State History Digest

Hundreds of fascinating books are about Montana, but with TV, PCs and cell phones people don't have much time. That's why I've carefully compiled a five-minute state history, starting with President Thomas Jefferson's 1803 "Louisiana Purchase" from Napoleon for 15 mil.

Tom sent Lewis and Clark to see what he'd bought. They were gone two years, coming back to report a dead whale at Astoria, unfriendly Indians along the Marias River, and mean grizzly bears at Great Falls. They were sometimes forced to eat dogs and skinny ponies because there were no McDonald's. Lewis had to stand up to make his report because one of his men had shot him in the butt with a muzzle loader. Soon came fur trappers and miners, followed by cowboys, home steaders, cavalry, railroaders, loggers, politicians, tourists and Sierra Club.

In 1809 a London-born orphan, David Thompson, went exploring for Hudson Bay Co. and built "Kulispell House" on Lake Pend Oreille, then wintered at Thompson Falls in 1810. One of his men, Joseph Howse, saw Flathead Lake that winter but hadn't the slightest idea where he was. Thompson took readings on the stars and recorded Flathead Lake in his diary in 1812. American Fur Company explorer, 18-year-old Ross Cox, spent 1813 Christmas at confluence of Flathead and Clark's Fork Rivers, stopped Flathead Indians from torturing captive Blackfeet, ate a bighorn sheep, and left. (This was before Thompson Falls had good basketball teams.)

Prospectors came when the fur market waned. Found gold at Bannack and Virginia City where claim jumping became game for those whose diggings didn't pan out. Successful ones hauling gold to market were robbed by Sheriff Henry Plummer and his gang who killed over a hundred in three years. In the winter of 1963-64, forty-five Vigilantes hung everybody causing serious trouble. This was done quickly before the American Civil Liberties Union knew what was going on, and ended all major crime until lawyers arrived later.

When gold played out, Marcus Daly mined copper at Butte and spent his life fighting fellow high rollers, and raising fast horses. "Copper Kings' Daly, Heinze and Clark made millions. Clark used spare loot to buy high office but got kicked out of U.S. Senate when they figured out how he got there. Public quotes were available in Helena on the price of votes during legislature. Daly sent his miners on NP trains during election days to vote in each town along the line. He owned newspapers, so nobody got to read exciting true stuff like this.

Meanwhile, angry Indians were raiding settlers, wagon trains and trading posts. General Custer was sent from North Dakota to stop that, but in 1876 at the Little Big Horn, he charged without first counting enemy heads and became a National Memorial Battlefield. Whites continued to spread small pox, social disease, TB and whiskey, so except for a few massacres, no more major battles were necessary to subdue the redmen.

Cattlemen drove longhorns up from Texas after the last of huge buffalo herds were shot in the late 1800s. Wild cowboys worked for large ranches and "found" a few strays to start their own spreads. While Charlie Russell painted their pictures. The shortest route to Montana was the UP line in Ogden, Utah. Took five days by horse or two months with a freight wagon. (Time's down to three hours since they raised the speed limit on the Interstate.)

The NP linked up at Garrison near Butte with UP tracks in 1883 bringing an end to steamboats coming up the Missouri to Fort Benton from St. Louis. This caused the Conrad brothers to look for a place to build Kalispell.

In 1887 Jim Hill beat out the NP and UP for the northern RR line. Indians didn't like the route but U.S. government "persuaded" them to give Hill a 75-foot right-of-way across Highline Reservations. The Great Northern was completed to the west coast in 1893 and later acquired hotel and camping concessions at Glacier National Park, so tourists could come and spend lots of money here.

That is the history of Montana. People wanting additional facts should turn off the TV … and read a book.

G. George Ostrom is a Kalispell resident and a national-award winning Hungry Horse News columnist.