Malta man's passion for photos leads to popular web page

It was said, a long time ago, that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, that was said in the day and age before Facebook. Now the saying could be changed to “a picture is worth a thousand words … but if you have a thousand friends on Facebook, the pictures could generate millions of words.

On a whim, about two years ago, Malta resident Ken Ulrich posted a few pictures on his personal Facebook page of Malta High School, photos taken back in the early 1960’s when he attended the school. He was shocked to see how many people commented on the pictures, adding interesting tidbits or recalling memories from long ago. Around the same time, a friend of Ulrich’s showed him a page called When we were kids in Cutbank, Montana on Facebook.

“Well, I’ve only got 50 friends on Facebook, but the response was overwhelming,” said Ulrich. “I decided that I had to put these up where more people could enjoy them.”

In March of 2011, Ulrich started a Facebook page entitled Phillips County Montana – Memories.

Since putting up the group site up on Facebook, Phillips County Montana – Memories has received over 1,300 likes (equivalent to joining a group on Facebook.) Besides the people who officially “liked” the site, Ulrich said another 2,000 people check the site on a weekly basis. He said that counties across the state of Montana have a site like his, but maybe they haven’t had as much luck in finding pictures as Ulrich has had.

“Greg Smith, from Fiegel Photos here in town, found his grandfather’s (Elmer Fiegel) negatives that had nearly been destroyed,” said Ulrich. “A guy named Tom Peigneux had digitized about 10,000 pictures, but there are still 30,000 that he didn’t.”

Smith’s grandfather’s photos, they found out, legally belonged to the Fiegel Estate. He said that the Phillips County Museum has the 10,000 pictures that Peigneux scanned and once the other 30,000 from the Fiegel estate are scanned that they will also be in the county museum’s files. Elmer Fiegel was the county photographer from about 1958 until about 1980, according to Ulrich. Before Elmer Fiegel the county photographer was a man by the last name of Cole who owned the Cole Studios and many of the postcards posted on the Phillips County Montana – Memories site are pictures he has taken. Aside from the professional photographers, dozens of people have sent Ulrich pictures to post on his Facebook page which adds to the fun of the site, said Ulrich. One of which was a postcard he purchased on Ebay which shows the Malta High School Gym when it was first built in about 1948 (now the “Old Gym.)

“I got that one from a person in North Carolina,” said Ulrich. “The person who sold it said she found it while she was going through her grandmother’s belongings. So there was someone who lived here or had visited here was sending them all the way across the country.”

Ulrich has learned a lot about the history of Phillips County during the two years the Phillips County Montana – Memories site has been up, but he admitted that he only knows some of the story on some of the pictures. For instance, a picture taken of what was then called Fifth Avenue in 1940, where the Stockman Bar parking lot now sits, a lovely black and white photograph taken from a nearby rooftop. In the picture, a parade of some sort is passing through. Lining the street are some 16 different businesses. Since Facebook allows people to comment on pictures posted, a great debate about what the business were named ensued.

“Everybody is trying to recall which business they are,” said Ulrich. “But with that many businesses, and because they changed names about once a year, one person says a store is one name and another says the store is another name. They are probably both right.”

On Friday afternoon, Ulrich sat in the offices of the Phillips County News and gave an oral history of the businesses in the photo. He told a story about a confectionary that was one of the most popular stores in town, about a Japanese Family who owned a restaurant on the street and two jewelry stores on the same street. Adding to Ulrich’s oral history was a comment under the photo on the site.

“Malta has burned and morphed so many times, I would have never recognized it,” says Kathy Plettenberg of Helena, a fan of the Phillips County Montana – Memories site.

A person could spend hours on the site, looking at pictures and reading the comments below. The site is dedicated to the history of Phillips County, but the site also makes the subject of history an interactive event.

Each week the Phillips County News runs a feature story entitled Phillips County News Memories compiled from the old pages of the paper by reporter Pierre Bibs. Ulrich has granted the PCN the right to run one picture from the Phillips County Montana – Memories site to coincide with the feature in the paper.

To the best of his abilities – and those who have “liked the site” – Ulrich said he has tried to give as much detail, as accurate as possible, about the photos he posts. But he admits, he doesn’t know everything about each picture.

“If someone has some new information or a correction for a photo I hope they submit it to the website of the paper,” he said. “I think putting these photos in the newspaper is just one more way to share these pictures with as many people as possible. That is what I am interested in.”