightly has a twin brother, Stu and a divorced sister, Evie and her three children and father, Beau, who is the preacher.

Laurel Runyan is home to bury her father. She has not been home in twelve years, since the night that Shane had left her and her mother died.
She was barely eighteen and he was twenty three and they had been sneaking around and ended up in the neighbor's barn. Where their hormones took over.

Laurel had a mental break-down and was sent to a sanitorium in Colorado and never returned. She couldn't remember what happened after Shane left.

Now she has trouble trusting Shane when she realized that he has been home for about five years. She had never thought to return but couldn't go through with her marriage when she received the word that her father had died.
He gets away with tickling his itch - she has kept herself clean for the past twelve years. Good for her.

These two people have problems with a strong attraction - indecision - non-commitment - and the past to deal with.

An excellent story - characters that are emotionally messed up - great secondary characters - and my cover is better than your cover.[g]

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED --m [think I will keep the cover].

This is a fine collection of 86 black-and-white photographs taken by photographer Joanne Berghold at small town rodeos around Montana in the 1990s and early 2000s. Unlike the commercialized rodeo to be seen in today's PRCA circuit, these local rodeos capture the spirit of the sport as it emerged in the early 20th century -- a family-oriented affair that brought the whole rural community together for a once-a-year celebration. Look at these pictures, and what you often see instead of covered bleachers and flashy corporate sponsor billboards is a wire arena fence with trucks and cars pulled up to it and open prairie or hills beyond. The parking lot is grass-covered, and horse trailers are parked under the trees.

The opening images set the tone of the book -- gravel roads with grass and weeds right to the edges, leading to a low horizon, where clouds drift in a big sky, a veil of rain falling into a distant mountain ridge. Then in the photographs that follow there's the contrasting activity of small town life, strung out along a treeless main street, and the gathering of people at the rodeo grounds.

A cowboy in black hat, wranglers and spurs checks out the draw for the events posted on the side of a trailer, a young girl practices roping a hay bale, hats are placed over hearts in the grandstands and in the crow's nest for the Pledge of Allegiance, horses in the dusty light move into a holding pen, a cowboy bows his head in prayer on the top rail of a chute over a saddled bronc, riders one after another take spills off bucking rough stock. The arena itself may be dusty dirt or waterlogged mud. A roper waits, eyes set in concentration, a piggin string clamped in his mouth under a full mustache; a young bulldogger skids boots first in the dirt, his arms locked around the horns of a calf. There are team ropers, barrel racers, young bull riders taping up, and bullfighters in clown makeup. In the end, buckles are awarded to the winners, cowboys head out with war bags over their shoulders, and horses move up loading chutes into a trailer.

The book is a tribute to a western tradition and way of life, still close to its roots in the workaday world of ranchers and cowboys. It includes an essay by Kim Zupan, a gifted writer and former rough-stock rider. All photos were taken in Montana in rural small towns like Boulder, Belt, Wilsall, and Roundup.