Joseph Shelton

Enormous bear tracks wended their way along the shore and in between the heaps of ripening meat, but a disappointed Lewis wrote that "we have not as yet seen one of these anamals... the men as well as ourselves are anxious to meet with some of these bear."

They took meetings all day. Eventually, Kennedy got hungry. Wally Wong, the owner of House of Wong, was phoned and asked if he could arrange an off-the-menu request: Senator Kennedy would like some cream soup. Wong indicated he would provide it, and every indication suggests Kennedy thought it was excellent, if not Wong's typical fare.

What she cannot possibly know, or understand, is that there are large metal-and-plastic things that travel this road, and that these inconceivable conveyances move at speeds that move well more than a hundred times faster than her. She has no idea at all what these large and quick objects are.

Across nearly every culture, they’re described as diminutive, bearded creatures similar to men, but with longer arms, bigger heads, and some degree of supernatural powers.

Granite was founded in the 1870s, situated over a few particularly rich veins of silver ore. It was a big enough town to have neighborhoods roughly divided by country of origin, with a Finnish street, a Cornish street and, of course, an Irish street.

Harvey Logan, better known as Kid Curry to his friends and enemies, was no stranger to Mon - tana. As a matter of fact, his criminal career had started here. It was where, some years earlier, he had committed his first murder. 

They say freezing to death can be quite pleasant once delirium starts to set in. That is, pleasant enough at least when stacked up against nastier alternatives. We’re talking the real doozies. And since Montanans need little impetus to brag about the peculiarities of our state, the editorial staff of Distinctly Montana have prepared a very short list of the absolute worst ways to die here.

There is an interesting rock formation located a little ways outside of Whitehall, Montana, jutting out of the earth in a way that resembles nothing so much as a prehistoric wall—appearing to be made of cyclopean slabs piled on top of each other with startling exactitude. In places, you couldn't slip a credit card in between.

The blast is unthinkable, impossible to understand in human terms. Still, there are some who are far enough away that they have a moment to try. They can see a flash that overtakes the horizon, and then for a moment, they see a black streak rising into space. The scale of it is enormous beyond reckoning.

Many, about to embark on the wilderness, therefore chose to seek lodging in Livingston. H. F. Sanders wrote in his three-volume History of Montana (1913) that visitors "will usually find themselves directed to the Grabow Hotel, one of the finest hostelries in the state..."

Sturgis made provisions that a "special and comfortable stall" be prepared for the horse, and that he would no longer "be ridden by any person whatever under any circumstances, nor will he be put to work."

The next day they were honored by a parade. According to surviving accounts, as they walked through the encampment, two old men walked on either side of the procession intoning, "Look at these men for the last time they will be alive; they have thrown their lives away." Around noon, Reno's men attacked the village and the battle began.

There was a market for their tongues in the trendy restaurants of the East, selling for $8 - $9 for a dozen. And "buffalo hump" was also a Christmas tradition for many in the West - an 1846 holiday feast at Fort Edmonton served "boiled buffalo hump," "boiled buffalo calf," and "whitefish browned in buffalo marrow." 

Names were given to ways of life that would have seemed fantastic at the dawn of the previous century: hobos, tramps, yeggs or yaggmen, bums, bindlestiffs, gentlemen of the road, knights of the tie and rail. 

Given its international and even sometimes cosmic range of artifacts, it is a model of one Montana man's view of the America he grew up in. That it is presented with all of the oddity, strangeness, and good humor of its founder elevates it above the merely informational into the rarified realm of the miraculous.

In fact, they work so well together that some scientists think that, if the nutrients are ample enough and in the absence of the few factors that can actually kill them, lichen is functionally immortal and does not grow old.

But those first Cornish miners brought with them a delicacy that many Montanans still treasure, a simple hand-pie that continues to nourish and fuel hard-working folks today.