Montana Books

I first heard the story of Shep while on a motorcycle trip through MT in 2004. A little old man in a bar told me of Fort Benton and the Shep memorial. He told me the story of Shep the loyal sheep dog who's owner had died but Shep faithfully waited each day by the train station in hopes that he would return. The local people in town wanted to take Shep in but he stayed. They fed and took care of him as much as they could until one day, Shep passed. I had to see it for myself and headed to Fort Benton. I couldn't believe it two years later when I saw a book w/the same title and wondered if it could be the "Shep" I had heard of. I was so excited when it was and his memory is in print forever. I gave away my copy already at a friend's baby shower and have to pick up another.

Girls are a pain in the neck - most always being attracted to the wrong guys.
Dusty McCall was no exception. She was trying her darndest to attract the attention of Boone Rasmussen. Just because he appeared to be dark and dangerous.

Ty Coltrane was the neighbor next door who was developing his reputation for his Appaloosa's reining abilities. He spent a bit of time getting Dusty out of scrapes. Now she wanted his help in learning how to attract a man.

The story centers around the rodeo rough stock and especially the bucking bulls. Ty didn't pay much attention to his helper, Clayton T. Brooks and his mutterings about the bull, Devil's Tornado and something called Little Joe. Was there a fast one being pulled?

Monte Edgewood had taken in Boone and treated him like a son, even looking the other way when his young wife, Sierra, had an affair with Boone.

Then the killings started - first Clayton then the vet Waylon Dobbs and it looked like Dusty was next. And all because she picked up something from the rodeo grounds.

Sheriff Cash McCall was on the track of who every tried to scare Dusty on her way home from the rodeo. Now he had a murder to solve.

There were problems building at the home ranch with Asa and Shelby - he had to tell his children the mistakes he had commited and endangered the Sundown Ranch. Yet strangely enough, the man who had been feuding with him, Mason VanHorn helped put Asa's mind at rest.

Check out Letty Arnold, Dusty's best friend and the investigator Letty hired, Hal Branson. Oh, Oh, don't forget Lamar Nichols, Boone's half brother, who was a danger to all.

DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED - a decent conclusion to the McCall's Saga

The author recollects that as a boy growing up in the Bitterroot Valley near Hamilton, Montana he dreamed of being a pilot. After becoming a fighter pilot in WW II he returns home to pursue a flying career in the valley he loves. This book is a history of aviation in Western Montana with accounts of pilots, planes, mountain men and others. Chok full of pictures, this book is nicely put together.

"Solid Ground" is such a great way to start the day. Pastor Mark Finley's stories and illustrations from the Bible are an inspiration. I received this as a gift, and am so glad I did!

To be honest, I have not read this book. But I knew the author many years ago. Although I am a member of the Cowlitz Tribe, my mother is of Cherokee descent and Ugidali (Lee Piper) was my Cherokee teacher. Her wisdom has been a guiding light throughout my life, I am delighted to see she has given everybody the opportunity to benefit from it, and I strongly encourage anybody interested in our ways to read it.

This review applies to the 1973 1st edition.

Big, comprehensive, and attractive.

Large format, heavy paper, 286 pp with about 80 black and white illustrations. Printed by a real publishing house, Caxton Printers, this book avoids the "yearbook-y" appearance of many of its peers.

Table of Contents

The Earliest Years
The Building of the Railroad
The Young Town: What Was it Really Like?
The Young Town: How Did it Grow?
That Memorable Year, 1910
1911-1918
From WWI Through WWII
Since WWII: The Ski Thing
The Schools
The Churches
The Hospital and the Medical Professions
Organizations
And What of the Future?

Appendix: 1913 Telephone Book Listings
Appendix: Whitefish Library and Library Association Officers

Bibliography
Index

This review applies to the 1973 1st edition.

Big, comprehensive, and attractive.

Large format, heavy paper, 286 pp with about 80 black and white illustrations. Printed by a real publishing house, Caxton Printers, this book avoids the "yearbook-y" appearance of many of its peers.

Table of Contents

The Earliest Years
The Building of the Railroad
The Young Town: What Was it Really Like?
The Young Town: How Did it Grow?
That Memorable Year, 1910
1911-1918
From WWI Through WWII
Since WWII: The Ski Thing
The Schools
The Churches
The Hospital and the Medical Professions
Organizations
And What of the Future?

Appendix: 1913 Telephone Book Listings
Appendix: Whitefish Library and Library Association Officers

Bibliography
Index

In economically depressed Jester, Montana, twelve of the local merchants each chip in a dollar every week for the Big Bucks Multi State Lottery. When one of their numbers hit, they win over $1 million each after taxes.
In this third installment in the Millionaire, Montana series, Jennifer Faulkner inherits her grandfather's share of the jackpot. As a child, Jennifer spent summers and holidays with her grandparents but has not been back for ten years. On her first day back in Jester, Jennifer literally runs into the love of her life, Sheriff Luke McNeil. Each believes the other dumped them ten years ago. Can they work out their differences and rekindle their love?
This is the best book in the series so far. The relationship between Jennifer and Luke sizzles. Luke's sister Vicki is a good secondary character who never gives up on trying to reunited her close friend with her brother.

This slim volume of stories by a young Montana writer focuses on the perspectives of youth - first romances, newlyweds, relationships between parents and children. His mastery of the craft of storytelling makes them sparkle with precision, and his knowledge and apparent love of hunting and fishing give them a dimension not often found in fiction.

My favorite in this collection, "Broken Flock," weaves together the story of a boy and his divorced father, duck hunting together, and a lesson about life that draws an analogy between shooting into a flock of flying birds and the excitement of romantic conquests. A close second, "Bone Yard," concerns a game warden whose nights in a cemetery watching for poachers are an excuse to stay away from a failing marriage.

Tyrannical, self-absorbed, and absent fathers figure in several stories, like the uncle in "Trash Fish," whose rage has made him the black sheep of the family, finally alienating his nephew while they are fishing. The spirit of a dying father attends his son and the old man's friend as they hunt turkeys in "Spring," and an already dead father leaves a bitter legacy to his three sons in "Eulogy."

Infidelity is the subject of other stories, as the wife of an unfaithful husband in "Bean Time" waits patiently for him to end an affair and only then experiences a change of heart about him. The discovery of an unfaithful wife sends her buttoned-down husband on a cross-country trip to New Orleans in "Mardi Gras." A young fisherman struggling with guilt and remorse over an extramarital dalliance is caught in a storm-tossed lake in "Storm Clouds."

Meanwhile, the sweetness of young love finds plausible and quirky expression in "Eloping," as a lawman welcomes his L.A. bride-to-be to Montana. In "Breathing On the Third Stroke," a swimmer comes to terms with his basketball playing young wife. In "Shooting Stars," a broke but optimistic couple has car trouble at night on an Indian reservation. And in "Mighty Mouse and Blue Cheese From the Moon," a young wife copes good humoredly on a fishing trip with her not-so-bright husband.

A well-written book filled with many small pleasures, a depth of compassion for people of sometimes limited resources, an understanding of heartbreak and resolve, and a love of the outdoors.

Aptly edited and with an informative introduction for contemporary readers by Kenneth N. Owens, A Tenderfoot In Montana: Reminiscences Of The God Rush, The Vigilantes, And The Birth Of Montana Territory is Frank Thompson's autobiography detailing his experiences in the upper Missouri country at the beginning of the Montana gold rush. Avoiding the Civil War, Thompson had headed west aboard a steamboat from St. Louis in 1862, arriving at Fort Benton (in what would eventually become the Montana Territory) and lived their for two and a half years searching for gold, running a Bannack mercantile business, traveling to the Pacific Coast, serving in Montana's first territorial legislature, and speculating in mining properties. Having a relationship with sheriff Henry Plummer, Thompson draws upon his intimate personal knowledge of one of the deadliest incidents of vigilante justice in American frontier history. A Tenderfoot In Montana is a welcome and informative contribution to 19th Century American Western History Studies collections and highly recommended reading for anyone with an interest in how the Montana Territory developed during the mid-1860s.