Name: Yankees & Rebels on the Upper Missouri
Brand: Ken Robison
SKU: 9781467135627
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Yankees & Rebels on the Upper Missouri

9781467135627

$24.99

During the 1860s, the Missouri River served as a natural highway, through snags and rapids, from St. Louis to Fort Benton for steamboats bringing Yankees and Rebels and their families to the remote Montana territory. The migration transformed the Upper Missouri region from the isolation of the fur trade era to the raucous gold rush days that would keep the region in turmoil for decades. The influx of newcomers involved its share of dramatic episodes, including the explosion of the Chippewa triggered by a drunken crew member, the mystery of the fugitive James-Younger gang and Colonel Everton Conger's journey from capturing John Wilkes Booth to the Montana Supreme Court. Acclaimed historian Ken Robison reveals the thrilling history behind this war-weary wave of migration seeking opportunity on Montana's wild and scenic frontier.

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The Gallatin Way to Yellowstone

9781467138840

$24.99

The Gallatin Way to Yellowstone follows a picturesque route heading south through the canyon to the west gate of the National Park.

The iconic road boasts a history covering more than a century of exploration, homesteading and development. Early pioneers and adventurers endured a rugged and unforgiving terrain where today's travelers speed along a modern highway. One might expect to see dramatic shifts, yet little change is evident in some areas, while others teem with contemporary luxuries.

Pairing historic and modern photography of the same locations, Duncan T. Patten retraces the marvel of this iconic thoroughfare.

Montanans in the Great War

9781467140997

$24.99

Marvel at the mettle of Montanans in World War I.

World War I continued with fury in the spring of 1918 as American Yanks endeavored to play the key role in stemming the German tide. Montana’s Marines suffered the bloodiest day in their history as they became “Devil Dogs,” charging through hell on earth at Belleau Wood. Locals in the Wild West Division stormed “over the top” into the Argonne Forest, while nurses, “hello girls,” Navy Yeomanettes and YMCA workers blazed new gender roles. And young Seaman Mike Mansfield, future legendary senator, served on convoy duty against lurking German U-boats.

Award-winning historian Ken Robison illuminates the story of young and vibrant Montanans of all ethnicities as they fought for elusive democracy, at home and abroad, in this world war to end all wars.

Cover image for Montanans in the Great War, isbn: 9781467140997

Montana State's Golden Bobcats

9781467150415

$21.99

Montana State's Golden Bobcats celebrates a storied history from the hardwood

Ashworth "Cat" Thompson and brothers Frank and Orland Ward didn't know what to expect when they left southern Utah in the Fall of 1926. They arrived in Bozeman to play on the Montana State College basketball team under charismatic coach and fellow Utah native Ott Romney and Assistant Coach Schubert Dyche. Teamed with Montana products Brick Breeden and Max Worthington the following season, the core formed one of the best teams in the country. Despite Romney returning to Provo at the end of 1928, the Bobcats persevered in '29 under Schubert to win the consensus college national basketball championship, with Cat and Frank Ward earning All-American honors.

Author Paul R. Wylie recounts the on and off court challenges and triumphs of the Bobcats' Golden team

Billings Food

9781467117869

$21.99

Billings' local food scene is bootstrapping and standing tall. Renowned restaurants like TEN boast menus that showcase distinctive local ingredients from trout roe to foraged mushrooms. Restaurants and artisans source from centuries-old establishments like the McGowan family farm, which provides grain to Trailhead Spirits distillery. Mingling regional cuisine with the cosmopolitan influences of far-flung cities, homegrown spots like Lilac and Field House garner national attention with their daily dishes. Teppanyaki cooking and innovative global offerings are quickly diversifying the foodscape. Food journalist Stella Fong provides an eclectic sampling of the people, restaurants, producers and suppliers that contribute to the city's growing palate.

Montana's Dimple Knees Sex Scandal

9781467139182

$21.99

Beverly Snodgrass made a lot of poor choices. Once a prostitute in the old mining town of Butte, she later became a madam running two of the most popular brothels. She fell deeply in love with a crooked politician, whom she nicknamed Dimple Knees. When corrupt cops in uniform came to her businesses, it usually wasn't to serve and protect but rather to collect payoffs. Butte is sometimes described as a town that drinks her liquor straight, but things never were the same after Beverly told her story to a newspaper reporter. That reporter, John Kuglin, recounts the scandal that rocked The Richest Hill on Earth and for a time made Dimple Knees the most famous name in Montana.

Cover image for Montana's Dimple Knees Sex Scandal, isbn: 9781467139182

Montana Horse Racing

9781467140324

$24.99

For centuries, on prairie grasslands, dusty streets and racing ovals, everyday Montanans participated in the sport of kings. More than a century after horses arrived in the region, Lewis and Clark's Nez Perce guides staged horse races at Traveler's Rest in 1806. In response to hazardous street races, the Montana legislature granted communities authority to ban "immoderate riding or driving." Helena led the way to respectable racing, with Madam Coady's fashion course hosting the first territorial fair in 1868. Soon, leading citizens like Marcus Daly built oval tracks and glitzy grandstands. By 1890, a horse named Bob Wade set a world record for a quarter mile in Butte, a mark that stood until 1958. Horsewoman and historian Brenda Wahler highlights the Big Sky's patrons of the turf and courageous equine champions, including Kentucky Derby winner Spokane.

The Father of Glacier National Park

9781467143240

$24.99

George Bird Grinnell was a prolific writer and record-keeper. After a long day's hunt or exploration, he diligently made time in camp for meticulous journal entries. With his small group of explorers, he discovered and named forty geological features east of the Continental Divide and west of the Blackfeet Reservation. As a result, he wrote a series of articles about his trips from 1885 to 1898 for publication in Forest and Stream. In 1891, he began advocating to protect the area as a national park and led that charge for nearly two decades until successful. His discoveries, publications and leadership led to the creation of Glacier National Park. Cousin Hugh Grinnell compiles first-person narratives from unpublished journal entries, personal correspondence and dozens of articles to tell the early story of Glacier.

Cold War Montana

9781467149273

$23.99

Home to some of the most powerful nuclear missile systems in the world, Montana played an indispensable role in the war against Communism. Utilizing the Lend-Lease pipeline, Soviet spies ferried stolen nuclear and industrial secrets, loaded in diplomatic pouches, from Great Falls to the Soviet Union. Army nurse Lieutenant Diane Carlson served as “an angel of mercy” at the Pleiku Evacuation Hospital in the Central Highlands in Vietnam. Young Montana smokejumper “Hog” Daniels joined the CIA’s secret war in Southeast Asia, becoming the principal advisor to General Vang Pao in his desperate fight against Communists. Captain Ken Robison (U.S. Navy, Ret.), award-winning author and Cold Warrior, reveals tales of Montanans who made their mark on this titanic struggle.

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Montana Peaks, Streams and Prairie:

9781467117555

$24.99

From the peaks of the Continental Divide to the expanse of its eastern prairie, Montana contains some of America's richest wildlife habitat. Wilderness guide and author Don Thomas offers a series of personal ecological reflections on subjects as grand as the grizzly, as controversial as the wolf and as obscure as the upland plover. From native lore and the observations of Lewis and Clark to the present day, Thomas traces the history of human attitudes toward the region's wildlife. The result is both a guide and a testament to the value of western wildlife and ecosystems.

Butte and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

9781467143264

$21.99

Butte was an incomparable city, but in late 1918, some of the things that made it so exceptional also made it incredibly cruel. That year, the Spanish flu swept across the country, killing some 675,000 Americans before year's end. Some of the country's highest mortality rates occurred in its cities--Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, and Butte. In less than six months, the virus killed almost 2 percent of Butte's residents and overwhelmed public health systems. Experimental treatments, civil unrest, death, and human resilience followed in the dramatic final weeks of the year. Author Janelle Olberding recounts the emotional struggle of the men and women who fought against, suffered from, and succumbed to influenza on the "Richest Hill on Earth."

Stories from Montana's Enduring Frontier

9781626190160

$21.99

At the turn of the twentieth century, Montana started emerging from its rugged past. Permanent towns and cities, powered by mining, tourism, and trade, replaced ramshackle outposts. Yet Montana's frontier endured, both in remote pockets and in the wider cultural imagination. The frontier thus played a continuing role in Montanans' lives, often in fascinating ways. Author John Clayton has written extensively on these shifts in Montana history, chronicling the breadth of the frontier's legacy with this diverse collection of stories. Explore the remnants of Montana's frontier through stories of the Little Bighorn Battlefield, the Beartooth Highway, and the lost mining camp of Swift Current--and through legendary characters such as Charlie Russell, Haydie Yates, and "Liver-eating" Johnston.

Stories from Montana's Enduring Frontier

Literary Butte

9781626198364

$21.99

Known worldwide as the "Richest Hill on Earth," Butte, Montana, lured immigrants from every part of the world to sweat in the copper mines that powered America in its Gilded Age. Dozens of writers celebrated this "wide-open town" with impassioned novels of the rugged souls who braved the western frontier at the edge of the Continental Divide. They wrote of the opulence of success and the agony of broken dreams. They catalogued the clash between labor and capital as Butte boomed from a crude village of mules and men to prestige as Montana's biggest city with towering buildings of brick and iron. In Literary Butte, award-winning author Aaron Parrett surveys the wealth of literature that has come from the town that calls itself "Butte, America."

Ghosts of the Last Best Place

9781467136150

$21.99

Montana's past embodied the rough, unforgiving and often vicious nature of the old Wild West. Unscrupulous gold camps and railroad expansion attracted the good, bad and ugly from all across the Union and as far as China. Many a soul shed blood under the Big Sky, leaving restless spirits to linger. Discover the famous cowboy artist who refuses to leave his Missoula home. Exhume the truth behind Stormit Butte, investigate the mystery at Brush Lake and become enraptured with the firsthand account of a Browning rancher's attempts at reconciliation with the ghost of a murdered Chinese rail laborer. Historian and award-winning author Ellen Baumler presents this collection of Last Best Place hauntings.

Confederates in Montana Territory

9781626196032

$21.99

Confederate veterans flocked to the Montana Territory at the end of the Civil War. Seeking new opportunities after enduring the hardships of war, these men and their families made a lasting impact on the region. Their presence was marked across the territory in places like Confederate Gulch and Virginia City. Now meet the fascinating characters who came to Big Sky country after the war, including guerrillas who fought with William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson, as well as cavalrymen who rode with Confederate legends General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Colonel John S. Mosby. Author and historian Ken Robison recounts where these soldiers came from, why they fought for the South, what drew them to the Montana Territory and how they helped shape the region.

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Montana Beer

9781626190214

$21.99

Montana's brewing history stretches back more than 150 years to the state's days as a territory. But the art of brewing in Montana has come a long way since the frontier era. Today, nearly forty craft breweries span the Treasure State, and the quality of their output rivals the best craft beer produced anywhere in the country. Maybe it's because there's also a little piece of Montana in every glass, as the state's brewers pride themselves on using cold mountain water and locally sourced barley harvested from Montana's ample fields. From grain to glass, Montana Beer: A Guide to Breweries in Big Sky Country tells the story of the brewers and breweries that make the Treasure State's brew so special.