Ellen Baumler

The Life of the Afterlife in the Big Sky State is a groundbreaking history of death in Montana. It offers a unique, reflective, and sensitive perspective on the evolution of customs and burial grounds. Beginning with Montana’s first known burial site, Ellen Baumler considers the archaeological records of early interments in rock ledges, under cairns, in trees, and on open-air scaffolds. Contact with Europeans at trading posts and missions brought new burial practices. Later, crude “boot hills” and pioneer graveyards evolved into orderly cemeteries. Planned cemeteries became the hallmark of civilization and the measure of an educated community. Baumler explores this history, yet untold about Montana. She traces the pathway from primitive beginnings to park-like, architecturally planned burial grounds where people could recreate, educate their children, and honor the dead. The Life of the Afterlife in the Big Sky State is not a comprehensive listing of the many hundreds of cemeteries across Montana. Rather it discusses cultural identity evidenced through burial practices, changing methods of interments and why those came about, and the evolution of cemeteries as the “last great necessity” in organized communities. Through examples and anecdotes, the book examines how we remember those who have passed on.

Distinguished by statesmen and magnates, Helena's history is colored with many other compelling characters and episodes nearly lost to time. Before achieving eminence in Deadwood, Sheriff Seth Bullock oversaw Montana Territory's first two legal hangings. The Seven Mile House was an oasis of vice for the parched, weary travelers entering the valley on the Benton Road, despite a tumultuous succession of ownership. The heritage of the Sieban Ranch and the saga of "King Kong" Clayton, "the Joe Louis of the Mat," faded from public memory. From unraveling the myths of Chinatown to detailing the lives of red-light businesswomen and the Canyon Ferry flying saucer hoax, revered local historians Ellen Baumler and Jon Axline team up to preserve a compendium of Helena's yesteryear.

Distinguished by statesmen and magnates, Helena's history is colored with many other compelling characters and episodes nearly lost to time. Before achieving eminence in Deadwood, Sheriff Seth Bullock oversaw Montana Territory's first two legal hangings. The Seven Mile House was an oasis of vice for the parched, weary travelers entering the valley on the Benton Road, despite a tumultuous succession of ownership. The heritage of the Sieban Ranch and the saga of King Kong Clayton, the Joe Louis of the Mat, faded from public memory. From unraveling the myths of Chinatown to detailing the lives of red-light businesswomen and the Canyon Ferry flying saucer hoax, revered local historians Ellen Baumler and Jon Axline team up to preserve a compendium of Helena's yesteryear.

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.

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.

Helena was born of the gold rush, nurtured by the wealth of its financiers and raised on its political struggles. The lawless gold camp and its vigilante hangings left an indelible imprint on the modern community. Restless spirits from Helena's turbulent

Helena was born of the gold rush, nurtured by the wealth of its financiers and raised on its political struggles. The lawless gold camp and its vigilante hangings left an indelible imprint on the modern community. Restless spirits from Helena's turbulent past still linger around town. Historian and award-winning author Ellen Baumler blends history with the supernatural as she expertly weaves the past with the present in a ghostly web. Firsthand accounts and historical records add credibility to these spooky but true tales. Explore the legacy of the hangman's tree and meet the ghosts of historic Last Chance Gulch. These stories and more bring to light the shadowy places in Helena where the past sometimes comes to life.

Forget dreary dates and boring facts. More Montana Moments distills the most funny, bizarre, and interesting stories from Montana's history into pure entertainment. Meet the colorful cast of the famous and infamous desperadoes, vigilantes, madams, and darned good men and women (and a few critters) who made the state's history. You'll laugh when you read about the Jesuits' discovery of a new use for cat hairs. You just might find a redeeming quality in Custer's affection for his dogs. The episodes recounted here always entertain. So have fun exploring Montana--and enjoy a little history as you go.

The penitentiary at Deer Lodge, established in 1870, was Montana Territory's first federal facility. In 1889 it became a state penal institution and served in that capacity until 1979. Under the direction of the long serving (1893-1921) and controversial warden Frank Conley, prison laborers built most of the buildings that visitors see today. These buildings bear the marks of a violent history: bazooka scars mar the tower where prisoners holed up during the infamous riot of 1959 and an inmate's delicate stenciling oddly adorns the room where the two riot masterminds died. In a collaborative documentary of the legendary prison, historian Ellen Baumler tells the physical and human tale of the troubled institution whose idyllic setting contrasts so violently with the history it holds. J. M. Cooper's detailed photographs of the prison's interiors and exteriors combine with historic images to illustrate the stories of the people who lived - and sometimes died - within its walls.

Montana is alive with things that go bump in the Big Sky night. A World War II serviceman who lingers in a Billings business, a dearly departed priest who still hitchhikes around Helena, and a Hamilton socialite who adorns her mansion with the scent of roses--these are a few of the creepy tales from across the state collected in Beyond Spirit Tailings. Passed down through generations, these stories illustrate the subtle presence of the past in the everyday lives of modern Montanans. Ellen Baumler has again traversed the state, interviewing and researching carefully to present history with a ghostly twist. Her first book, Spirit Tailings, brought Montana's colorful historical tapestry to a new range of readers who will be delighted by this second volume. Beyond Spirit Tailings again offers ghostly encounters from Montana's heritage places, but Baumler also branches out to explore such historical mysteries as the monster said to lurk in the deep waters of Flathead Lake, the power of an ancient object revered by native peoples, and a possible explanation for the suspicious death of Thomas Francis Meagher. Richly embroidered with Montana's unique historical legacy, these eerie and mysterious tales will leave readers looking over their shoulders, sleeping with the lights on, and always craving more.

A covered wagon on a dim road, the promise of a long journey, and the wonder of what lay ahead filled the shadowy spaces of Mary Sheehan Ronan's earliest memories. By the time she was a married woman in her twenties, she was a well-seasoned pioneer, having crossed most of the country and retraced her steps back across a third of it. Ronan tells her story in this highly readable, entertaining account of one woman's life in the West during the second half of the nineteenth century. This detailed memoir recalls a girl's growing up on the Montana mining frontier, her ascent to young womanhood on a farm in southern California, her experiences as a student in a Los Angeles convent school, her return to Montana as a bride, and her life on the Flathead Indian Reservation as wife of the Indian agent. The exhilaration of a forbidden sled ride, the creaking of the hangman's rope, her father giving the last of their water to his dying mule--these things Ronan remembers with vivid clarity. A highly readable, entertaining account, Girl from the Gulches's unique perspective is a joy to read.