One Nation, Under God
One Nation, Under God
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What would Snakehead Gilbert have thought? The March 1959 issue of the PCN “electrified” the county when it reported that the last ranch was soon to be hooked into the new Big Flat REA line. The ranch they reported on was the old Long X Ranch. It would now have electricity furnishing heat, light, and refrigeration. Snakehead Gilbert was a cook at the old Long X Ranch 120 years ago. He prepared meals for roundup crews using a camp stove and campfire. Snakehead’s specialty was flapjacks and steak. Meals were served to characters such as Charl...
Behind the Phillips County Museum stands a log cabin. The cabin has been a part of our complex for many years but was recently renovated and now depicts a miner’s cabin. The cabin was originally from the Zortman area and was rescued by the BLM and given to us a few years ago. Willie Doll and crew helped us preserve the cabin by chinking between the logs. The public is invited to step inside and step into the daily life of a prospector....
This week is Florence Nightingale’s' birthday and it's also National Hospital Week. Our hospitals bring us not only healing but also hope. Phillips County doctors and nurses bring us high-quality health care locally. In the early 1920s, our area had a full-scale diphtheria outbreak. A family, parents, and 11 children, who lived near Saco, Mont., were in a crisis mode. All the children were sick and two were very sick. The parents decided to meet the train at Saco and one of them would travel with the children to the Glasgow Hospital in hopes o...
Greetings everyone. With a hint of joy and a hint of worry, the Phillips County Museum is now open! It has been an odd experience to view so few people on the streets of Malta. It was quite unsettling at first. But I think the view I miss the most was at the post office. That sense of community was missing. It has always given me a comfortable feeling to see groups of one or two people standing and visiting while fetching the mail. Have you been to the post office this week and mailed a letter? Or perhaps you mailed your child! In 1914 many...
Museum Notes November 20th History tells us that our Thanksgiving celebrations started at the same time as the birth of our nation. Since that time Americans have celebrated Thanksgiving amid wars, famine, moon launches, demonstrations, football games, national elections etc. Mindful of the events and years that have passed I want to pass on parts of a Thanksgiving proclamation that Theodore Roosevelt made: “If this nation is properly to fulfill its great mission and to accomplish all that we so ardently hope and desire, the things of the b...
In a normal week (who has normal weeks anymore) how many bridges do you cross? On my way to town, I cross several bridges and my assumption is that they will not collapse. In 1964 Ingwald Solberg was crossing the Beaver Creek bridge with a truck loaded with hay when the bridge collapsed. The bridge was supported by four concrete pillars and the two on the west end gave way as he was crossing. Luckily, Solberg had a narrow escape but was not seriously injured. Ingwald was also a school bus driver and he crossed the same bridge twice a day with...
The PC Museum archives constantly cough up unusual books and paper items. My find this week was a book on the military and trading posts/forts in Montana. The trading posts in Montana helped to open our area to exploration. Bakers Post sprouted up in 1868 and was located on the south bank of the Milk River. It was of short duration, however, only lasting about one year. It received its name for I.G. Baker a trading entrepreneur. Fort Browning was also located in Phillips County. It was erected by the Northwest Fur Company and may have been name...
Walking through our doors this week was a 1948 Malta High School Annual called “The Prairie Wind”. Inside the annual I found many of the student activities were similar to 2019 student activities. However, I did find a new club that was formed called “The Red Cross Council”. Amazingly it had 100 percent enrollment of the junior and senior high – and before you ask – it was not mandatory! The purpose of the club was to stimulate Red Cross activities and help with the Senior Red Cross activities in the county. President was Tom Schurr, Eva...
Dobson offers $100 for First Baby. History was made on December 14, 1951, at 6:21 a.m. in Malta. The first child was born in the Malta hospital which began operation on December 10th. As promised Pete Dobson presented the mother with a $100 prize which he had promised to the first child born in the new building. Dr. Setzer delivered the baby and then said, “it was a significant occasion as 20 years before that he had been the physician in attendance at the birth of the mother!" Stop in at the PC Museum Monday-Saturday 10-5. Oh and if y...
Fifty years – what an accomplishment! Hats (cowboy hats of course) Off to the present Milk River Wagon participants and to all those that have participated in the last 50 years. When a group of Phillips County residents conceived the idea of a Wagon Train from Zortman to Malta I’m sure fifty years of wagon trains never entered their minds. The journey from Zortman follows an old established trail that has been in use long before the settlers came to Montana. This area was well known for its abundant wildlife population and was camping gro...
Let’s travel to southern Phillips County and visit about the intersection of U.S. 191 and Montana 66. Or as commonly known throughout Phillips County as the “DY”. Early Montana history tells the story of a trail that was used by the Metis. The trail started in Canada and meandered all the way to the Yellowstone. This trail was known as the DY Trail. The “D” stood for the Dominion of Canada and the “Y’ stood for the Yellowstone. Travel forward a few years in time and Lawrence Duncan starts the first bar at the junction with land Ruel Horner a...
A fun time was had by ALL. The Fort Peck Theatre hosted “Pinocchio” at the PC Museum this week. A wonderful turnout of over 175 adults and kids. A talented group of actors kept our audience spellbound with their dramatic clothes and actions. The word Theatre brought back some high school memories for me. How many of you remember the drive-in Theatre in Malta? I can still smell the pizza and popcorn that came from that refreshment stand. How many of you stashed yourselves into trunks so that you didn’t have to pay admission charges? We’ll never...
It’s almost harvest time in Phillips County. Local farmers are busy cleaning granaries and preparing for this year’s crops. Historically, horses and small tractors did much of the work, now we have a large tractor and GPS units to help the farmers of today. In 1941 the Hall/Westerman family wanted to move a 25,000-bushel wood elevator from Chapman, Mont., through Loring, Mont., to their farm southeast of Loring. Was this possible with the tractors and equipment available in the 1940’s? The answer is yes with a little “Montana ingenui...
Phillips County August 1921. Under the supervision of Miss Florence Richardson, PC Nurse, 16 children received medical attention in the basement of the Library! (Yes, I did mean library). Miss Richardson has endeavored for the past year to bring about a county clinic for children who need attention. Dr. Jones of Butte, Mont., donated his service and performed operations assisted by Dr. Blankenhorn and Red Cross nurses Mrs. Prom, Miss Peggy Dunbar, and Miss Barbara Nelson. The smaller room in the library was used for operating room while the...
“Bagging It” describes our new display of purses through the decades. Did you know that when women first started carrying purses it was considered indecent? Fact. A very long time ago women carried their valuables in a pouch that hung from their waist and resided under their full skirts. Because it was located under their skirts the pouch was considered an undergarment. When the early handbags dared to be worn outside their skirts it was akin to a woman lifting her skirts and showing her underwear – scandalous behavior! Please drop by and v...
This week I’ve been thinking about sheep wagons as once again the tourist season is in full swing and we daily open the sheep wagons for all to see. Sheep wagons were home to many men and even families during the summer months. A herder would keep the sheep in fresh water and grass by moving them a bit each day. The sheep wagon was very practical and efficient. A very small space provided shelter, heat, storage, food, bed, grain for horses, and a table for eating. Most sheep wagons had a “Dutch door”. This consisted of a top half that could...
The First State Banks Car Show this weekend brought to mind another “car” that I had read about. It was called the “Zone of Plenty Car”. It was a Great Northern Railroad car that carried grains, grasses, fruits, and vegetables from the states of Washington, Oregon, and Montana. Traveling east in 1913 it was an educational feature that was used to entice farmers and families to come to the Northwest. Farmers would drive for miles to see these products and be lured by the promise of free government land. To families who rented and never would h...
Spring brings many joys and one that I appreciate is the chance to get outside and just wander. Keep your eyes to the ground and you never know what treasure or gruesome item you will find. In 1935 men fencing in the breaks of Frenchman Creek discovered bones protruding from the ground. An investigation into the bones found a human skull that had been laid in a shallow grave. It appeared the hole had been lined with thick bark to provide a type of coffin. A lid had been given to the coffin made from the same material. The soil had covered the g...
Spring has arrived in Phillips County! Planting seems to be on everyone’s mind be it flower bulbs or wheat acres. In the Little Rockies Miner Newspaper on April 16, 1908, a “first historic” planting was reported! R.C. Blassingame is today planting the first apple trees to be introduced to the soils in Zortman. The trees were sent to him by Fred Whiteside and few of them are going to be added to his residence lots in town. They will grow all right enough and after years, when they produce the big red apples, today’s act will become histori...
This week I have a mystery for you. What hangs on a wall? Is known as a wall weapon and is bright and colorful, and made of paper? If you guessed a poster you are half way there. During World War II the government used bright colored posters with great graphics to keep the general public and military ever mindful of the war and what it would take to win. These posters were so powerful they became known as Wall Weapons. Each poster had a specific message such as “Buy War Bonds” or “Join the Cadet Nurse Corp” “Uncle Sam Needs” and so on. The PC...
Creepy crawlers, ghoulie ghosts, witches and pumpkins. Yes, its Halloween in Phillips County. The PC Museum has its own spooky tale to tell. In 1924 the Miller Blacksmith shop burned completely down under mysterious circumstances. Fast forward to 1926 and a group of children playing in the ruins left at the blacksmith location. Suddenly the games came to a complete halt when a skull was found. Examination of the skull by physicians reveal that it is a white man or woman. And in a surprising turn of events, the bones are not old but new. Much...
UFO’s fact or fiction. In 1950 two spinning disks were seen by Great Falls locals. In the 1960’s missile sites across Montana were suddenly deactivated as UFO’s were seen overhead. And in Phillips County the year 1967 brought many UFO sightings in south Phillips County. In January rural residents tell stories of being awakened by their dog and looking out the window to see a large object with glowing red lights along the bottom that could cover a 3-4 miles stretch in less than a minute. In February of 1967 in south Phillips County a husband and...
Forks Community Hall. 1909 found the U.S. government surveying the north part of Phillips County for homestead plots. N.J. Brandt, the commissioner of the General Land Office, became interested in the area and settled in the Forks community. Brandt soon became a retailer and had a general store that carried a wide variety of goods. In addition to selling, he also bought eggs, cream, and butter from the local residents. Soon the community found a growing need for a meeting place and the Whitewater Community Hall came into existence. Funding for...
The Mountain Plains Museum Association held their annual conference in Billings, Mont., this week. I was pleased to represent the PC Museum in Billings. The theme for the conference was “Stronger Together”. Museums from the western part of the United States are a part of this organization and it was interesting to learn what others are doing in the museum world. Workshops make up the bulk of these conferences and Karla Sudbrack and I were able to attend many of the sessions. Learning about good and bad design, historic preservation, using non...
Summer has arrived with lots of heat! Keep your water bottle close and don’t forget to hydrate. In 2007 the Milk River Bird Sanctuary located behind the Phillips County Museum and H.G. Robinson House came into existence. Three wood duck nest boxes were placed along the trail and each year they are monitored to check out their success. Here are the results for 2018! Box #1 hatched 14 eggs and had one unhatched egg inside. Box #2 hatched 11 eggs and Box #3 hatched 10 eggs and one unhatched egg was left in the nest. In May of 2018 another box w...