Ellen Baumler's Blog, page 34

Friday Photo: Sperry Chalet

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 93-25 A3 199Visitors pause outside the Sperry Chalet dormitory in Glacier National Park circa 1930. Have you ever made the hike to the chalet?

P.S. Remember this beautiful view in the Park?

Neihart, Montana

Neihart lies at the bottom of a densely timbered canyon along winding Highway 89. The tiny town traces its roots to 1881 when James Neihart and company discovered rich silver veins. By 1882, a crude wagon road connected it with White Sulfur Springs, and miners packed out the silver ore on horseback for processing at the Clendennin smelter twenty miles away. When the smelter shut down in 1883, ox-drawn freight wagons carried Neihart’s ore to Fort Benton where steamboats took it to distant port...

Frank Lloyd Wright in Montana

In 1991, the American Institute of Architects honored Frank Lloyd Wright as the Greatest American Architect of All Time. His theory of organic architecture held that structures should be in harmony with humanity and the human environment. When he died in 1959, he had designed over five hundred homes and structures in thirty-six states and Japan, Canada, and England. Some four hundred remain today. Montana claims several examples of his work, including one project from 1908 when Wright’s caree...

Friday Photo: Fly Fishing

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 98-12.12Montana's reputation as a fly-fishing destination began long before this photo was taken. The fisherman is unidentified.

P.S. Remember these anglers?

Refrigerators

Montana housewives read the newspapers and kept up with modern trends. They looked forward to modernizing their kitchens with the latest conveniences. One of the most important advances was home refrigerators, first introduced in 1911. In 1918, Kelvinator introduced the first refrigerator with an automatic control. The first freezer units were on the market in the 1920s, and in 1922 one model with a water-cooled compressor, two ice-cube trays and nine cubic feet of space cost a whopping $714!...

Dedicating the Going-to-the-Sun Road

Glenn Montgomery cooked for several of the crews that built Going-to-the-Sun Road and was head cook for West Glacier Park. But never in his career did he feed more people than on July 15, 1933, the day Going-to-the-Sun Road was dedicated. Park officials expected to serve lunch to twenty-five hundred people before the opening ceremony. The day before, Montgomery gathered his groceries, including 500 pounds of red beans, 125 pounds of hamburger, 36 gallons of tomatoes, 100 pounds of onions...

Friday Photo: The Bookmobile Comes to Fairfield

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 89-38 F5During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration funded library service demonstration projects—including this bookmobile—as part of the New Deal. These children are browsing through books in Fairfield, Montana.

B Street Brothels, Livingston

Every Montana town had its red light district, and remnants of these places survive in many communities. Buildings and houses have usually been adapted for other uses and their histories forgotten. One exception is the railroad town of Livingston’s quaint little B Street Historic District, once a thriving neighborhood that catered to railroaders. At one time there were nine houses. Five of them on the street’s east side survive. Built between 1896 and 1904, these unusual little cottages featu...

Central School: Most Prized of the Lot

Red bricks mark two time capsules that lie beneath the sidewalk along Warren Street in front of Central School. Children ceremoniously placed them there a few years ago, confident that the school would still stand in 2055 for other generations of children to open. Central’s alumni brick project, begun a decade ago, illustrates how this historic school on its prominent vantage point is not just a building. The school itself is a time capsule of the memories of generations and the living heart...

Friday Photo: Mule Team

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 957-871A mule team pulls a covered wagon with a sign that reads "1864 French Gulch or Bust" at the Anaconda carnival on July 4, 1908.