Montana Books

Fire and Brimstone is not just about the fire that broke out in the Granite Mountain mine in Butte, Montana on June 8, 1917 and the death of 163 miners, it is also about the mining industry of Montana and its sociopolitical impact on the state in general and the town of Butte in particular. Punke's coverage of Burton K. Wheeler towards the end of the book veers away from the main storyline and is the reason for the dropped star.

The story begins with an accident involving a 1,200 foot, 3-ton cable that would lead to the fire. Like the Cherry Mine (Illinois) disaster covered in the book Trapped by Karen Tintori, there is a story of men attempting to return to the fire-engulfed mine to rescue doomed miners only to be caught in a cage when the hoist signals stopped working (pg. 13). This story is not near as heroic and horrifying as Tintori's, however.

The book skips to give background information on the Montana "Copper Kings" William Clark and Marcus Daly during the latter half of the 19th century later to be joined in competition by Fritz Heinze. The background showed to what extent political corruption shaped the mining industry in Montana controlled by the Anaconda and, later, Standard Amalgamated Oil.

By far, the best part of the book covers the efforts to survive by two separate groups of miners. Each group was organized by a savvy, confident man of strong personality. The group that is more detailed is the one led by a young nipper Manus Duggan. Although he did not have a commanding position in the mine, he understood what was needed for survival and oversaw the careful construction of a bulkhead and the continuous rotation of the other 28 miners in his group to circulate the air. Another group of ten miners was led by shift boss J.D. Moore. Both leaders faced down and prevented challenges to their authority as well as attempts by the other miners to escape the bulkhead too soon. Many of these miners owed their lives to those two men.

The story of the trapped miners was so intriguing it was maddening when the book reverted to more background information. Once the fire and its aftermath was covered, the book shifted focus to the labor union situation in Butte (the AFL vs. the IWW), the brutal demise of IWW executive chairman Frank Little, and quite a bit of information on Senator Burton K. Wheeler (D. A. during the tragedy and the ugly situation brought on by the competing labor unions) who was an important player in FDR's administration. These sidelines (especially the labor unions) have a relation to the Butte mining disaster, of course, but as the book moves into the 1930s and 1940s, the tragedy seems to be left behind save for when Wheeler referenced it in one of his writings. Parts read like a brief history of WWII, over a generation removed from the mining tragedy. Then it is revealed that the Granite Mt./Speculator mines had been closed all that time (since 1923).

The book ends with an update on the town of Butte that makes one wonder why people still live there. There is four pages of photographs included with a few relating directly to the mining disaster. There is only one picture of a miner (a doctored newspaper photo of Duggan) which was disappointing but I guess that's probably the only one that exists or is available.

My grandfather died in the Butte mines decades after the Speculator/Granite Mountain disasters. This is an excellent book interweaving the story of the worst hard rock mining disaster to occur in the US with the story of Butte at its apex. I could not put this down as I quickly turned the pages to learn the fate of Manus Duggan. Read Glasscock's War of the Copper Kings for more details regarding Clark, Daly and Heinze.

I agree with what the other reviewers have said. I'd like to add that I picked this book up on a whim from the library and could not put it down. While it is a heartbreaking page turner, it is also reads like a love letter to a hardscrabble city. The book jacket says that Punke currently lives in Montana. I am not sure if he is a Butte native, but he has served the city well within the pages of this enthralling read.

If you have any ties to Montana, or like history. This is a great telling of the events that happened at this time.
An enjoyable book.

Michael Punke has an incredible ability to make the story jump off the page. Too many non-fiction writers are turgid; Punke is anything but. I highly recommend it.

Our book study just completed Miracles Do Happen. It was incredible to see God open hearts and minds to Jesus' healing power. It's written in a simple style but it packs a punch in terms of presenting the Gospel. The son of a friend of our group was diagnosed with a recurrence of a brain tumor, and just like in the book, Sister Briege showed up in our town and was able to pray with him and his family. His prognosis is now quite favorable, praise God. If you want to hear the story of how Jesus still cares about His people, how Jesus is still in the healing business and you need a reason to have hope in Christ, this book is the best choice I've ever seen.

This is a great inspiration to me, though I am not catholic.
Her words are uplifting and healing.

"Miracles Do Happen" is an excellent testimony to the power of faith. Briege Mckenna developed sever arthritis as a young adult, which confined her to a wheel chair. When attending a Catholic Charismatic prayer services, she was miraculously healed. Allegedly, she received a private revelation, in which God asked her to be a healer to others. She debated whether the message was really from God, as she was a member of a contemplative community, but after a period of discernment and a series of signs, she lost all doubt.

"Miracles do Happen" is an autobiography of Sr. Briege's healing ministry. She prays for people and many have been healed of spiritual and physical pains and diseases. The book is full of stories and photos of people, whom she has encountered during her journey and many of whom were healed by prayers. It is easy to be skeptical of spiritual healers today, but unlike many charlatans in the field, Sr. Briege does not accept money or promote products or methodology for financial gains. The book is great for renewing faith in prayer, and offers much guidance and learning to discern God's voice in your life through prayer. Sr.Briege herself spends an estimated two-three hours in prayer each day, and write about the types of Christian spiritual practices which have been spiritually edifying for her.

This is a simple book about the role that prayer and faith has played in her life, and in the lives of others whom she has had the fortune to know, during her religious life and is not bogged down in theological explanations or issues related to debatable doctrines. It is written simply as an intimate conversation, as often is the case of works from saints, and when one reads it one has to wonder if they are living in a very special life time of a woman who might be recognized as a saint in the future.

This is a wonderful book. We often need to remind ourselves about the present of our Lord Jesus Christ in our daily lives, and Sr. McKenna has done a wonderful job of doing so. Buy, read and believe...

This is the story of how Sister Breige McKenna became a healer of human bodies and human souls. She herself had a instantaneous healing from Rhematoid Arthritis. Because of this book I sought out her phone number and upon hearing a healing prayer over the phone, I was healed spiritually. I have never been the same and I thank God for it! Buy this, you won't regret it!!!

All Evelyn Cameron wanted was to be able to say she had lived a worthy life. By the end of her life, she thought she had not achieved that goal, but this book proves otherwise.

I was fascinated by Evelyn's life, especially the hardships she endured, trying to make a living off the dry summer land and the bitter winter cold in eastern Montana, with a husband who barely lifted a finger to help her work the ranch.

It was Evelyn, a woman brought up to live a leisure life in England, who milked cows, churned butter, did laundry by hand, plowed fields, tended a huge garden, dug coal, patched openings between slats in the house, painted walls, butchered livestock, broke horses, autopsied her own animals trying to discover what caused their deaths, and even stitched her own wound when she accidentally cut herself with an ax. She went on Fall hunting trips to provide meat to last through Montana's extreme winters. While her husband hunted, it was left to Evelyn to skin and dress the meat. She accompanied her husband while he researched Montana's birds, often waiting for hours for the perfect photographic shot from dangerously high rocky outgrowths.

She rode horses for miles to sell her vegetables and to photograph other farmers, cowboys, and sheep herders far afield. Her neighbors counted on her when they wanted a photo to send to family, but Evelyn was also the person everyone called on when they were in need. She was a no-nonsense woman who learned to eke out a living in the worst of conditions. (After a month of such hard work, I would have been on the train back east.)

Yet Evelyn not only worked like a horse all day, she found time to read and keep a detailed diary every day. She listed chores she had completed, how long it took to churn and how much butter resulted, every penny earned and spent, copied every letter she sent ---creating an invaluable record of her life. Some of her details were also invaluable to her ---figuring exactly how much coal was used one year so that she could estimate how much to dig for the next winter. When she became interested in photography, her detailed records of lighting conditions and exposure times helped improve her craft.

Her photographs create a comprehensive record of her life and the times in which she lived. Considering she had to carry heavy camera equipment and fragile glass plates in unbearable heat (or cold) on horseback, deal with dust on the plates and guess at exposure times, her photos are remarkable.

I would recommend this book for anyone interested in photography, women, or frontier life. (You could give this book to your teenager the next time s/he complains about doing a few chores around the house.)

(I learned about Photographing Montana by reading Bad Land by Jonathan Raban. Raban found photographing Montana extremely difficult, thus he admired Cameron's photographs that much more for his own failures.)

The main feature of this book is its 150 photographs taken by photographer Evelyn Cameron in eastern Montana during the years of its earliest settlement, first by ranchers in the late 19th century and then by streams of homesteaders in the early decades of the 20th century. In the latter regard, it is an excellent companion to Jonathan Raban's "Bad Land." Most amazing is the vast range of photographs, including family portraits, group shots of cowboys, threshers, and sheep shearers, ranch buildings, open prairie, wild life, store fronts, wild horses, herds of sheep and cattle, badlands, social gatherings, and farm equipment.

We get glimpses into the lives of the wealthy and the dirt poor. None of the photographs were shot in a studio, and taken together they represent a broad sweep of frontier life across a handful of decades. The text provides a detailed life of the photographer herself, a remarkably spirited and self-sufficient English woman who has left us this marvelous and revealing record of a time long passed.

This book, by Time-Life books editor Donna Lucey, has some very interesting photographs of Montana, taken about halfway between the Lewis and Clark expedition of two hundred years ago and today. Yes, the early 1900s were right in the middle of Evelyn Cameron's career.

Cameron, nee Flower, was one tough and talented lady. She moved to Montana with her husband Ewen, going there initially in 1889, on a hunting trip for their honeymoon. I found the stories and pictures of life in Montana fascinating. Much of the book deals with the growth of Terry, a town in the eastern part of the state, on the Yellowstone river.

At the time, the Kodak camera was the instrument of choice for most American photographers, however Cameron did much of her work with a 5x7 Graflex. There are dozens of her photos in this book.

Although Cameron died in 1928, Lucey was lucky enough to obtain many of Cameron's photos from one of Cameron's friends, Janet Williams, who was 95 years old by the time Lucey met her in August of 1979.

In 2002, PBS began shooting a documentary about Cameron, and it was released last year. It includes over 200 of Cameron's photos (over 100 of which are not in this book), and it won four regional Emmy awards. It was the first high-definition documentary for Montana PBS.

I recommend this book.

This work is a treasure. Evelyn Cameron and her husband, born into English society, established a ranch in eastern Montana early in the development of that part of the west. A need for additional income and a love of photography lead Evelyn to produce a large number of high quality photographs. Those photographs represent a historical archive of enormous value. The photos show the people of the time, how they made a living, and the tools that they used. My personal favorite is a photo Evelyn took of herself in her kitchen; she sent it to relatives in England to show them her life on the Montana frontier. It was a life of hardship, but also of achievement. The quality of Cameron's work is the equal of other great western photographers of the era, such as Jackson or Huffman, and it records a side of life not represented by anyone else. There is a balance in this book between text and reproduced photographs. It is a biography of Evelyn Cameron, including excerpts from her journals, as well as an exhibition of her photographs. A museum and gallery in Terry, Montana, is a repository of Evelyn Cameron's work and the total number of photographs is several times what this book is able to present. One hopes that other volumes of Cameron's photos will be published in the near future.

I live in the area of the photographer's subjects, and totally enjoyed the book and its' subject. The photographs, along with Evelyn Cameron's diary accounts of daily happenings, gave a captivating decription of what many of our homesteading ancestors endured. This is very enjoyable reading for anyone.

When you pick up a Janet Dailey book, you know it will be a good read.
I have thoroughly enjoyed all the books in the Calder saga.

The great Calder empire stretched across the Montana plains as far as the eye could see. Everyone knew a Calder's word was law and that one day Chase Calder would carry the family name to new glories. But for handsome, arrogant Chase Calder there was also beautiful Maggie O'Rourke, who came to him in innocence and stirred in him a deep, insistent longing.

(...)

I read this book way, way back in 1981 when it was originally released. (I was in the 8th grade but very precocious!) I don't remember all the details, but I know I loved it and have read every book about the Calders Janet Dailey has put out since. This one, the first one, is still the best! The romance between Chase and Maggie sizzled, and the suspense/adventure part of the book was really good, too. This book starts a long series of books about the great Calder family, and I recommend reading them all.

Out of all the Calder books this is probably the most touching romance and least sappy cliche story. Chase Calder and Maggie O'Rourke are believable as young paramours and later as mature adults reunited through their son, Ty.

The book was written in 1981 but Dailey did a great job in keeping it contemporary and evergreen. For those who have read all the other Calder books, it seems to start in 1968 and end in 1983, but as you go along the events could happen now or in the '90's. The only clue that this was a somewhat period romance is that their are no references to the Internet and more modern technology devices. One does get the sense that Montana is a wild teritory where cowboy values stand the test of time. If you're into rance romances and western sky settings, this is the one Calder book that you shouldn't miss. I grew up near the Montana border before heading East and the descriptions of many scenes in the plains are accurate and do evoke that western feel.

The story begisn with Chase Calder, the 22-year-old heir to a cattle fortune. Warning - vegetarians you won't be too thrilled with all the references to beef. Chase Calder first notices 15-year-old Maggie after she throw an Irish temper tantrum at him after falling off a horse. Statutory assault charges aside .... that is the beginning of a western style Romeo & Juliet tale. Hidden meetings, sneaking out at night, all sorts of romantic getaway with Chase the cowboy.

The romance gets threatened with Maggie's jealous father begins stealing Calder cattle and selling them on the black market. Tragedy happens when Chase's father discovers that O'Rourke is the cattle thief and in old style Western Justice ... hangs him and makes it look like a suicide. Maggie and her brother see the whole thing and Chase loses Maggie and their son when she runs away to Los Angeles pregnant.

Maggie forges a new life for herself in California. She changes her name to Elizabeth. Tells her aunt that the baby's father was dead, and eventually marries a wealthy worldly doctor who raises Ty as his own. Fate brings her back to Chase after her husband Phillip dies and Ty discovers that his real father is Chase Calder. Now 15, Ty runs away to Montana to confront Chase. It works and Maggie and Chase are drawn into each others' lives full of fury and resurrected passion.

The drama takes on an intrigue when a jealous farm and confidante of Chase tries to steal the Calder Ranch. Chase, Maggie, and Ty bond together to save the Triple C and pave the way for the sequel ... Calder Born, Calder Bred.

I gave "This Calders Sky" five stars, because I believe it is one of the best books I have read in a long time. I am not much of one for reading, but when I started reading this book, I was finished by the next day. I could not put it down. From the beginning of the book it gets you hooked. I have always said that if I am unable to really get into a book by the first three or four pages, then I will probably not stick with it.
This book is a love story, but more. It is based in Montana, and two seperate families. The Calder family, and the O'Rourke family. Maggie, is a young, innocent, and inexperienced in some ways, young lady. Chase, on the other hand, is not much older, but you get the feeling that he is more experienced in the ways of the world. In the town they live, the Chase family is the name everyone knows.
Maggie and Chase, in certain ways, are two totally opposite people. They both are set in their own ways, but they are madly in love with each other. Of course, they have times when you would think that it is the end of their life together, but it always turns out for the best.
Maggie is experiencing love, hate, trust, and intimacy, and she must decide whether to stay with the man she really loves, or leave and never turn back. There are family issues that are standing in their way of happiness. Chase is attempting to take it slow, as Maggie is experiencing love and being intimate. As the love grows between them, you can feel the passion growing as well. Just as you think nothing can come between Maggie and Chase, problems between the families develop, and it causes pain and hate to develop. Chase really loves Maggie, but it seems as though they are fighting their emotions for one another. Maggie and Chase eventually end up in the same house together, but the way they act towards each other, you would think it was a battlefield. Chase and Maggie eventually give in to their emotions. Chase, Maggie, and their son finally bond as a family should. They face the world together as a family. Maggie and Chase were meant to be together, and after all of the heartache and pain they went through, their love ended up being strong enough to pull them through.
I can honestly say that I would recommend this book to anyone. There are continuing books beyond this one, but I have not had a chance to read them yet. If they are anything like this one, I know I will like them.

"Miranda and Starlight" is the first in a series of six books featuring Miranda and Starlight. In this exciting adventure, for young readers, Janet Murihead Hill has captured something of the young reader's insecurity, fear, and pride. Miranda and Chris find it difficult to communicate openly with their parents.

Miranda desperately wants a horse. Chris needs to learn to ride his. Intricate plot twists bring them together in a complicated web of lies, and deceit. Through the events that unfold Miranda and Chris learn lessons in the importance of honesty, responsibility, courage, and trust.

Hill's writing is powerful and inspiring. Illustrations by Pat Lehmkuhl bring another important dimension to the story. Her pen and ink drawings are strong as they create and identify the settings and the characters in the story. She also has the amazing ability to depict the emotions the characters are feeling through facial expressions and body language.

This is a story for the young reader as well as an excellent read aloud story for delightful, cherished family nights at home.

MIRANDA AND STARLIGHT SERIES OF SIX BOOKS BY JANET MUIRHEAD HILL, ILLUSTRATED BY PAT LEHMKUHL is an absolutely delightful new horse book series. Written for upper elementary and young teens, the books will fascinate adults as well. I couldn't put them down! Ten year old Miranda, the orphaned product of a broken home, vanished father and wild mother, lives with her grandparents on their farm. She loves horses and dreams of owning one, but believes it could never be possible. The first book introduces the beautiful horse of her dreams and how she becomes attached to it through lying and mischief, for which she gets into trouble. Being the new girl in her classroom, she is shunned by the "in crowd" and develops a troubled friendship with the lonely Laurie, a mulatto who feels like a misfit, and Chris, the "fat boy" in the class. Their escapades and trials capture your mind and heart. Every young person will adore this series!

Reviewed by April Sullivan for Reader Views (5/06)
"Miranda and Starlight" is the first book in a series of six called the Starlight Series that features a 10 year old girl and her horse. Miranda Stevens is a sweet, but feisty young girl who is living with her grandparents in Montana while her single mother in Los Angeles is trying to make it as an actress. Embarrassed by her untraditional upbringing, Miranda finds it hard to make friends. She is shunned by the "Magnificent Four" as she calls the close-knit pack of girls in her class. And she is constantly tormented by bully Chris Bergman.

If Miranda could have three wishes, they would be for a friend, a real family, and a horse of her very own. On the first day of fifth grade, at least one of those wishes comes true when she meets the new girl, Laurie Langley. She also meets the horse of her dreams that day when bully Chris dares her to ride a horse they see in the pasture next to the school. Miranda, gets in trouble, but falls in love with the black horse she names Starlight for the white star on his forelock.

This fast-paced adventure is great for young readers being introduced to chapter books. A few interspersed illustrations help young minds form an impression of the events being described. And the fact that this is a series leaves the reader wanting to know more and encourages them to pick up the next book.

This story brought back memories of myself as a young girl with a horse. The author accurately describes the responsibility and love needed to care for a horse. She not only portrays the fun of riding, but the hard work of cleaning stalls and grooming the horses.

I look forward to the rest of the series to find out how Miranda's relationship evolves not only with the horse, but all of the other people in her life. Since she has started to help Chris with riding lessons, they seem to be becoming friends. She learns the price she pays when lying to adults, especially her grandparents. And the most difficult relationship of all is with her mother, who wants her to come live with her in California, at the same time that Miranda is finally getting some of her wishes to come true in Montana.

This is more than a mere horse story. It is a journey of courage and consequences for younger juvenile readers. My own children will read this story.

From a reviewer's viewpoint, and as a person who enjoys reading, this is a wonderful story for young readers.

My opinion on this story is much different than the critic in Massachusetts gave. I felt drawn into the story and was impressed with the perspective shown. This is a story that shows what can happen when children lie and also how to tell the truth. I believe there are a lot more parents out there who are like the boy's parents than most would like to believe. Hopefully there are more out there who are like Miranda's Grandparents who show love and understanding when dealing with Miranda's situations. I enjoyed this book even though I'm an adult. I would reccommend this book to any child who can read. It may show them reading is fun when the story is fascinating like this one.

This is fun reading about quirky, off-beat places outside of the normal tourist attractions in this beautiful state. The authors obviously enjoy the unusual places, and give the reader the story behind the attractions. Many of these attractions will be must see on our next trip out west.

Fantastic book that makes you want to get in your car, head to Montana, and then get off the interstate and out of the cities. The vignettes of the small towns, unusual places, and unique people give even the armchair travel a delightful tour, without even being there. Nice writing, an excellent read.

This is a fun look at the people and places of Montana. A must read for planning a trip to the state!

"Montana: Behind the Scenes" has already found its place among my most treasured reads, and I haven't even finished reading the thing yet. I've read slightly beyond the first couple of chapters but felt the need to put in my two cents' worth about this delightful paperback even before I got past the Gumbo chapter (more on Gumbo later). I was captured first by the witty cover, and soon found myself going way beyond the posted speed limit just to get to the Gumbo. What is this Montanan-style Gumbo, you ask? It's not what you think. It's even better. Rest assured, you'll want more Gumbo than this brief chapter provides, but it'll whet your appetite for more Montana, Durrae-and-John-Johanek style. You don't have to live in Montana to appreciate this book, but reading it will make you want to put THIS trip on your travel planner. The sooner the better.

I'm a lifelong Texan, but my family and I have been vacationing in Montana off and on for many years. We've done all the standard tourist stops several times over. So this book provides just what we need. Here you will find the places and people that make Montana unique. You'll discover Joe, Montana (yes, it was). You'll drop in at the Jersey Lilly Saloon in Ingomar (pop. 10), home of internationally famous...uhh...beans. You'll visit the Fairview Bridge, which could accommodate trains and automobiles - just not both at once! You'll learn all about lefse, the potato-based, Norwegian version of tortillas. You'll stroll through an incredible rock-garden recreation of the Bible. You'll wander through the deserted streets of St. Marie - possibly the NEWEST ghost town in the U.S.

So if you want to know where stay along I-94 near Billings, or what size trailer can be accommodated at Hebgen Lake Campground, this is not your book. But you really want to get to know the state and its people, the Johaneks will take you there. All in all, it's an engagingly-written, idiosyncratic, informative and altogether charming book.

THE BIG BURN is a fascinating and harrowing historic novel set in the midst of a forest fire that trashed Northern Idaho and Western Montana in 1910. It was a large forest fire. "How large?" you may ask. Okay--If there are 640 acres in a square mile and there were nearly three million acres affected by THE BIG BURN, then we're talking an area nearly 4700 square miles. Sonoma County, where I live, is one-third that size. If you consider the San Francisco Bay Area counties of Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, Marin, AND Sonoma together, then you've got a sense of the scale of the destruction. For those of you on the East Coast, we're talking Long Island, plus all of New York's boroughs, and the counties of Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, and Columbia.

"Field Notes: In the summer of 1910, rangers who were used to working in isolation suddenly found their forests filling with strangers. With new fires breaking out daily through July and older ones stubbornly resisting control, the Forest Service's District One had no choice but to hire more and more men to fight them. By the end of the month, there were almost three thousand firefighters scattered across the district's several forests...W.B. Greeley, would later write, 'It was a case of hiring anyone we could get. We cleaned out Skid Road in Spokane and Butte. A lot of temporaries were bums and hobos. In a bad fire year, the temporary is the weakest link in the chain'...They went into the burning forests wearing the clothes they'd been recruited in, and the ones wearing street shoes or snug wool suits would regret that. They worked for twenty-five cents an hour with board, thirty if they provided their own food..."

In THE BIG BURN we do meet a few scoundrels. But the main characters here are three young people--Jarrett, a local boy who leaves his harsh dad; Seth, a southern kid in a black regiment who is trying to live up to the memory of his dead father; and Lizbeth, a young woman originally from New England, who is falling in love with the land she's found herself homesteading with her young, widowed aunt. All three cross paths before finding themselves in the midst of Hell on Earth.

Perhaps the publisher is calling this an "ages 12 and up" to spare younger children potential nightmares from the vividly drawn scenes of towering flames bearing down on our heroes. But for any kid whose tastes run to disaster and survival, mixed into a coming of age story, THE BIG BURN is a riveting read.

Jeanette Ingold has pulled out all stops in her book called The Bug Burn. In this exciting tale of Idaho's wildfires in 1910, three young adults battle the forces of nature. Seth, Jaret, and Lizbeth each fight life in their own way, and overcome personal obstacles. Seth is an African American trying to fit-in in the army. Jaret is a rebel son as he goes looking for a job in firefighting after he got fired from his railroad job. Lizbeth is a niece who is trying to convince her aunt not to sell their homestead. I like this book because it is full of action and adventure, but educational at the same time. I would give it five out of five stars because I had a fun time reading it and learned a lot from it. I can't tell you the ending, but I can give you a little sneak peek. The strong wind blows many fires together, creating a giant blaze. That blaze charges forward, burning everything in its path. Eventually it comes to a city named Wallace, and everyone has to work together to try to stop it. Do they succeed? Read the book, The Big Burn, to find out.

I think that The Big Burn was a very precice and educational book. The main carachters were Jarett, a young man wanting to fight fires with his older brother; Seth, An afircan American young man trying to show his pride for his country by joining the army; and Lizbeth, a young women trying to stay and keep her aunt from selling their home. The setting is 1910's, in Idaho and Montana. They over come some goals, and others are crushed. This all adds up untill the climax were all the flames come together and

In light of the recent wildfires in Colorado and Arizona, THE BIG BURN is an interesting book, but it would certainly be noteworthy under any circumstances. The story follows two young men and a young woman as they encounter and combat the infamously ferocious Montana wildfires of 1910. Jeanette Ingold deftly switches perspectives throughout the tale to keep the reader interested in this well-crafted historical novel.

Jarrett, the brother of a forest ranger, is on a quest to prove himself to his gruff father; Lizbeth, living with her widowed aunt, wants to preserve her adopted Western home; and Seth, a young black soldier, is dedicated to serving his country and overcoming racial prejudice. Apart and together, they transcend traditional teenage roles and attempt to save their homes from the fires that ravaged the Montana and Idaho wilderness during the summer of 1910. Some of the plot developments may seem cliché (romance blooms where you'd probably expect --- close calls end with last-second rescues, etc.), but overall the adventure is unlike any other book available. This overlooked event in US history provides a wealth of excitement for a talented writer. The parallel stories of the three protagonists allow for several viewpoints of every episode; Ingold paints a comprehensive portrait of the true historical events of the period.

Ingold intersperses the chapters with "field notes" chronicling the wildfires and wilderness firefighting from an objective standpoint. These sections are actually where she writes best and they are a testament to the thorough research that went into writing the book. Both historically accurate and dramatically engaging, THE BIG BURN is a great choice for anyone who is interested in learning about the phenomena of forest fires while also reading a great story.

--- Reviewed by Lowell Putnam

Ingold tells the reader that if you talk with anyone in Idaho or Montana for long enough, the subject of the Big Burn will come up, and the person telling you about it will expect you to know all about it. After reading Ingold's well-researched book, any reader would be able to contribute to the subject. Set in 1910, when forest rangers were new, railroads were huge, and immigrants were still flooding the country, The Big Burn tells the story of the wild fires of the northwestern United States. Ingold gives us three main characters: Jarrett, Lisbeth and Seth. These teenagers each deal with the fire in their own way, and find that there is more to fighting fires than a little water or ditch digging. The three do meet in the tale (it is plausible), and each tell their view of the events in concurrent chapters. Ingold breaks in with facts and accounts of actual events, which makes the fictitious story feel all the more real.

Ingold has done her homework, and it shows in the story. Her afterword, acknowledgements, and list of suggested reading at the end all provide valuable information. The only problem I had with the book was a bit of charaterization--the relationships between the characters felt forced and unbelievable, particularly the budding romance between Jarrett and Lisbeth. On their own, the characters were strong, interesting, and contributed to the story. But when they came in contact with the others, even the minor characters became a bit forced in the relationships in which they were observing or participating. Otherwise this is a wonderful example of great historical fiction.

I am always careful about books written by journalists from back East, especially when they deal with Montana's vigilantes. Frederick Allen, however, has made a worthwhile contribution to a controversial field.

I gave him five stars, although I do not entirely agree with some of his conclusions. It seems to surprise him, for example, when Plummer and some of his contemporaries started bouncing off the walls mentally after shooting somebody.

My experience in law enforcement has been that such behavior is normal. There are some sociopaths out there who just like to kill and don't feel any emotion about it, but they are few and far between despite what Hollywood scriptwriters would like you to believe.

This is a well written book, but it didn't change my opinion that the vigilantes cleaned up a situation that had spun out of control at a time when nobody else would, or could. The country was, after all, engaged in a bloody Civil War and the struggling miners in Montana's goldfields needed something to restore order in their isolated, vulnerable communities. Vigilante justice proved to be better than no justice at all.

This amazing book works on three different levels. It is first of all a compelling, action-packed narrative of Montana's vigilante period - carefully researched, engagingly written, and peppered with memorable characters and dramatic action. Western fans will love it. But Allen does not stop there. His brilliant examination of Henry Plummer, the mysterious and elusive sheriff-protagonist, adds deeper and darker shadings to the story. This is less a black-and-white tale of heroes and villains than one about how power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The author does not trade in the romanticism surrounding the vigilantes. Finally, and most remarkably, Allen's book can be read as an allegory about the uses and misuses of all governmental power. In the nineteenth century, Montana's besieged citizens cried out for help against their version of terrorists -- only to discover belatedly that the response by unchecked governmental authorities could be equally lawless. Who would have thought that the Vigilante Trail led to Abu Ghraib?

People who hate "High Noon" have been known to cite the goings-on in Idaho Territory of the 1860s as proof that an enraged citizenry would never back down from outlaws. According to "eyewitness accounts," a locally formed vigilance committee rounded-up Sheriff Henry Plummer and his bloodthirsty compatriots and, with the aid of lots of rope, soon put an end to the rampant murder and robbery in the gold camps.

While this account made for excellent melodrama, it was a bit too pat to stand the test of time, and of late, had become the center of some arguing and fist shaking in the vicinity of Alder Gulch. Frederick Allen painstakingly examines the players and their times. His conclusions will not please the revisionists nor the vigilante apologists. While the vigilantes started out with the best of intentions and went after the worst of the thugs, their focus was lost in the chaos and power struggles of their era. Like many mavericks, they went from being heroes to embarassments.

But Allen confirms that Henry Plummer, George Ives & Co. were not martyrs of misdirected justice. It's too bad the vigilantes didn't have the forsight to stop while they were ahead.

This is the type of book that gives University Presses a good name. The author is a former political editor and columnist with the Atlanta Constitution and commentator for CNN. He has managed to write a scholarly yet reader friendly book that challenges some standard accounts of the famous Montana Vigilantes and their sometimes extra-legal activities. In what was the deadliest chapter of vigilante justice in American history, from 1864-1870, in excess of 50 men were hanged in Montana. The majority were inocent of capital crimes and a disturbing numer were innocent. This is a riveting book that will, in addition to bringing the reader up to date on a significant chapter in western history, cause one to ponder the significance of the Vigilantes on our current political debate over the war on terrorism. This is first rate scholarship in a reader friendly format. Highly recommended.

One tends to associate the dark legacy of lynching almost exclusively with the South of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but in point of fact the most extensive episode of vigilante justice in American history actually took place in the Montana territories in the 1860s. The Montana vigilantes have long been hailed as heroes in Montana (Montana Highway Patrolmen, for example, still bear a patch honoring these men and their cause), men who took upon themselves the obligation to rid their community of dangerous individuals. In this thrilling historical account, however, Frederick Allen pries open the chinks in the vigilante movement's historical armor to show that their brand of frontier justice eventually descended into something much darker and much less defensible.

In the early 1860s, Montana was a wild country overrun by thousands of men clamoring for the new-found gold in its rivers and streams. Even as gold camps began appearing overnight, there was no government of any sort to oversee justice - just miners' courts to settle disputes over claims and the like. The nearest outpost of territorial authority lay hundreds of miles west of the Montana frontier. Thus, it is easy to see how lawlessness could prevail under such conditions; it manifested itself most particularly in the form of stagecoach robberies on the paths leading away from town. A man could lose a whole season's worth of gold dust in the blink of an eye, and such hold-ups could turn deadly on occasion. What could the settlers do to secure their safety and safe passage back to the States or elsewhere? There was no legal system in place in the territory, there were no cells to hold prisoners, and there were no courts or judges to adjudicate cases. There was a sheriff, however, a fascinating man named Henry Plummer - and he really stands at the core of the entire drama. He came to be suspected of complicity in the robberies and murders in the area, and this growing sense of doubt in their sheriff served as the final impetus for the leading men of Bannack and Virginia City to take the law into their own hands. Plummer was among the 21 men hanged during the first six weeks of 1864. There will always be a level of debate as to Plummer's guilt or innocence, and Allen examines this fascinating man's life in great detail. The real question is how a man twice convicted of murder could have become a sheriff in the first place, but this speaks to the true remoteness of the Montana territory in those days.

In all, 51 men were killed by the vigilantes over a six-year period. Allen agrees with the consensus opinion that the early stage of the movement was justified, as there is evidence that all 21 of the men lynched in the first six weeks of 1864 were guilty, dangerous men - including Henry Plummer. Were the story to stop there, the Montana vigilantes would deserve nothing but admiration for bringing order and security to their local community. They did not stop, however, and their activities inevitably devolved into acts of personal vengeance and the very perversion of justice. In that first crucial period of early 1864, accused men were given trials of a sort, their fates usually decided by the entire community. Hangings took place in broad daylight, and the identities of the vigilantes were in no way kept secret. As time went on, however, men were summarily executed by individuals acting upon little more than their own authority. With no hope or manner of defending themselves, it is very likely that some innocent men were hanged - and there can be little doubt that many of the guilty had not committed crimes serious enough to warrant death.

As is always the case in history, the most fascinating aspect of this whole story is the lives of the men involved. Allen identifies the vigilantes as leading citizens of the area, an unusual amalgamation of men both for and against the battle for Southern independence being waged during that chaotic time. Politics came to play a significant role in the whole saga, as the appointed leaders of the newly-established Montana Territorial government did themselves no favors by immediately alienating the significant number of Democrats among the local populace. This new government was ineffective at best, with the executive and judicial branches nullifying each other's authority - and this provided the pretext for the vigilantes to continue their operations.

A Decent, Orderly Lynching really is a fascinating book. Allen brings to life the mining camps of gold-rush Montana, recreating all aspects of society there on the remote frontier. He offers penetrating assessments of the men at the heart of this story, those on both sides of the hanging rope, drawing a sharp distinction between the early, honorable activities of brave men determined to establish order in their lawless region and the excesses of those who continued to pursue vigilante justice after Montana's new territorial government had been established. Through it all, he maintains an objective air, making his own judgments based on the evidence in hand - and his research efforts were impressive, to say the least. The story of the Montana vigilantes is a most telling part of the history of America, and Allen has done a superb job telling that story to those of us unfamiliar with it.

I was on a vision quest in my life looking outside and was taught by elders and others to look within and with the help of this Book and Hyemeyohst Storm and other books he wrote I was able to learn more and feel more in touch with the earth medicine of Nature and its often looked over healing power The Power of One "Nature" may we all find our way to a place of peace and serenity within and share it by being.. JG

The Red Road curves through a parallel universe with only tenuous ties to contemporary reality. Storm speaks to the wanna-be warrior in all of us, with humorous vignettes spiked with hidden awareness, as he looks back at the valiant fool he was, beginning his quest before he even knows he was on it, missing all the clues to his personal Grail. (The sign said "Stop", he looked at it, but he couldn't see the message for the word...) Conservative Native Americans shun this guy for letting the cat out of the bag...But for the rest of us waschisus, this is as close to understanding life on the Res as we'll ever get. No matter what your path to personal enlightenment has been, any spritual trekkie will enjoy this guy's experiences. Great read!!!

This is a book about more than the guru-guided personal search for self-understanding of a half-breed, more than a remarkably profound exposé of the life-philosophy (not religion) of the native american peoples. More even than a confirmation of the inner validity of other ancient systems of thought and knowledge to be found in other parts of the world, for example in Scandinavia. This book is exactly what it claims to be: the revelation of A WAY, an approach to life and the problems of identity, balance and peace, second to none, and applicable to everyone, where ever in the world they may live, and whatever religious and cultural tradition they may formally adhere to. Something that if widely spread, and attended to in the right way, might just ... just ... (to coin a heavily misused, but in this context really appropriate phrase)"save the world". In other words, not without subversive, but highly life-enhancing social and political connotations. My advice: Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. And then practice, as best ye may. Good luck, and may the Spirit give you strength in the quest for yourSELF.

I found this book over two years ago and I have yet to finish. I can't bring myself to accept that it will end, so i've been doing everything i can to avoid turning that last page. It's that kind of book. There are so many layers of brillance and value to this amazing piece of artwork. Athough it is psychologically complex and methaphysically profound, it is Storm's simple love for the Earth and his masterful, unassuming language that set this book apart. The characters have a fully developed humanity to them that is unparalleled. Truly destined to be an all time classic. This is more than a book.

This book speeks to me about the inner turmoil and multitude of voices that haunt the uninitiated and estranged males in our society. To not belong, to be cut off from community is a plague on our youth and spirit. The feeling of isolation leads to antisocial behavior, unhappiness, stupidity and violence. Herein is the story of a disenfranchised man and how, with a mentor and female partner, he finds strength in the Self to command and conquer the demons of a disfunctional conformist society. This is a primer on taming the destructive, finding peace and living with beauty. Great insights for all!

I love Joanna Trollope's books. She's perceptive and literate. I think her understanding of children in complex families is very well portrayed. My only quarrel with this book is that she let Mark off the hook. Kate's relationship with those in the shelter, especially Helen, should have led to real action instead of the acceptance we saw. Is shelter the only way to help victims of violence? I think not. I hated that part of the book!
Give this book to a friend.

Joanne Trollope is one of the greatest - very poignant, well-written novel.

I greatly anticipate each new Joanna Trollope novel that comes out, and this one did not disappoint. I re-read it for the third time recently.

I don't always like Joanna's characters. Some I can't stand. But I get so caught up in their lives, I honestly feel as though I know these people. She has a talent for drawing you in, without you being aware of it. Ups and downs of daily lives, menial and/or dramatic things we all experience. She has a talent of making it all so interesting. Of making her reader care for even those characters that aren't very lovable. And each character is so uniquely different, Joanna does not rely on cliches or tired character development. No two characters in any of her books are alike.

My advice is to be sure you have plenty of time when picking this book up. You won't want to put it back down until you're finished. I can say that about all of her books.

I read this book years ago, but it's one of those that lingers. Trollope knows the human heart and it comes through in this tale about lonely people who form a bond and a home together. I became a Trollope fan after this, but Men and the Girls remains my favorite J. Trollope novel.

I have read nearly all Joanna Trollope's books and this book is one of her best. The story was complex without exaggeration. I especially enjoyed the intergenerational weave of relationships.