Ellen Baumler's Blog, page 47

Copper King Mansion

A group of friends sat around the dining room table one evening at the Copper King Mansion, once the home of William A. Clark. Suddenly they heard a strange moaning sound. It started out low, gathered strength, then ended abruptly. Again came the low-pitched moan from some deep place within the house. They knew it was coming from the third floor, and that someone would have to investigate. The thought filled them with dread. They agreed to go together. As they ascended the grand staircase, on...

Friday Photo: Quartz Street Fire Station

Butte’s Quartz Street Fire Station has a past that refuses to be forgotten. Built in 1900, the station housed twenty-two men, Chief Peter Sanger, and his family. Sanger’s first wife Margaret died in the family’s apartment in 1904. He remarried in 1908, and his second wife, Louisa, like Margaret before her, took up a post by the window where she watched for her husband’s safe return. In January 1915, Sanger’s truck collided with a Walkerville streetcar en route to an alarm. Hundreds attended h...

Elinor Knott

For me, October means telling ghost stories by the dozen, which is what I'll be doing tomorrow night. Join me here at the Historical Society at 6:30 Thursday evening for "How We Miss Them." In the mean time, here's another ghost story to tide you over until then.

Elinor Knott was one of the many madams at the Dumas Hotel in Butte. On a winter night in 1955, Knott packed her suitcase, put on her hat, and sat down to wait. Her lover had promised to leave his wife and come for her. They woul...

Dorothy Dunn

I'm booked across the state through October to tell the ghost stories I've uncovered in my research on Montana history. I thought I'd share a few on here. Warning: spine-tingling tales ahead!

Spirits shroud the ghost town of Bannack, where sluices once ran and whiskey flowed. Vigilantes bestowed violent beginnings. But dig deeper. The town’s windswept cemetery where spirits rest, or don’t rest, is evidence of tragedies even more indelible than hangings and shootings. In August of 1916, si...

Friday Photo: Duck Hunting

Duck hunting season opens this weekend, so this photo seems timely.

Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, 948-572This circa 1914 photo is simply titled "Duck Hunting on the Hi Line."

Bonus: Here's a recipe for duck from The Progressive Cook Book published by the Billings First United Methodist Church in 1893. It was written by Juliet Corson.

Roast Duck with Apples
Pluck and singe a duck, draw it, wipe with a wet towel and lay in a baking pan; wipe a dozen small sour apples with a wet...

Caroline McGill

Dr. Caroline McGill came to Butte in 1911 to work at the Murray Hospital, returned to Johns Hopkins to complete her medical degree, and turned down an offer to stay at Johns Hopkins to return to Butte in 1914. She practiced there until she retired in 1956. Dr. McGill was a highly skilled physician, but she was also a friend to her patients through Butte’s ugly labor management strife, fires, explosions, and accidents that were common in the mining town. She made house calls to the crudest of...

Robber’s Roost

Because events supposedly connected to Sherriff Henry Plummer and his suspected gang occurred near the Daly ranch in 1863 and 1864, mystery, legend, and mistaken identity have long been part of the history of the stage stop called Robber’s Roost. Although it never served as a gathering place for the road agents and no early-day murders have been documented there, the inn is historically important as a link between the two territorial capitals—Bannack and Virginia City—and one of few surviving...

Friday Photo: Paradise Valley


Smoke aside, this is unseasonably lovely weather. Are you going to get out there and enjoy it like these folks?
Montana Historical Society Photograph Archives, PAc 81-65A group of four men camp in the Paradise Valley near Yellowstone National Park in 1916. Click the photo for a bigger version to see if you can spot the fourth man.

Helena’s Paul Revere

I'll be doing a reading and book signing for my new book, More Montana Moments, at the Montana Historical Society tomorrow evening at 6:30. It's free! I hope you can make it.
Here's a "moment" from the book:

Helena suffered numerous serious fires in the early years. Merchants sometimes had to rebuild their businesses more than once. Jacob Feldberg lost his clothing store to the fire of 1869 and understood the devastation it could cause. In 1871, another fire threatened Main Street. Jacob...

The Fairy Steps

There is a very special place known to generations of Kalispell’s children as the Fairy Steps. This enchanting stairway leads up a very steep cliff from the heavily wooded banks of the Stillwater River. At the top, there is small grassy promontory overlooking the Flathead Valley. This promontory is part of the Charles Conrad Memorial Cemetery. It was on this scenic overlook in the early twentieth century that Alicia Conrad had her husband’s remains placed in the family mausoleum. The mausoleu...