Ellen Baumler's Blog, page 29
November 25, 2013
Sculpture Gardens
During the nineteenth century, there was a national movement to plan park-like cemeteries with curving driveways and landscaped grounds outside urban areas. The idea took hold in Montana. Our major cities have beautiful park-like cemeteries where turn-of-the-century residents went not only to visit graves but also to picnic and enjoy nature. Missoula’s City Cemetery, Kalispell’s Conrad Cemetery, and Billings's Mountview are a few examples. Cemeteries were usually located...
November 22, 2013
Friday Photo: Little Pumpkin Creek
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 981-588When he photographed these girls from a dryland farm on Little Pumpkin Creek, photographer L.A. Huffman noted that this was how the creek got its name. I hope your preparations for Thanksgiving are just as bountiful.
November 20, 2013
Evolution of the Drug Store
Butte druggist C. B. Hoskins had been in the pharmacy business more than forty years when he reminisced in 1931. When he started in the business in 1883, he had to make his own mixtures, fluid extracts, pills, and emulsions. He had to know his ingredients and the effects they would bring. There were not so many items in the inventory, but the reactions they caused were very well understood. Physicians carefully monitored their patients, and if the prescribed drug did not work, physician...
November 18, 2013
Pierre Wibaux
Pierre Wibaux, for whom the town and county of Wibaux are named, was born in Roubaix, France, to a distinguished family of textile manufacturers. Pierre’s father sent him to England to study the English textile industry so that he could manage the family business. In England, Pierre heard stories of English relatives who had gone to the American West and made fortunes in cattle ranching. After two years, Pierre returned to France and informed his father that he would not take over the family...
November 15, 2013
Friday Photo: Blackfeet at Two Medicine Lake
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 956-503This idyllic (and carefully posed) photo of a Blackfeet camp at Two Medicine Lake was probably used to promote Glacier National Park tourism. It was taken in 1915 by Herford T. Cowling.
November 11, 2013
Red Cross Quilts
As Americans agonized over their soldiers on the front in 1917, a quilting revival took wing. Women’s magazines encouraged quilters with the slogan: “Make quilts—save the blankets for our boys over there.” Individuals and organizations expressed their patriotism by stitching quilts for the Red Cross. Thousands of these comfort quilts went to Europe to the victims of World War I. Stitching comfort quilts at home was a way to support the war effort, and Montanans were especially involved. Also...
November 8, 2013
Friday Photo: Dolly Davis
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 97-72.7Dolly Davis displays coyotes killed near Roundup circa 1937. I know hunters who wish they could shoot as well as she did. Have a great weekend.
November 6, 2013
Savenac Nursery
When the Forest Service celebrated its one hundredth anniversary, it recalled one historic site in Montana that played a major role in its history. Creation of the National Forest Service in 1905 brought Elers Koch, one of the nation’s first professional foresters, to inspect and evaluate the Forest Reserves of Montana and Wyoming. As Forest Supervisor of the Bitterroot and Lolo National Forests in 1907, Koch happened upon the abandoned homestead of a German settler named Savannach in Mineral...
November 4, 2013
Ghostly Visitors at the Bonanza Inn
Halloween is over, but I can't resist sharing one last ghost story.
The Bonanza Inn in Virginia City dates to the mid-1860s. It was built as the Madison County Courthouse, but three Catholic Sisters of Charity arrived from Leavenworth, Kansas, to convert it to St. Mary’s Hospital for miners in 1876. Mining waned, and the sisters moved on in 1879, but they, and some of their patients, left unusual legacies.
From the 1950s, guests have reported ghostly visits. A female spirit soothes the sick and...
The Bonanza Inn in Virginia City dates to the mid-1860s. It was built as the Madison County Courthouse, but three Catholic Sisters of Charity arrived from Leavenworth, Kansas, to convert it to St. Mary’s Hospital for miners in 1876. Mining waned, and the sisters moved on in 1879, but they, and some of their patients, left unusual legacies.
From the 1950s, guests have reported ghostly visits. A female spirit soothes the sick and...
November 1, 2013
Friday Photo: Winter Weather
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 97-93.2344This is far from the first time Montana's had snow in October. This photo by Warren McGee shows Northern Pacific engine #X5106E TF approaching the Bozeman tunnel at the west end. He snapped the photo on October 2, 1939.
