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Established in 1867 in the Gallatin Valley of Montana, Fort Ellis played a key role in the development of the Montana frontier. From post commanders attacking the town to restoring order when riotous mobs got out of control, explore the ambivalent, albeit contentious, relationship from 1867 to 1886 between the civilians and soldiers in whimsical but dramatic fashion. Competing visions of economic and military conditions on the frontier led to a complex relationship that has all the drama of a Hollywood western. Join MSU–Billings history professor Dr. Thomas C. Rust as he examines the fort's impact on the social and economic development of early Bozeman, the problems of military command and the dynamics of the soldier-civilian interaction on Montana's frontier.

Three army outposts built before and during the Civil War protected critical routes along the western trails at the North Platte River near what later became Casper. All had been abandoned by 1867, and their dramatic stories are mostly forgotten. The Post at Platte Bridge was a vital outpost on Albert Sidney Johnston's Utah War supply route. Camp Dodge and Platte Bridge Station, also called Fort Caspar, guarded telegraph lines from Native American sabotage. Violent winds, horrendous blizzards and scorching summers made life miserable. Tension reached a fever pitch at the Battle of Platte Bridge when Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho attacked a cavalry detachment led by Caspar Collins. Today, a reconstructed Fort Caspar stands as a vigilant reminder of the struggles at those lonely frontier stations. Local historian Johanna Wickman chronicles military efforts to keep the peace, wage war and merely survive.

Harvard honor alumnus Dale Maple had a promising future, but his obsession with Nazi Germany led to his downfall. Classmates often accused him of pro-Nazi sentiments, and one campus organization even expelled him. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, only to be relegated to a unit of soldiers suspected of harboring German sympathies. He helped two German POWs escape imprisonment at Camp Hale and flee to Mexico. The fugitives ran out of gas seventeen miles from the border and managed to cross it on foot, only to be arrested and returned to American authorities. Convicted and sentenced to death for treason, Maple awaited his fate until President Franklin Roosevelt commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. Ultimately, he was released in 1950. Paul N. Herbert narrates the engrossing details of this riveting story.